BOOK REVIEW: HOLDING THE OTHER by LYSSA LANE @layne_lyssa @QuirkyBlindDate

You see why I thought this would be a love triangle.  I was preparing myself for boatloads of drama, but it never came. The story which, was told in dual first person POVs on a whole, was good, but my favourite part was the epilogue. It was sweet and emotional. It made me smile and just gave me an all-round happy feeling. I enjoyed the writing, and I loved that it was not overly dramatic. The story depicted that one’s success usually follows their greatest disappointment.

For most of the story, I had difficulty connecting with Kyle Kelly. I did not know who she was as a person and why she acted the way; she did. At around 45% of the story, I discovered she had a difficult life growing up. A mother who was a junkie and a dad who shut her out of his life after her mom passed, but I still could not connect with her. It was not until around the 80% mark when I began to get a feel for her.  Even though I never had her experience, I connected with her at that point and understood the reasoning behind her actions. I liked that she finally got a chance to fulfil her dreams after so many disappointments.

There was a particular event in her life that the author failed to develop. We all knew a guitarist broke her heart, but no information was provided in relation to this thread.

Maverick was a mystery from start to finish. Due to lack of information about him before his current life I had difficulty establishing a connection with him.  Furthermore, I found him to be a weak character.  He relied heavily on his ex-wife to boost his career and now she is gone he became a shell of his former self. It is clear he has the talent, but he lacked the confidence needed to shine on his own.  He felt that no one could replace Miranda until KK.

 A hint was given as it relates to his childhood, bit it was not elaborated on, which was disappointing.

I was prepared to dislike Miranda, but she surprised me. She proved to be a nice person.  Lee’s manager on the other hand was up to no good. I figured he was up to something, but it took me awhile to figure out his end game.

Unfortunately, I did not feel the chemistry between the characters.  I had a hard time buying into Lee’s feelings for KK. First, he did not want her on the tour, but when he saw how great a singer, she was and how well she gelled with lead guitarist for the band that fronted for him, he became interested. In no time, they became friends and then we see them moving from friendship to lovers. I believe he was using her to replace his ex-wife.