Member Reviews
Kennedy is still mourning the loss of her one true love, while Aaron still feels the guilt of betraying his one-time best friend. Could a nudge from beyond help them find happiness? A sweet and thoughtful romance that will make you believe in happily ever afters again.
Honoring Jared's wishes comes with a small town helping with closure and possibilities.
I really enjoyed this book! Kennedy is coming to her dead boyfriends hometown to scatter his ashes in a place dear to him. She ends up meeting Aaron who was Jared's best friend until they had a falling out. Neither expected to be attracted to each other & both fought the attraction.
These characters are so lovable & well developed. Both Aaron & Kennedy feel guilty about their attraction & what Jared would think about it. Jared's sister is a great supporting character that tries to get them to realize Jared would want them to be happy. The writer really manages to draw you into the story & keep you involved. There are some emotional scenes where the writer actually had me crying. I would really recommend this book to readers that love HEAs!
I was expecting more from this book based on the small blurb that I read on Netgalley. I liked the premise of the book, and I liked the main characters, but I felt like everything seemed to move too quickly and that things just wrapped up too easily. Hearing that the main character's significant other had passed away had led me to believe that it would be sad and that I might get misty eyed or cry. Not the case. It was somewhat sad, but I guess I didn't feel that the relationship with her deceased partner was significant enough. I would be interested to read more by this author though.
This is not one of Cassie Mae's better books, but entertaining nonetheless. Kennedy, having lost her true love to Cancer a year ago wants to spread Jared's ashes in the water near his home town, where she meets his boyhood best friend. A bit too emotional and teary for my taste.
So this book, while I get the title and why it's named that, there really wasn't much "pillowtalk" what there was were a LOT of tears. Oh holy h3ll. I haven't cried this much since reading one of Colleen Hoover's books. But it was mostly all good crying, I could FEEL Kennedy's pain, sorrow, confusion. But I think Aaron broke me harder if possible.
I didn't get the "bad boy/manwhore" vibe from him. He was only loving and sweet. Oh so sweet. The best thing a book can leave you with is wanting more and that is exactly what I wanted when I finished. I wanted another and another and another epilogue. I wanted more chapters, I wanted more of their sweet "pillowtalk".
Pillow Talk talks about the pain of mourning, the pain of betrayal, the grief, the guilty feeling, and the rediscovery of love. It shows in a sweet and tender way how to overcome the sadness of loss, how to find ways to forgive itself and how impossible it is to be happy alone.
I loved Kennedy's story too much. She lost the great love of her life a year ago and after much insistence of her sister-in-law, returns to his hometown to throw his ashes and pay homage to the beloved. Even reluctantly, she faces the challenge of let him go and discovers she's stronger than she looks.
Narrated in third person from the perspective of each protagonist, little by little I was glimpsing the scenery of how it was the death of Jared and of how Kennedy realized that she still had space in her heart for a new love. With the help of new and old friends, she recalls good moments from her past with Jared while trying to move on.
The plot is nothing complicated, it does not have excessive drama even with the theme of death surrounding each scene, everything is very simple and delicious since the arrival of Kennedy until the perception that life continues it course, the nature and the signs where they notice the presence of Jared every moment they are together.
With very human characters and a slight touch of humor (highlight here for the sister of Jared, Chelsea that is all joy and noisy in person), the story was holding me and I was falling in love and cheering for the couple, Romantic and full of love.
Highly recommended.
5/5 stars
Kisses, Myl
I love Cassie Mae. She's by far, one of my most favorite authors in the world. I adore her young and new adult romances so much, I could reread them every single day. I love her nerdy way, and gladly, Pillowtalk contained a lot of nerdy phrases too, but apart from that, I had a really difficult time getting into the book. Her All About Love series is written for adult readers as well, but... I don't know. Maybe it's because reading adult things written by her is new to me, but I just couldn't get into Pillowtalk as much as I hoped.
