His Light in the Dark by LA Fiore

I was ready for tears when I read the synopsis, I knew it was going to hit me and hit me hard and I was certainly not disappointed, this left me looking for reason, not in anything in particular just in general, it was one of those books that left a fuzzy mist, a sort of wonder on what to do now, but also left me with the fact that I needed time out – away from the kindle and a large lung full of fresh air.

What I was not ready for was the pull that Mia’s father Mace would have, the man is a legend…the true definition of what it is to be a real man, the picture of patience and fortitude, of compassion and resilience, he took on a damaged little boy who was without a mother figure ( not that, that was a problem, he was already bringing Mia up single handed) and who had experienced a life that any self-respecting father would shelter their child from, not subject them too, and taught him what it was to live, laugh and love.

Mace is responsible for the man that Cole is now, the fact that he was willing to put what he felt for Mia to one side in order to protect her so to speak, spoke volumes about what he had learnt at the knee of Mace Donati. His father would have never given him that grounding, in fact he probably wouldn’t still be around if he had remained with his father but nurture over nature won out and he his is a fabulous young man, albeit one that really could do with a slap upside the head for being so pig-headed!!!

From the time Mace took Cole into his life the bond between him and Mia has been unbreakable but sometimes there are obstacles that are in the way and that make you see a skewed various of reality, this was what was happening to Cole and one silly decision, one misconceived idea that he was just like his father and would end up hurting the people that he loved more than anything and we find that they were walking a completely different path than the one my head had mapped out for them.

I got the reasoning behind his delusion, I didn’t like it but I understood it and I stuck with it though because I was drawn to Cole, he was a great character. I winced a bit at his unfounded self-deprecation and could feel my eyebrows lifting when his stubborn streak refused to listen to reason.

Now, at times, Mia grated on my nerves, she was a little too annoyingly naïve and every now and then seemed to be living life through the permanent gaze of rose tinted glasses, I wanted to tell her to just wake up and dig a little deeper! I liked the fact that she refused to give up on Cole, but then again who walks away from the love of their life without a darn good reason and none of Cole’s reasons were enough.

This is not a quick ride to a happy ever after there is a lot more going on here than you might think, the characters are deceptive, no not in the fact that they hide things, I mean as in they have more going on under the surface than you initially give them credit for.

While Mia was a little too closeted in some respects in others I liked the fact she was tenacious.

While Cole had his heart in the right place, he peeved me by thinking too much, he let his doubts and demons infiltrate his soul and that saddened me. He put himself through hell for want of a better word, because his head refused to listen to what his heart was saying!

At times their story sort of lost a little momentum but they soon picked up the pace and I suppose the back end of the book was the clincher for me, I enjoyed the, mystery, the uncertainties and the unexpected twists and turns. I’m not saying that it wasn’t obviously at some points what was coming up next but that was definitely in the minority, and the ending….nope not even on my radar!