Thursday 18 June 2015

♀♀ A Shot At Forgiveness ♀♀ Places In Time ♀♀ Cardeno C ♀♀




Sometimes to find love, you must first learn forgiveness.

A dozen years, two thousand miles, and a law degree after high school, Rafi Steiner continues to harbor resentment toward Isaac Jones, his childhood bully turned NBA star. When Isaac appears at Rafi's favorite restaurant acting like a long-lost friend, Rafi bluntly dismisses him.

But Isaac is tenacious and he has his heart set on the grown-up version of the boy he always wanted and never forgot. The way Isaac sees it, he and Rafi are perfect for each other, if only he could sink the most important shot of his life: his one shot at forgiveness.

Copy received from author for an honest review

Remember that guy/girl at school that made your life miserable?  Picking on you, getting their friends to pick on you?

And remember how your mum always said "they are probably picking on your because they like you"?

What would you do if 12 years down the track, that person came back into your life.

That is what happens to Rafi when Isaac walks - well barges, back into his life.

I adored how relentless Isaac was in his pursuit of Rafi.  His honesty in saying what he wants.  Though it did bug me a bit that he never really showed any remorse for his actions in high school, never really apologised.  He should have been down on his knees (not like that!) and grovelling.

And yes, it does feel very stalkerish, and I know it will not be for everybody.  But at the end of the day, it is a story. Fiction.

However, I liked how,  with the luxury of hindsight, Rafi can see how things may have been if he had looked at them a different way.


"We lay together, laughing at that memory and so many others, and somewhere along the way I realized that in all the years that had passed, I had thought only of Isaacs gruff words and not his kind actions. I admitted to myself that maybe Id failed to notice some pretty important things back then, or maybe Id just edited them out of my memory. Either way, I felt like I was getting reacquainted with an old friend at the same time that I was getting to know a new one."

As this is a short novella (17k words), of course everything seems to move at warp speed, but truthfully, it did not bother me.
 
Copy received from author for an honest review

Sometimes you have to look back at events of the past, to really see the future that is waiting right in front of you.

Places In Time has a bit of A Christmas Carol/Ebeneezer Scrooge vibe to it, with a guide taking Ethan back to pivotal moments in his past.

I adore a friends-to-lovers story, so Ethan's path to realisation that Jude is the one for him was a sweet (but not sickly sweet!), enjoyable  quick read.

I have enjoyed all of CC's work that I have read to date, and I look forward to reading more in the future.