review || CRAZY { blog tour } by M. Dauphin

Self-Published | November 18, 2015 | Contemporary Romance
★★★★

SOURCE: SBB PROMOTIONS

A single father, Benton is learning to live with the loss of his wife while also learning how to raise a baby on his own. Gabby has a dark past that she fights every day and has plenty of people to help get her through the lonely nights. When the two get together, one of them just wants to move forward and the other just wants to forget. Sometimes forgetting isn't as easy as it sounds, though. Benton will do anything he can to help Gabby, even if it means putting everything he's worked for on the line. Will she recognize his efforts before it's too late or are they both a little too crazy to make it work?

*18+ only* *Stand alone full length novel. This story is a spin off of characters from M. Dauphin's best selling novel Just GO*

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{ about m. dauphin } .

Dauphin lives in Southern Illinois with her husband, two tiny kiddos, and two insane dogs. Being a writer is something she never thought she'd want to do, but she's SO GLAD she started this journey. If you want to get on her good side, Coffee is always the way to go. Reviews help also. She loves everything but bugs and tornadoes... and a few other things.

  

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This was a good book -- well written with likable characters. Sadly, though, the one thing that resonates the most for me was the overuse of the word "Crazy", whether it was this is crazy, or the thought was crazy, or however the author chose to use the word, it was simply overused. I love the subtle hints about why a book was titled the way it was, but when the single word that is the title is thrown in as often as it was here, I really yearned for a different title...

Now that that's done...

I actually did enjoy this story. This was a spin-off, sure, but I didn't read JUST GO and I certainly didn't feel lost -- the author gave enough information on Benton for the reader to know what was going on in his life and how he got to the point he was at.

Gabby, though... this woman had quite the past, and it took some time to unfold. After a relationship gone sour, Gabby spent more time with the ladies than the men -- it was too easy for her to become attached to men, and she had just as much fun with women and did not get attached. Her girlfriend is in a similar situation -- has her man on the side, but spends most of her time with Gabby. Gabby likes her time with Benton, but she can feel herself maybe wanting a little bit more, and she definitely can feel that he does want more, so she's at a bit of a crossroads.

I can say that I didn't necessarily care for Gabby's character. I felt she was flippant and definitely had more 'me, myself, and I' moments, and as such, I wanted something more for Benton. I didn't care for her teenaged attitude she had during some serious moments; while the situations themselves definitely were attention seeking situations, her attitude of them simply had me wanting her to grow up some.

Benton was a great father (and oh, the heartstrings that pull surrounding his daughter and being widowed... major brownie points for this man) and he cared deeply for Gabby, so watching him allow Gabby to pull him back and forth hurt my heart a little bit. I did love him, though, for allowing Gabby to open up at her pace... slow as it was.

The story, again, was enjoyable. The writing style was simply 'good' in my book, though. Some dialogue felt choppy, some lines felt too 'skim the surface' when they could have delved a bit deeper... but not a bad story!