Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

very sad that the characters I enjoyed in the first book didn't seem to be in this book. So, this book does pick up where the first one leaves off...the first book that got one of my very rare five star reviews because it was fabulous and had two characters that were distinct in who they were, even while they were changing. In book one, Laurelyn was a character I actually liked and respected and Jack was an alpha male, sexy, mysterious and seductive. Not in this book. Laurelyn, who spends a great deal of her time MOURNING the loss of her Aussie man that she turns into one of those evasive, contradictory, manipulative, typical females that I hate in most books. Jack Henry, who MOURNS his loss of his American girl, while continuing to kick himself for not being honest with her sooner, sets out to find her, only to find her and do NOTHING about it. The same man who had no issue showing his claim on her and his jealously in the first book when they only had an "arrangement"...does nothing to prove to this girl she is what he wants, which was what caused her to leave in the first place. He used to speak to her in a demanding, sexy manner, only to use words like "snatch?" Really? Jack Henry went from classy, debonair, sexy, mysterious, alpha man to John Belushi in Animal House. That is not the man Laurelyn fell in love with, and that sure wasn't the man we as readers were given in book one. He already knew that Laurelyn loved him, she made that clear in her letter that he was the love of her life, so why did he think he needed to be someone else for her? Was it because she has been surrounded by crude rockers in his absence? *shakes head* Then, Laurnelyn tells her best friend Addison, who is coming to her for advice, that if Jack Henry ever asked her to leave with him she would do it without a second thought? Really? Well, seems to me that she did more than give it a second thought...she gave it a third, fourth and fifth thought, as a good portion of the book was her saying NO. This book contradicted EVERY SINGLE THING the first book gave us. Jack Henry changed, and not for the better...Laurelyn who only wanted him to ask her to stay, and then says she would go with him in a heartbeat if he asked, well, becomes typical and does nothing but fight him and push him away saying she needs TIME...lol..really? Time...was three months not enough for you to mourn? You find out the love of your life has hired an investigator to find you within a week of you leaving and spends money and hours trying to locate you and all you got for him is resistance, when all you said you wanted was him? Then you choose a BAND over your MAN...???? Especially, when she spent so much time saying she was unhappy???? This was one of the sequels I was craving after the first book. I am so incredibly disappointed by how these characters turned out that I am actually heartbroken. Like physically sick to my stomach sort of sad that I had to watch the train wreck of two characters I actually loved disappear before my very eyes. Hearing Jack Henry use the nickname "L" instead of her name is beyond ridiculous especially given the importance of names in book one. A man who tells Laurelyn to call him what his mother calls him, JACK HENRY, would never call her by a LETTER. And the sex scenes in this book were like filler material, and nothing like book one where it was woven into the fabric of their story, their growing connection and their attempt to deal with what was happening. Even though the first book represented an arrangement, that arrangement had meaning...this book had zero meaning behind anything. It was just awful. At the end of the book, the author does go into detail as to why this book was the way it was and why it ended the way it did, and I guess that explains why it was such turmoil instead of a touching conclusion. I would have preferred consistency over what was given to me, and allowed this book to truly be the conclusion by giving me a better scenario and an epilogue to finalize the deal as to what came of the couple. But, then again, this book should never have been. Book one should have been longer, combined the two and been a standalone. then maybe the author wouldn't have forgotten her characters. Again, my heart is so broken by how disappointing this follow up was for me. It was like the author was writing about characters that did not even reflect the ones in the first book. It was almost like she was writing about a college student and a frat boy. He was just a complete Buffoon in this book...I fell out of love with him and lost all sorts of respect.