great read awesome writing i really enjoyed this author and this book i would reccomend to other for sure

The plot seemed jumpy and I could not connect with the Main Characters, I found myself skipping pages throughout :(

Unfulfilled its potential

Annie has big dreams, wanting to go to med school and help those in need. But she also seems to be running away from something, that is when she finds Jude. He is a stranger but someone she feels so crazily close to. They have ten wonderful days together, and then real life kicks in: they go their separate ways but with the promise to stay in touch. The promise is broken. Five years pass, Annie is married to her best friend Dante. She runs into Jude, at church, but is there still a chance for them?  Have things changed too much?

I didn't enjoy this book, there was just too much I couldn't overlook. Jude seemed too strange for someone as rational and studious as Annie at that point in her life. Maybe love just made them crazy but I couldn't look past the fact that they claimed to truly know each other, to have found their soulmate but asked no questions. They met in Thailand, a foreign country to both of them, it was just unrealistic that they didn't chalk up their feelings to anything but each other. For instance, Annie had just lost her mother and Jude comforted her. Surely she may have confused gratitude for love?

But even so, I was fairly open minded. I wanted to see what would happen next. What did happen was bizzare: Jude believes he will pursue his life's vocation to become a Priest. Except he can't stop thinking about Annie, and when he sees her again- he wants her badly. She's the same: Dante, her husband, is unrealistically understanding. I liked that he gave her space, I just didn't like how Annie took advantage of her husband's good faith. Then with the plot twist towards the end, I felt Annie wasn't being true to herself. She was too inclined to do the 'moral' thing. This was admirable but was unfair to her husband and it seemed too much like she wasn't thinking just reacting to the events.

I get it: she loved two men. Just differently. It happens. I can understand that, I just didn't like how she strung them both along. Her relationship with Jude was also what I would judge to be fairly unhealthy: they joked about his possessive nature and his stalkerish tendencies. He put her on such a pedestal, it was unfair to them both. Then their were the lovemaking parts which were written so awkwardly. It was as though both Dante and Jude were the same in that department: the dialogue was practically identical. It was awful. I couldn't look past this.

I couldn't tolerate the characters or the story. At one point, Annie unforgivably left her best friend's wedding to do something she herself had delayed to do before. Thus, making the day, in her friend's eyes, about her. Rather than about her friend's happiness, which is what it should have been about.

The three stars are only because I managed to see this book through to the end, so it (obviously?) had something in its favour. I watched The Best of Me last night, I recommend it, but both this book and that draw upon similar themes. It made me sympathetic towards Annie and her situation but I feel the book was lacking the essential character development which a love story needs to ensure its success.

I received this book through NetGalley.

This book was such a beautiful, captivating & emotional ride. You follow Anna on a journey of self-discovery, finding love, making sacrifices, losing faith & life changing decisions.

Anna Dillon convinces her best friend Dante to travel with her to Thailand on a medical mission. She is running from family problems while on a mission of self-discovery. While volunteering in a coastal village, Anna meets Jude Grayson. Anna & Jude are instantly attracted to each other & this leads to a brief, but very passionate affair. When Anna has to rush home for a family emergency, Jude promises to stay in touch.
But Jude never calls, and Anna tries desperately to forget him.
After five years without hearing from Jude, Anna moves on with her best friend, Dante. Fate brings Anna & Jude face to face in a chance encounter. Anna discovers the reason why Jude never contacted her. But the passion that ignited between them years ago never died.
Can Anna & Jude stay away from each other? Will Anna continue with the life she built with Dante?

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Not your normal love triangle, this novel will keep you guessing about who gets the girl...and whether she deserves either of the men in her life. Or if they deserve her.

This book perplexed me.I didn't like it but I didn't hate it either.There was a lot going on, a lot of twists and turns which is good and also the writing was fantastic but for some reason I couldn't feel it a lot.

I'm kind of in the middle with this book, I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. It was a little cliched at times. I suppose my main concern was I didn't feel a connection with the main characters. :(

Sandy M’s review of In This Life by Christine Brae
Contemporary Romance published by Vesuvian Books 15 Nov 16

This is one of those stories that will hit you in the solar plexis and double you over. Even if you haven’t experienced life-changing events as these characters do. The emotion they go through, from sheer joy to loss and devastation, especially when it’s thought maybe this time life will change for the better, is raw and intense. Then there’s the secrets and their subsequent revelations…

Anna is on the fast track, medical school in her foreseeable future, but when a family argument is too much, she heads to Thailand, with her best friend Dante in tow, to help out after a tsunami hits the country’s coastal region. She and Dante have been friends forever, a friendship that has stood the test of time and, unbeknownst to them both, is heading toward its most heartbreaking challenge.

Anna meets Jude when teaching catechism to local children. There’s an immediate attraction and they begin an affair that’s full of passion and emotion. As their feelings change and evolve day to day, they each know they’ll be going their separate ways in short order. They promise to stay in touch, but Jude never contacts Anna once they part ways and return to the states. Though there’s a hole in her heart and her life, Anna finally has to move on. She chooses to do so with Dante, after finally giving up all hope that she’ll have a life of any kind with Jude.

Then as fate is wont to do in life, Anna and Jude do meet once again. And this is when all their secrets – from all three of them – come out, and the twists and turns thrown not only at these characters but also the reader are heart stopping and tragic. Decisions that weren’t dealt with in the past are now front and center for each of them once again. This time different outcomes are realized, and none of them escape unscathed. I also hold my breath when an author holds on to secrets until very late in a book, hoping what we learn is comparable to the heartache and drama that leads up to the revealing. I’m happy to say Ms. Brae does this very well and left me with no qualms about the varying results that these characters must face.

What I like most about Anna, Jude, and Dante is the fact they’re very human. Very flawed humans. They make mistakes just like we do every day, though their mistakes are on a much larger scale than most of us. But they have to deal with the consequences of those mistakes and make the best of life, even if they end up hurting the ones they love. Anna loves both of these men with all her heart, just in different ways. Dante does his best to give them the happiness they do deserve after all their trials, and Jude finally has to decide to take his life in hand for himself. Reading their story will lead you through elation to confusion to anger to love to loss and so many other emotions in between.

This book isn’t quite what I expected from reading the blurb. It took me by surprise several times, gave me so much to think about, and finally soothed my heart enough to get to the last page. Be prepared to go through something similar in your reading of it.

Grade: B

Anna Dillon and her best friend Dante go on a medical mission trip to Thailand before she enters medical school. While there, she meets Jude Grayson and they have a brief but passionate affair. Though he promises to keep in touch, he never does. Anna can't quite get over him, and tries to move on with Dante. This almost works, but then she encounters Jude again by chance and her old feelings are reawakened.

The emotions conveyed in this book are so raw and almost uncomfortable to read at times. There's no "hero" in the book; they are all flawed and approachable in different ways, recognizably human even as they try to improve.

"It wasn't a love triangle; she wasn't confused, nor was she apologetic. She set out to prove to the world there are different kinds of love that can only be experienced once in a lifetime." Anna is confused, though. There is love for two different men, in different ways, and she can't reconcile her own feelings with what she believes she should do.