This was the first book I read by M.O'Keefe and I thought it was a good read. I was particularly taken with Tiffany. She has had a crap life and yet will stop at nothing to make things better for her and her kids. She displays so much strength and courage that I was in awe of her. It took me a while to warm up to Blake since he is sort of a controlling jerk in the beginning. You can see how he develops feelings for Tiffany, he doesn't quite know how to care for someone else. It was so great to watch his transformation and let himself love Tiffany. And for Tiffany to open up and trust Blake with her and her kids was such a show of trust. It was a good read.

Reading and liking a story is subjective. I really had a difficult time to get into the story. The characters are for me what makes up a great story. I just couldn't like Tiffany, I found her annoying and being a martyr. Which is something I hate in a character traits. So I skeamed rather quickly through the story.

That was great, definitely my favorite in this series, full of easy to identify with emotions. I posted a review on Goodreads.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! Okay, now that is out of the way, let me tell you why. We met Tiffany in the first book in this series and know her story. She has three kids, under the age of 7, and an abusive husband. Well, turns out that husband was the brother of Blake who is the business partner with Dylan. Remember Dylan and Annie from the first 2 books in the series who ripped my heart apart and put it back together? Yep, that's them :) Blake shows up at her trailer and tries to buy her off and she ups the ante. A year goes by and she turns up at Annie and Dylan's house not knowing they were having a party and Dylan is there and WHOA so is Margaret. Yes! Grandma who doesn't know about Tiffany and the kids and still at this point. So much happens in the first chapter and it just gets better. Can Tiffany learn to trust again? Will Blake ever be anything other than a total jerk?

This entire series is a must read!

**Received an ARC copy for review from the publisher via NetGalley**

I'm sure you remember my squee-filled review of book 3, Burn Down the Night, from last year, so it's probably no surprise that I loved Wait For It as well. A bit less so, but we're talking by only a tiny bit and I'll get into the reasons why later on.


This story is complicated and no mater how I try to explain it here, it's not going to do it justice out of context. For example, if I say "The hero doesn't want emotions mixed with his sex so he thinks it's okay to pay the woman he's sleeping with, in order for it to be like a business transaction", you'd start giving this book, and Blake, Major Side Eye. Understandable, trust me, but when I say that outside of the context of the story, outside of the context of who he is as a character, that surface statement probably turns you off from the book. Which is fine, I get that. For me, though, it just worked out in the end and I loved these two broken, strong characters, flaws and all. And I'm going to try my best to explain why, as well as point out the few issues I had with the book as well.



While this can be read as a standalone without too much problem, Tiffany and Blake's story kind of starts in the previous books, which is when they first meet. The first chapter or so of Wait For It looks back at the meeting, so you won't be lost, but if you're interested in this story to begin with, I'm confident you'd be interested in the previous two couples as well. (Books 1 and 2 cover couple 1, and book 3 covers couple 2.)



When Wait For It starts in the present time, Tiffany is a single mother still running (and healing) from her abusive ex. She's still married to him, as she's not been able to get a divorce; she's managed to stay a few steps ahead of him for now, but she knows that if she sends out divorce papers, he'll come running back, fists swinging -- literally. So instead she keeps her head down and keeps pushing forward, wanting to finally break free of the horrible life she ended up in, to give her three children a better, brighter future, one where they don't have to listen to their father abusing their mother, one where they can have an actual childhood and not be forced to grow up so quickly. Tiffany is one strong woman and she's been fighting tooth and nail to get to where she is; she's still got a ways to go, she's still clinging, just barely, to avoid losing it all again, but she's a fighter and I admired that about her.



When Tiffany first met her husband, he told her his parents were dead and he was estranged from his brother; only part of that was true, but she never knew . . . until suddenly his brother, Blake, shows up. Blake had no idea that Phil had a wife and children, and while at first he doesn't want to believe Tiffany is telling the truth, it's soon clear to see she is: the kids have their father's looks and the story of how controlling and abusive Phil has been to Tiffany is not at all surprising. He's well aware of what his brother is capable of, having dealt with it all his life. Not wanting to hurt his mother, who is still holding out hope that her son will change, will return to them, Blake offers to pay Tiffany off to ensure she never seeks out his family. Tiffany is a bit in shock at this, but stands her ground and demands he double the price -- she doesn't want anything to do with Phil's family anyway, but the money would be a life saver, a way for her to finally take the kids and run, and she can't afford to let this opportunity pass.



