An honest review thanks to NetGalley. This book was ok, but the storytelling and progression did not engage me at all. The interactions and storyline felt forced and made me, in turn, feel forced to continue reading. The plot had promise, but the lack of chemistry between the characters and the amount of telling in writing had me skimming through portions of this book. Not a great read and I will not be reading again.

Alex Taylor and Francesca "Frank" Greco didn't meet under the best of circumstances. Frank pulled Alex over for speeding and talking on her cell phone but they meet up again at a party that same day. Despite this initial stumble, they can't deny the attraction is there between them. As they pursue a relationship, Alex is suddenly diagnosed with breast cancer and Frank has to decide if she is willing to watch another woman she loves wilt to the disease; like her twin sister, Toni.

This book breaks Fiction 101's most important rule: show, don't tell. Not a single emotion this book tries to evoke ever manifest. At 70%, all I felt was annoyed there was more to read. Everything is set in front of you in such a dry, wooden way, I felt as if I was reading a detailed outline. The characters were flat caricatures and it really, REALLY bothered me to have a complete bitch/saint dynamic in Alex and Frank (respectively) where a person with cancer and struggling with treatment is portrayed in the book as a bitch for going through a wide range of emotions. Despite those emotions coming through in as monotone a way a possible.

"whenever you write,whatever you write,never make the mistake of assuming the audience is any less intelligent than you are"....this book just fell so flat with the writing,the wide assortment of topics written about fail,too cliche' and was rush which convince me that the author don't get today's readers and is still writing the same way,no chemistry,everything was force into the storytelling,no character development,just very frustrated from the second chapter to the end,honestly you can be fool by the synopsis and the book title but when you start to really get into the nitty gritty of the plot it's not what it seems..'pissed' is a word the i would use to describe after i was done..someone else please do me the honor and take a go at this

Take one happy and well centered ER nurse add one handsome Cop and the scene is set for a happy ever after. But throw in a life threatening disease and KC Richardson ramps up the angst.

Alex has a loving family, great friends, a godson she dotes on and a job she loves as an ER nurse. When a gorgeous sergeant pulls her over for speeding and texting, she gets all kinds of angry, but it sparks an attraction for both of them.
Several months later when Alex is diagnosed with the same disease that killed the most important women in Franki’s world and the stage is set for a traumatic time for all of them.

This is a great storyline and felt very well done. While there is a heavy dose of angst, it’s justified and well handled. There is a lot of medical information, but again it felt appropriate, and used to accentuate the overwhelming decisions and emotions of somebody faced with life defining choices.

Alex and Frank are well drawn and along with their closest friends and Alex’s family, become familiar characters we would be happy to meet and get to know. I haven’t read ‘New Beginnings” which sets up Jordan and Kirsten, but their relationship is delightful as is their son Aiden, Alex’s God-son,.

The impact of the disease on the friendly and easygoing Alex is extreme, making her an almost Jekyll and Hyde personality in the two halves of the story. But while extreme Ms Richardson amply justifies the feelings of a young woman whose surgery, in her mind, destroys her femininity.

I personally would have preferred Francesca to be Franki rather than Frank, she felt soft butch despite her uniform, and the fully masculine form seemed harsh, but that is purely personal.

My only real criticism of the book was that it needed a much heavier red pen to take out both word and explanatory repetition, rapidly becoming my biggest bugbear in the works of our newer authors, but then again that is hardly the author’s fault if they aren’t being told.

This book is a romance story that truly mirrors real life. It is believable and is not one of those love stories where the couple meet and then jump right into bed. In a few portions of this book, however, the very fact that it was a slow build up to the relationship, it seemed to get bogged down by the mentioning of the everyday tasks that the characters performed. This slower pace, however, did not take away from the overall enjoyment of the book.

There are two main themes in this book. The relationship development of Frank and Alex and the fight against breast cancer. I thought that the character development was excellent. While reading this book, I was wondering if the author had a strong attachment to someone who was diagnosed with breast cancer because you could really feel the emotions exhibited by the characters. It is quite possible that readers might shed a tear or two.

I would give this book 5 stars. Because of dealing with the fight against breast cancer, this would not be light romance reading. But, it is a good book and the reader just needs to know that there will be moments that will make one sad.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley and Bold Strokes in return for an honest review.