Ten Year Crush by Toshia Slade
Ten Year Crush by Toshia Slade
What’s girl to do when the one man she has loved for the last 10 years is the one man she can’t have?
Life played a cruel trick on 11year old Gabby Murphy when her brother’s new best friend showed up on her birthday and left his impression on her young heart, because 10 years later – he is still the only person that she has ever felt anything for.
Camron Taylor isn’t unaffected by Gabby– quite the opposite, he has fought his desire for years, unwilling to risk not only his business relationship but his friendship with Gabby’s brother, Josh and moreover he can’t risk a relationship and failure with Gabby, because failure would mean that he no longer had Gabby in his life in any capacity and is 100% certain that his heart would never survive that.
Life takes them both by the scruff of the neck on Gabby’s 21st Birthday and feelings that have long since simmered , finally make their way to the surface but through a series of miscommunications and hidden context, the pair part company further apart than either of them had ever thought possible.
And even though Josh makes it known that he would not object to Cam dating his sister, the pair never seem to be able to reach the same point at the same time. Cam takes the direct route and tries to use other women to forget Gabby, while she on the other hand enters into a relationship with Brandon to try and push Cam from her mind.
Good thing – well what do you think?
Gabby was a portrayed to perfection, a feisty young woman, heartbroken but hiding it as best she can – determined that no man would get the better of her. Feeling foolish for all the years she has yearned for Cam, she channels her pain and storms head first into her relationship with Brandon.
Cam is a broken man, because while he knows it is his choice to forgo a relationship with Gabby, seeing her with someone else is destroying him and he can see that Brandon is up to something.
The pair are trying but when someone has held your soul for so long, moving on is damn near impossible.
Brandon is not the man that Gabby thinks, his character is developed nicely by the author- giving us the reader a sneaky peek into what is going on with him, while keeping Gabby in the dark.
Whilst the story’s path and outcome may be fairly obvious from early on, the journey along that path is far from smooth and the scenario between the couple whilst complicated is completely feasible.
The story took a situation and allowed us to watch as it played out across the pages, the dialogue was realistic and contextually accurate – the banter between Tiff and Gabby was exactly what you would hear if you were a fly on a wall observing two best friends conversing and Josh and Cam were just brilliant together, bonded through years of friendship to the point that they were effectively brothers and most definitely had each other's back.
The ups and down of life and love are the driving force behind this story, they show us that in order to have the happiness we deserve- sometimes you just have to step out of the shadows and take it. Wishing for it isn’t enough – you have to fight for your happy ever after.
I loved Tiff and Josh and hope that perhaps somewhere the unresolved tension between the two of them comes to fruition.
The epilogue was a written beautifully and the letters between Cam and Gabby held not only my heart but my breath.
Not what I would describe as a tearjerker of a book overall but it has its moments that almost give permission to be misty eyed.
Rating 4 out of 5