So she does just that, starting over again, away from the trailer park where Phil kept them for all those years. Jump forward a year later, when the story really starts, and she shows up at Annie's house when she needs help; Phil found her and trashed her apartment. (Annie is the heroine from 1 & 2, and lived in the same trailer park for a time.) What Tiffany doesn't know when she pulls up to her friend's fancy house is that Annie is married to Blake's friend and business partner. Blake, seeing her and the children, thinks she's there intentionally, trying to get more money out of him. They have an exchange, and Tiffany holds her own against him, ready to leave before even talking to Annie, too proud to be caught asking for more help in front of him. Perhaps my favorite part from all this was how Tiffany reacted to Blake as she's pulling away.


In this first 10-15% of the book, these two are at odds with one another, and I loved that, loved that, yes, Blake is a bit of an ass to her with his assumptions, but more importantly I loved that Tiffany didn't take his shit, that she stood proud and fired right back. I loved that dynamic and figured we'd continue to get that throughout the rest of the book. That's not really the case though. Within a chapter or so, Blake has softened to her and is offering her help, in his own way. I felt like the switch from heated exchanges to tepid head butting was far too abrupt. Don't get me wrong, I still loved them together, still loved their interactions through the rest of the book, but I just felt like it could have been more, could have been handled differently in order to make it all go more smoothly.



These two each have their own baggage. So much of it, in fact. Blake has always been the one running around trying to clean up his brother's shit, trying to protect his mother from more harm. He doesn't do emotions, he doesn't do connections, and he doesn't know how to handle his brother and all the trouble and pain that he leaves behind. Tiffany, of course, has the baggage from Phil's treatment of her, from her family cutting her off when she ran off with him all those years ago. She's fought like hell to survive the abuse, to make sure her children stay safe, and now she's working, slowly, to put her life back together, something that's hard to do when she she still doubts herself at time. Even more difficult to do when she's constantly looking over her shoulder, waiting for Phil to show up, to drag her back into hell once more.



Of course I'm simplifying their baggage here; if you know O'Keefe, you know that her books are always very complex and satisfying and she builds up the characters and everything that's happened to them in such a way that you get a good understand of why they act the way they do. And that's definitely the case here.



So Blake and Tiffany, they don't just fall into bed. It's a slow burn, in fact, and it's past the 50% mark before they have sex (the first scene isn't intercourse but rather him giving her an orgasm . . . in the backseat of his car). Honestly, I think that was the best fit for these two, so I'm not complaining. And it's O'Keefe -- when the sex comes (heh), it's hot and dirty. So again, no complaints.


Before that, when the tension is still just simmering between them, Tiffany starts to feel arousal and desire, something she hasn't known for so long. She knows that Phil's treatment warped her views on sex, but she wasn't sure how much so until she goes home one night and tries to masturbate. She realizes that she can't, that there's too much running through her mind, that she's become too disconnected from her own sexuality. It's a bit of a powerful scene, and one that I'm so glad was put in.



But here's what I would have loved to have seen: for her to try again later in the book, after she's started to reconnect with and take back her own sexual agency. I'm all for the pleasure she found with Blake, and I think that definitely helped her to heal sexually, but what I really wanted to see, sometime after they got together, was her rediscovering herself again. That would have added even more power to her story, would have shown how Tiffany went through so much hell and came out the other side stronger, in all ways, including sexually. And sexually should not be limited just to how she is with a partner, but how she is by herself. Again, it's a minor thing, and wasn't enough to truly bother me while reading, but it's something I thought about afterwards, some of that more that I wanted sprinkled throughout this already amazing book.


I did feel like the pacing at the end was a bit off; I kept looking at the percentage left and thinking "How is everything going to be wrapped up in mere pages?" It is, of course, wrapped up, don't worry! But I just felt like it could have been done in a much smoother, more thorough way, given a bit more time, a few more pages, perhaps. That being said, I did really enjoy the ending, of seeing these two finally work things out, of seeing him grovel, of seeing Tiffany tell her family off. The things I pointed out, they're all relatively small and I'm being picky; truly, I adored this book and had so many feels while reading it (as I always do with this series).


So there's sexy times, a bit of darkness/angst, complications and emotional backstories and character development -- what more could you want, right? It's classic O'Keefe and I loved every minute of it. It's different from the previous books -- and yet not. What I love about this series is that each book covers a different type of story, deals with different situations, but they all bring the emotions, the angst, and that bit of gritty darkness, along with the heat and HEA. I also love that while all three women -- Annie, Joan, and Tiffany -- are very different and have their own experiences, struggles, baggage, and stories to tell, they also have something in common, too: they're strong and brave and fight so hard for their new lives. I never tire of seeing that in a heroine.


4 1/2 STARS!

