Allure

by CA Harms

I have read quite a few books by CA Harms to date and I am surprised to say that I actually think this might be my favourite so far.
I thought the bar was set pretty high very early on and the characters have an awful lot to live up to but they managed to not only reach those heights but exceed them.  There are a plethora of quotes and passages that I feel I should quote to give you an idea of exactly how much emotion the story brought to bear but I think like many others, I was captured straight out the gate by “The love of a lifetime is worth a million tries” …. yep that just about says it all! I was done for and I knew it!
There was more to the characters in the story that you would initially anticipate and I thought the author did a great job of ensuring that she gave them enough depth and meaning to ensure that they and their situation was believable. It is all too easy as an adult to read stories that are centred around younger characters and to almost subconsciously dismiss their troubles, this was not the case with Rhett and AJ because with them I absorbed their situation and was delighted that the author gave them the opportunity to wring every ounce of emotion from what they were experiencing.
Do not fool yourself into believing this is a second chance love story, you would be sadly mistaken…this is so much more and you need to read it to find out why?
Rhett was a great kid, just the sort of guy that when your daughter starts dating him in high school, you don’t feel the need to get the shotgun when he knocks on the door. All through school, Rhett was devoted to his sweetheart Harley, they had their lives mapped out before them and there was very little that was likely to rock their boat, that was right up until Harley tipped their rosy world upside down and left not just town but also the state to go to college. I suppose it was inevitable that what they had was destined to fall apart and they gave it a go but it didn’t take Rhett long to realize that the girl that he loved was moving on with her life and his place was no longer by her side.
Now, at this point I could have shaken him…really hard because, despite the fact that he was young free and single, he seemed to still be emotionally attached to Harley and what they had, he clung to the past, using it as  shield almost to hide behind, even though he was perfectly well aware that there were other girls that were desperate to get to know him, especially AJ and whilst I understand that he was recovering from the collapse of his relationship with Harley …this is a young guy, moving on was inevitable, so making AJ wait around as long as he did sort of irked me.
But after bemoaning the fact I had to wait for the two of them to get together, once they did I was never in any doubt that they were where they needed to be. This was a connection of two souls, they were perfect for each other and despite events of the past doing their utmost to interfere, I had a confidence that they would make it. But did they?
A great story with some exquisitely detailed descriptions and characters that were a joy to read. With some superb secondary characters that not only complemented but accentuated an already engaging story, this was a funny yet emotional read that I would highly recommend.