BOOK REVIEW

| COLLIDE (COLLIDE #1) BY GAIL MCHUGH |

AUTHOR ON FACEBOOK

|BOOK DESCRIPTION|

A missed first encounter…

Colliding with a second chance…

On the heels of graduating college and trying to cope with her mother’s death, Emily Cooper moves to New York City for a fresh start.

While harboring secrets of his own, Dillon Parker takes care of Emily through her grief. Knowing he can’t live without her by his side, he’s sweet, thoughtful, and everything Emily has ever wanted in a man.

Until she meets Gavin Blake—a rich and notorious playboy who is dangerously sexy and charming as hell. Emily tries to deny the instant connection she feels, but Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome is not inclined to let go so easily. Recovering from his own painful past, Gavin will stop at nothing to win Emily over. 

This unexpected encounter compels Emily to question her decisions, forcing her to make a choice that will destroy friendships, shatter hearts, and forever change her life.

REVIEW

I own an e-book copy

If you enjoy reading stories that involve love triangles, then this one is for you. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. I did with this one, but I have to tell you that it drove me absolutely insane! OMG. I was frustrated beyond belief and actually I left this comment on Goodreads after I’d finished: WOW! I'm beyond infuriated, exhausted and livid, and then I'm left hanging at the end????? Give me strength! Loved it. :) Yep. It drove me bananas. The angst. Torture.

Emily Cooper moves to New York with her boyfriend, Dillon, after her mother’s death. She moves in with her best friend Olivia, as she feels she’s not yet ready to live with Dillon. She finds a job at an Italian restaurant and starts working pronto. Her boss asks her if it’s possible to make a delivery as his delivery guy isn’t available and off she goes. Enter Gavin Blake. Mind you, Gavin was already downstairs awaiting his delivery which we later find out. So, enter Emily who completely and absolutely knocks Gavin’s socks off – he’s beyond smitten. As she makes her way to the lift (elevator), he follows suit because of course it’s his pizza she’s delivering, although she doesn’t know this yet. He offers to take it, something she’s quite capable of handling (it’s a pizza in a box!) thank you very much. Flirting takes place on Gavin’s part, but Emily chalks it up to just another guy doing what he does best. However, she’s not completely unaffected by it because really Gavin is just to die for. But! But, she has a boyfriend, moved to be with Dillon and she loves him. Does she?

When they meet again and Gavin is still trying his damnest with Emily, she halts his advances by telling him that she is ‘attached’, loves her boyfriend and when asked, tells him her name is Molly! You know, one of those situations where you don’t think you’ll probably ever see this person again, although she did but that could just be coincidence. It goes without saying that they do meet again. And again, and again. I don’t normally write these kinds of things in my reviews, but this is what Emily sees and ultimately thinks about Gavin; Mr.Tall, Dark and F***able handsome. So, that should be the end of ‘colliding’ with him again.

Not so! As this book is aptly named, they do indeed collide again, various times throughout the book (obviously) and in more ways than the word intense describes.

You see, Olivia’s brother knows Gavin very well. Actually, when Trevor visited Emily way back when (the time she met Dillon), it was really supposed to be Gavin who would have accompanied him but as life would have it, he couldn’t go and Dillon went instead. See where this is going? I’m having a bit of have to hold myself back situation in order not to give too much away, although you get the gist of it. There's way more though. 

The situation Emily finds herself in is one to drive anybody crazy, especially when you feel like you are being pulled in both directions. She goes back and forth between the two, something that made me scream and yell at Emily (crazy I know) for not seeing what was in front of her where both Dillon and Gavin are concerned. I honest to goodness cannot stand Dillon. He is an arsehole of note, and I so desperately wanted to climb into this story and slap the crap out of him. Numerous times. He deserves to be slapped, punched – something, anything. Gosh, I sound volatile, but he is so infuriating, rude, a low-life as far as I’m concerned, a wannabe (of what I don't know - just pompous) and full of demands and instructions, so much so I want to poke him in the eye! Actually, all of this is mild compared to what I’d really like to do. There. Had to get that out.

To lighten my furiousness, Gavin is awesome, amazing, thoughtful, kind and exactly who she should have met way back when, and who she should be with. Why do women always keep going back to the wrong person? Why? I ask you with tears in my eyes. Are they blind? And why do they always believe what this person says? Seriously, it makes me so darn angry that I actually don’t know what to do with myself. Granted, other nonsense gets in the way of the ‘right’ man, but how many times have we been told or have heard that most situations or glimpses you’ve caught of something at the wrong time, should not be taken as gospel or be believed until such time as one finds out the truth? Gah! Give me strength.

So, to finalise (all my angry energy), I loved this book despite it driving me crazy on more than one occasion. What I didn’t like was that I was left hanging at the end, but that’s the point. I have to read the second book before someone grabs hold of me and institutionalises me. I’m that close people.

I liked the way this author writes. Obviously! When's the next one coming out? Has it? What’s it called? I need to dig. 

SANDRA'S RATING : 5 STARS