3.5
Until It Fades
ByPublisher Description
“Touching and complex…Tucker unerringly hits all the high notes of romance—the spark, the emotional depth, the mental and physical struggles—while creating a couple who seem perfectly attuned even when they are in conflict.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Twenty-four-year-old truck stop waitress and single mother Catherine Wright has simple goals: to give her five-year-old daughter a happy life and to never again be the talk of the town in Balsam, Pennsylvania (population three thousand outside of tourist season).
And then one foggy night, on a lonely road back from another failed date, Catherine saves a man’s life. It isn’t until after the police have arrived that Catherine realizes exactly who it is she has rescued: Brett Madden, hockey icon and media darling.
Catherine has already had her fifteen minutes of fame and the last thing she wants is to have her past dragged back into the spotlight, only this time on a national stage. So she hides her identity. It works. For a time.
But when she finds the man she saved standing on her doorstep, desperate to thank her, all that changes. There’s an immediate connection, and it’s more electric than the bond of two people who endured a traumatic event. It’s something neither of them expected. Something that Catherine isn’t sure she can handle; something she is afraid to trust.
Because how long can an extraordinary man like Brett be interested in an ordinary woman like Catherine...before the spark fades?
Twenty-four-year-old truck stop waitress and single mother Catherine Wright has simple goals: to give her five-year-old daughter a happy life and to never again be the talk of the town in Balsam, Pennsylvania (population three thousand outside of tourist season).
And then one foggy night, on a lonely road back from another failed date, Catherine saves a man’s life. It isn’t until after the police have arrived that Catherine realizes exactly who it is she has rescued: Brett Madden, hockey icon and media darling.
Catherine has already had her fifteen minutes of fame and the last thing she wants is to have her past dragged back into the spotlight, only this time on a national stage. So she hides her identity. It works. For a time.
But when she finds the man she saved standing on her doorstep, desperate to thank her, all that changes. There’s an immediate connection, and it’s more electric than the bond of two people who endured a traumatic event. It’s something neither of them expected. Something that Catherine isn’t sure she can handle; something she is afraid to trust.
Because how long can an extraordinary man like Brett be interested in an ordinary woman like Catherine...before the spark fades?
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities2104 Reviews
3.5
Gail Winters
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ZK
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morgan
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“I wanted to love this story so, so badly, and I had such high hopes going into it based on the summary, but I ended up disappointed and annoyed when it was over. And because of that, I word vomited. Lots of spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk.
The story starts off somewhat slow with a dive into the past of the FMC, Catherine, and then her current life. You really do feel for her and what she’s been through, but ultimately she was bland for me as a main character which made the story bland because you only get her POV in the story.
Her and the MMC, Brett, meet by happenstance when she saves his life. Brett is your typical hockey star in a romance novel…tall, handsome, rich and has a good family. He didn’t have one flaw or anything I could relate to. He’s a big, sweet teddy bear who is very protective, but as much as he made me swoon, he didn’t do much else for me.
Catherine and Brett quickly become friends after the accident, but even more quickly fall into a relationship in an insta-love, love at first sight sorta way. It was a little too fast for my liking. The present day story is only about a month or so long timeline wise, so it felt rushed, but even the way the timeline is explained is confusing and doesn’t quite add up either.
One big drawback in this story for me was how Brett loses his best friend in a car accident and his grief is just not mentioned or explored whatsoever. It was made out to be such a big loss in Brett’s life and a pivotal plot point for the story and then it was like the author just forgot it ever even happened and it was never mentioned again.
Another drawback for me was how not once did either the FMC or MMC say “I love you” to one another. It was alluded to, but never directly said, which for me, is something you would expect in a romance novel and was kinda weird not having in the story. I did enjoy the romance though. It was sweet and swoon-worthy and I was giggling and kicking my feet at certain points. There was minimal spice, but it was beautifully written and fun and I enjoyed it.
The highlight in this story for me was the minor characters; Lou and Keith especially. Those two are truly national treasures. Lou is the mom and friend we all deserve, and Keith is such a good man to Catherine and her daughter.
Brenna, her 5 year old daughter, is sweet and has some funny moments, but mostly she was obnoxious, which is saying something considering I will usually die on the hill for the single parent with young kids trope. As far as fictional kids go, I just didn’t love her. But on the other end of that, considering how much of a part she played in the story, she also wasn’t really involved in the story. Like she was just there for a plot point and didn’t really add much else.
The big disappointment didn’t happen until the last 30 or so pages for me. There is a plot twist that you could kind of see coming, but I also didn’t see coming considering we were so close to the end of the story. It’s the kind of twist where nothing came of it after it happened…it was skirted around and swept under the rug, so it felt pointless to even have it at all. It was one of those third-act hand grenades just for the sake of adding shock value and it really annoyed me.
And then the epilogue…it was just a few pages of banter between Catherine and her and Brett’s families at a hockey game. You don’t even hear from Brett because he’s miraculously recovered and back on the ice in just a few months after what we were supposed to believe was such a bad injury. It did nothing for me.
Overall, meh. The story was decent, not great. I expected more and maybe that’s my fault for having such high expectations, but I’ll still give KA Tucker’s other books a shot.”About K.A. Tucker
K.A. Tucker writes captivating stories with an edge. She is the bestselling author of the Ten Tiny Breaths and Burying Water series and the novels He Will Be My Ruin, Until It Fades, Keep Her Safe, and The Simple Wild. She currently resides in a quaint town outside Toronto with her husband and two beautiful girls.
Other books by K.A. Tucker
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