Chasing What's Already Gone by Michael Ross

I will admit straight up that I like a story that is told from numerous points of view and in this book there were more characters involved in the story than you could possible shake a stick at.

The first few chapters were primarily from Danny’s POV, his observations about his marriage, the state of his relationship, the joys of shopping and all the normal gripes that you average guy has with being forced to participate in domesticity and his quips were delightful and had me chuckling to myself, I hoped in a way that those chapters would set the tone for the rest of the book and they almost did because overall the story carried a fairly light hearted feel.

The story itself was very well written but if I had a complaint it was that I found it a little wordy in the early stages, please don't think that is a criticism it isn’t it is just a personal opinion. I like to be able to complete the picture that the authors words have created and I found that at the beginning of the story I didn’t have too, the author had imparted so much detail into the story that my imagination was left on the side-lines. Now again that is not meant as a criticism it is just an observation on how my brain as a reader operates while I am working my way through a story and I fully accept that every reader is different, but this author allows for a very relaxed reading style , he does all the hard work for you.

I got a little confused in the whole hunt for the girl that he had never been able to forget, the woman that gave him her business card on a chance meeting, that he later caught a glimpse of on the TV screen. But amid my fleeting confusion I will have to say that I admired his tenacity and accepted that his quest to find her was what ultimately lead him to be where he needed to be.

At about the half way point of the book, my mind started to get with the program so to speak, I had worked out the author and what he expected from me as a reader and I think that I almost began to work  in tandem with the story line and where the author was creating amazingly descriptive illusions throughout the whole book, my mind was wandering off on its own and creating all sorts of alternative scenarios. So I doff my cap to the author and admit that his tactic worked, his creativity was infectious, I mean I became so invested that I was taking the story off on my own tangent of evolution. Until the author reigned me in of course.

I will openly admit that didn’t like Danny’s wife, she wasn’t at all who I thought he would have been with but I will leave that there because the less said about her the better, you need to read for yourself to form your own opinion – I hope you get what I mean though. Danny evolved as the story grew, almost from page to page, he changed, he learnt and developed. It wasn’t only the journey he was on that seemed to take on a life of its own, his situation, his career, his whole outlook changed, was it for the better?

Did he get what he was searching for?

Could he find his happiness?

I liked the fact that Danny was a little wet in some ways, he was no alpha man that is for sure but I think that side of his character made him more realistic. Although at times I was unsure as to whether or not he was making the right decisions, but then again they weren’t my decisions to make so who am I to judge.

I liked the fact that he was willing to be 100% honest but sometimes, what you want to say and what you need to say are not always the same thing. Danny learnt that lesson the hard way in Paris.

Jess on the other hand was a really strong character and in a way I understood where she was coming from, a strong woman in business with little time for the social side of life but who was completely captivated by this sweet guy who had driven himself almost mad trying to track her down.

Would his naive charm and wholesome character be enough for her?

The author certainly gives no quarter when it comes to content, like I said earlier he packs more than most into the book, and that includes a plethora of characters. I can’t say secondary characters as many of them play a more than secondary role but you need to keep your wits about you in order to remember them all.

Overall the story was a break from the norm, it was a humorous read that was more than able to captivate my attention, it wasn’t packed with angst and attitude, it wasn’t exactly smoulderingly sensual, their foray into intimacy was intimated rather than graphic and that was all that this story required anything more salacious would have been completely out of place. The story was honest, it was sweet and most of all it was primarily realistic.

I think that this is a read that will appeal to the out and out romance reader, it is perfect for loading onto the kindle for an afternoon in the sun, it will help while away the time without bruising your heart in the process.