Tired of being the victim Tiffany is fighting for a new life for herself and her three kids., She's to the point of desperation when her estranged brother-in-law, Blake, says he just wants to help. But Blake's been nothing but trouble since she met him and then there some chemistry going on between them.

Blake is ready to make up for his sins and wants to help Tiffany and her kids. But the more he is around Tiffany, the more he wants her. Will things go from bad to worse?

This is the next installment of Everything I left Unsaid and it’s just as intriguing of a story as all the others! At one time I had pictured this author as someone who wrote sweet, sentimental novels for women with HEA written all over them. Then she published this series and blew that perception to pieces! It’s gritty, it’s heart breaking, and it’s a hot love story all in one. She had me from the beginning and I doubt that I will ever stop waiting for the next one to be written.

Blake Edwards has met his sister in law before and when she took money from him, he knew she was just like all the other women in his life – not to be trusted ever because all they wanted was his money. Tiffany Edwards had made the mistake of thinking Phil Edwards was someone she could love until he started abusing her and abandoned her. She and her three kids ended up in a crappy trailer park trying to escape his abuse and stay alive. Through a series of strange connections, a former neighbor meets and falls in love with Blake’s business partner. She knows that Tiffany is a good person and tries to convince Blake that she is not out to get him.

When Tiffany shows up at Blake’s house, all he wants to do is make her go away. He doesn’t need or want a connection to his worthless brother and if his mother finds out she has grandkids, she will be all over it. But fate has decided that Blake is wrong and puts her in their lives.

He’s not supposed to be attracted to her, she’s his sister in law. That ends up making him even more determined to figure out a way to get past it. They have a many challenges to face but in the end, this gritty novel becomes a sweet love story and we get that HEA that we thought could never happen!

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. No compensation was promised or received for the review.

I had read Annie's story, so I was excited when I saw this book come out. It was really interesting to get to know Tiffany in a different way. And although at times I wanted to shake her, and didn't agree with her thoughts or decisions, I felt like I understood the why, and could empathize with her. Good characters and a good story.

This is the fourth book in Molly O’Keefe’s series “Everything I Left Unsaid.” I hadn’t read any of the earlier books but that didn’t interfere with enjoying the story. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I’m looking to read the earlier books. In this story, the heroine Tiffany is learning to deal with the mistakes she made as a young woman, namely getting pregnant her first year in college and marrying Phil, the father, who turned out to be an abusive jerk. Now she’s stuck living in a dismal trailer with three small children. She finally reaches out to Phil’s wealthy brother, Blake. Blake is so suspicious of everyone after having lived a life trying to clean up Phil’s messes. He doesn’t want anything to do with his brother’s supposed trailer-trash wife and kids. He pays her to stay away from him and his mother.

Later, when she’s hit rock bottom, they meet again and Blake realizes how much he misjudged Tiffany. And, of course, they fall for each other. But these are two damaged people who don’t have any faith in themselves. They both think that they’re not worth an honest relationship, just a sexual relationship.

The alternating narratives let the reader in on the insecurities of both Tiffany and Blake. It’s very well written and I couldn’t put the book down. I wanted to find out how they could work out their difficulties and come to accept that they deserved better than they expected.

I was given a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a DNF for me...I was interested in the premise, but the execution of this one didn't really work for me. I loved the estranged brother in law idea, the idea that love conquers all...I just unfortunately didn't buy into it for Blake...I never quite believed his character.

I appreciate the opportunity and look forward to the next title!
Laura

3.5*

Two broken people coming together. It took a little while, people are stubborn! Blake could be a bit of a cold fish but I warmed to him. The fact that Tiffany was the soon to be ex-wife of Blake's loser brother added another level of complexity. Tiffany was strong, took no sh*t at the end and was a great mother to her children

I would have liked an epilogue as the ending was abrupt - would love to have seen more of their HEA.

Damn....I didn't think Molly O'Keefe could make Blake a good guy, but she did.

Blake Edwards has spent his life cleaning up his brother Phil's messes. When Blake finds out that Phil actually has a wife and supposed kids he goes to confront her and offers to pay her off to never hear from her again. Blake's mom has been through enough because of Phil, and she doesn't need some white trash making her life worse. A year later when Blake runs into Tiffany at Dylan and Annie's place he is not happy. What he doesn't realize at first is that Tiffany is running because of Phil. After Tiff leaves, Blake has a bad feeling and goes to find her. When he realize that she is not the white trash he thought she was, he feels guilty and wants to help her and "fix" another of Phil's messes.

