Certified Bed Reader...

Sometimes the clouds weren't weightless. Sometimes their bellies got dark and full. It was life. It happened.
WOW -- this is the kind of book that makes me a happy reader! I loved that it's written in first-person; it made me feel so much closer to Jocelyn and to really understand her thought process. This is a woman who's struggling to overcome a traumatic past. Her fears run so deep that she refuses to let anyone in. She projects an air of snarky coolness that should turn people off, but instead it draws them to her. Even so, she keeps them all at arms length and her emotions locked up in an impenetrable box. Then she moves to Dublin Street and everything changes when she finds herself growing closer to her roommate, Ellie, and Ellie's devastatingly sexy brother, Braden.

Oh, Braden. Braden, Braden, Braden! He's like a cross between Kristen Ashley's über-alpha heroes and EL James's Christian Grey. But I draw the comparison hesitantly because Braden Carmichael deserves his own classification and not to be held in the shadow of other literary hunks. Thank heaven's Braden isn't as tortured as CG because two supremely tortured characters would be overkill (ie. Bared to You). Braden's super-hot and possessive; however, he allows Joss room to breathe, to make mistakes, to work through her shit all while showing her he's not going anywhere. I love that about him!

Towards the last third of the book, when the angst really hit the fan, I grew increasingly frustrated with Joss. Here's the thing: it had to happen that way! If she'd acted any differently then the entire story would've been a farce. I needed to see that the hours Joss had spent talking to her therapist (finally a heroine smart enough to realize she has problems that needed professional help!) hadn't been for nothing; that there was some true, honest to God, emotional growth that I could be satisfied with. When Joss finally opens up to Braden and then gives him ultimate trust by telling him her true feelings, I cried. I couldn't help it. I felt the eight years of pain she'd lived with seep out of her as she placed it all in Braden's capable hands. He took it for her, supported her through it, and he gave her every thing she needed just by loving her.

Absolutely beautiful. Breathtakingly wonderful. One of the best, definitely the most emotionally-fulfilling books, I've read all year!