Tiffany is scared of Phil because of the abuse he has inflicted on her in the past. She has finally decided this has to stop and she wants to serve Phil divorce papers. Blake wants to help her since he wasn't so helpful a year ago. Tiffany reluctantly accepts his help. Their time together sparks an interest that Tiffany hasn't felt in a long time. I loved how Blake was able to help her find her O again! ;)

Slowly Tiffany and Blake had to relearn how to trust someone and also how to stand up to Phil. I loved their final confrontation with Phil! It was awesome! I also loved how Tiffany and Blake slowly realized their commitment to each other. For two people to have such underlying issues, it would have been wrong to quickly be together. It was interesting in the beginning when they were just using each other, but then I loved when it shifted into something more. I just adored how Blake was with Tiffany's kids. Those kids were just adorable. I also really enjoyed the interaction with Margaret and the rest of their family.

Overall, this was a wonderful and surprising story. I actually ended up really liking Blake! I'm sad to see this series end....great 5 star series with each book!

Tiffany and Blake meet under less than ideal circumstances. She is at rock bottom and he is sick and tired of cleaning up his brother's messes. He offers her some cash to go away forever and she ups the ante, asks for more, and then sets about changing her life and that of her 3 children. Tiffany was really hard to like at points of this book. Really. hard. to. like. She claimed to own her mistakes but then blames others for not supporting her. She got herself into a situation that was going to be difficult under the best of circumstances to climb out of and then decided maybe she should have made different decisions along the way. Blake was used to using his money to get him out of situations and keep people an arm's length away. Tiffany and Blake were a disaster in the making. They each felt unworthy of happiness and used gorilla tactics against the other to keep the upper hand. I was able to empathize with Tiffany but felt more empathy for Blake. He cleaned up the messes of his family and others and didn't let people see how much it cost him. He took the hits and stood tall to protect those he felt needed it. Tiffany went so far as to try and keep him and his mother from her children, even though they had a right to step in. I got, in an abstract way, what she was doing but found difficulty reconciling her need to protect herself and using her children as shields. It is the sign of a good author to be able to keep me reading a book with a character that I did not care for. Both were difficult to understand at times and, though they both acknowledged their shortcomings, each one tried to blame the other at times for the predicament they found themselves in. Overall it was a good book and I did enjoy the growth both Tiffany and Blake showed at the end. I was glad to receive an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have LOVED this series, and while this book doesn't have to be read with the others, it would be helpful as to who all the characters are. Tiffany hasn't made the best life choices, but she didn't set out to marry an abusive man. She's a good mom, looking out for her children and keeping her husband away. When life first brings Blake into her world, she does what she needs to do to help her and the kids. She's a strong woman who has had to make difficult decisions and who is fighting to stay alive. Blake is a mysterious, hard man that has been shaped that way due to his past with his family. He protects what's his and looks out for his sister and mother. However, he is not what everyone perceives him as and Tiffany has a way of breaking down his walls.

Their journey is raw, gritty and has a way of keeping the reader enraptured in their lives. It's not princes and fairy tales but anger, confusion, passion, love, hate and so much more! It's about getting to know someone past what their situation appears, setting aside boundaries and limitations and being present in the here and now. And the FEELS in this story!! For both the characters and myself, it was strong! They fought was was between them, but eventually couldn't deny it anymore. It was great finally getting Dylan's story and watching the two of them fight the inevitable. I didn't want this book to be over, yet I couldn't put it down! Highly recommend this read! Go one-click your copy!

Wait For It!!!!!

Let me start this review by starting this was my first introduction to author M. O'Keefe. So hopefully like any good reviewer I researched the author and also looked for previously published books in this series. "Burn Down The Night" was written first and both books absolutely stand on their own I'm glad I picked BDTN and read it first. The author has written these books in dual POV and the writing flows effortlessly while pulling you in page after page.

Blake and Tiffany are two broken people. They have been tortured and hurt by the same man. Blakes brother, Tiffany's husband and the father of her three children. These two people are so use to surviving the hurts caused by Phil and protecting the people they love that it will take coming together to fight the wall put up from so many years of pain. Blake and Tiffany two lost souls can they put past hurts and misunderstandings aside to help each other. Blake a very wealthy man thinks money can fix anything. Tiffany doesn't want any thing from the man who paid her to go away. The strength and vulnerability and attraction these two share in palpable and will leave you hoping they come crashing together. Broken down walls of mistrust and a man that's willing to work for his place in Tiffany's family of four to show them not all men are cruel.

How will they fight to be happy?
Can the cycle of abuse be broken?
Will they open their hearts?

3.75 stars!

“Whatever this is…this impetus you have to help me right now, I know it’s a lie. You’re not kind, Blake, and I’ve had more than enough lies in my life. I don’t want any more.”



Even though I have enjoyed the majority of this series, I shamefully did not really recall the main characters in this installment. Luckily we got a bit of a reminder at the beginning, and I honestly believe this book can be read as a standalone novel.

Wait For It is about a woman named Tiffany, who has three kids and an abusive husband. She had a very bad past encounter with her brother in law Blake, and now a year later when she needs help he’s the one who wants to step in. But Tiffany doesn’t trust easily, especially the man who paid her off and treated her like trash. It’s up to Blake to figure out a way to help Tiffany and do the right thing.



“Listen to me,” he said. “I will never hurt you or touch you. I won’t put my hands on you unless you ask me. Beg me.” I gasped and fell back against the door, strength leaving my legs. “And I want you to beg me,” he said, still closer. “And I think someday you will.”

I found the best part about this book was the main characters and how flawed yet beautiful they both were. Both very much wanted someone to see through their hard exterior, and to be loved for who they truly were within. Granted, it took them both a while, because both of them had spent so many years building protective walls around their hearts.

O’Keefe delivers an intense, complicated romance filled with sensitive characters trying to change their lives for the better. You can’t help but root for this couple, they’ve dealt with so much crap in their lives and they deserve the best.

If you haven’t picked up a book in this series yet, make sure to buy this one!

“She was the miracle I was trying to hold on to.”

ARC provided by publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

4 1/2 Stars! Tiffany is a 26 year single mother of 3. Her ex-husband has abused her and ignored their 3 kids. Blake is her ex's brother and when he learns about her and the kids, he thinks she is like her ex-husband, so he pays her $20,000 to stay away from him and his mother. She accepts the money so she can provide food and shelter for her children ... something her ex never did. A year later, her ex finds them and destroys her apartment, as the kids and her are escaping out a window. When she shows up at her friend's house (Annie & Dylan), there is a Christmas party going on and guess who is there ... Blake! (As Blake and Dylan are business partners.) When Tiffany storms away stating that she doesn't need his help, Blake decides to follow her to see the damage his brother has caused this time. When Blake realizes that Tiffany is nothing like he originally thought, he becomes protective of her and her kids. This story is full of laughs, cute kids, and romance with some steam! Another great book from Ms O'Keefe.

I received an ARC copy courtesy of Random House - Loveswept through NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have yet to read a book by Molly O'Keefe that doesn't completely get me in the feels whether under her full name or with the M. O'Keefe moniker. I've read all of this series, and every one is a winner.

In Wait For It, we get Blake and Tiffany's story. We've met them both in previous books, and we see Dylan and Annie again too (with a brief cameo from Joan and a Max sighting). I love it when related books tie together like this without the secondary characters pulling the focus from the main couple.

O'Keefe excels at portraying complex, layered characters with realistic conflicts. She makes you feel what the characters are feeling so that you believe the motivations for some of the crappy things they do. No matter how they seem on the surface, her main characters are always sympathetic. That takes real skill.

Blake isn't sentimental when it comes to the people in his life, but he is very protective and doesn't mind being an a-hole when necessary. That's the role he's carved out for himself with his mom, sister, partner. He gets things done. He compartmentalizes things. He justifies it by telling himself it's to protect others, but it's just as much to armor himself against the hurt of genuine connection.

Tiffany displays all the hallmarks of a longtime abuse victim: suspicion, guilt, cynicism, fear. But she also has an inner strength and a sense of hope that keep her thoughts from being unrelentingly dark. She lives for her kids--they're her reason for being, and she'll do anything to protect them, from both physical and emotional harm. Being a single mom isn't easy, but she does what it takes to make it work, cobbling together a support system without leaving herself any more vulnerable than necessary.

Blake and Tiffany's story actually started in an earlier book, but that scene is replayed here for anyone who missed it. As with the other O'Keefe books I've read, this one is a slow burn on the emotional front while blazing hot and fast with the physical side. She does a superb job of balancing this dichotomy and making the incremental progress of the relationship believable. All in all, it results in a very satisfying journey.

This author has a magical touch when it comes to healing a broken soul. You can feel the anger and despair from the depths of your gut. You can feel the healing from the words she crafts about a single touch, a soul searching look, a hot hook-up that is so much more than that.

How do you begin to craft a book that is rich with raw emotion and passion? How can you grasp the right words to describe something that is missing in your life that you cannot identify until you see it looking back at you? Only M. O’Keefe can answer that and answer it she does in this blistering book.

Loaded with all things we fear about ourselves and other people, two broken people find each other in ways that are unexpected and yet, so right. Strength and power comes from many aspects in our life and this amazing book reminds us that there is good in others and in ourselves too. We are all worthy of love.