The cover might make you think this is some streamy work of fiction, but it's actually not. It's more about past friendships, loss and how we deal with it. How to say goodbye. Cassie captured these themes beautifully, it was more the characters that I couldn't relate to. Mainly Kennedy. And that's probably because I never had to deal with a loss like that. I hope no one ever has to. It's hard. So, I can still understand why she acted the way she did and writing this down now makes me realize, I have been a bit harsh toward her, and it affected my rating. But that's the way it is.
I would have liked to read more about Kennedy and Chelsea. They never seemed to talk about Jared at all, probably because a conversation like that would rip open scarred wounds, I get that. But still... Whenever they were around each other, it was like something was missing. I'm glad Kennedy still talked about Jared when she was with Aaron - the guy she is falling for during the story. And yes - Cassie didn't fail to create another swoon-worthy man. Whew!
Women can be so difficult. Kennedy's no expection. Every so often, I wanted to take the urn away, make her see that holding on to the past will only cause more heartache than she's already dealing with. But that's the great thing about stories - the characters develop on their own and when they finally see the things as crystal clear as the reader does, you want to give them some kind of comfort. However, Kennedy doesn't need the reader's comfort. She's got Aaron - the reason readers are jealous at her, haha. He is like a superhero, appearing at the right times, saying the right things. Of course, he's got demons on his own, but unlike women, he knows when to cave in.
Moving on from a loss like Kennedy's is always such a tough question, especially when it comes to books. Everyone has got a different opinion on that one, but reading Kennedy and Aaron's story, you can't help but wanting them to get together. Some readers might say it's wrong. Some might say it's against what she promised Jared. And maybe what makes this book so real is that this question is always dividing the minds. Still, I liked how Cassie Mae dealt with the topic and how she created a great romance, one that seemed very real.
3.5 Stars
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
I really liked the story of Kennedy and Aaron. Kennedy just didn't know how to let go of the past but keep the memories. Aaron was burned by previous events that hurt him far deeper than he believed. Yet Kennedy and Aaron are linked because they both loved Jared. Aaron and Jared never repaired there best-friend relationship and it was all over a woman.
Kennedy is fighting her feelings for Jared because she believes she shouldn't have another chance at love. She is having a hard time dealing with her loss. Still talking to Jared's ashes daily in a ritual that she missed most of all. Pillow talk. When sparks ignite from a simple touch she doesn't know what to do. She feels she is betraying Jared but wants the possibility of more with Aaron.
This book covers loss, regret, passion, angst, love/hate, forgiveness, and moving on. It is well written and you get to bond with the characters. The story pulls at your heart strings.
I’m running out of ways to say I love CM’s writing! It just doesn’t get old for me. Her stories have such originality and this one was no different. And the cover is lovely too.
She nailed both characters feelings of guilt and attraction. The warring emotions took me on a roller coaster ride that I’m still feeling the high from. I loved how Kennedy stepped outside her comfort zone with Aaron. Especially when they didn’t have the answers to why they were feeling this way. They accepted the not knowing and just went with it. They both had some defining moments that I can’t share because of spoilers but suffice it to say, it was beautiful. Aaron seemed to really struggle with his worthiness of receiving love and happiness. I identified with that so hard! (Really who doesn’t at some point in their lives) But I kinda wanted to strangle him when he tried to ignore or suppress his feelings.
The whole story had an undercurrent of meant to be or an outside force in play. And while I struggle with believing those kinds of situations happen, it was cute none the less. I loved how she ended the story. The sex scenes were very juicy and I’d love to see more of that from CM. I think she could do well in this genre.
I received this e-book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest/unbiased opinion.
Sweet story about how two people can help each other through their grief.
This was a tough one for me. I liked the love story between Kennedy and Aaron, but I was so torn because the love Kennedy had for her late boyfriend Jared was so strong and real. It was hard for both her and me as a reader to move on. I know that Kennedy should move on and be happy again, but I teared up at the fact she could not part with Jared's ashes and that she brought them with her everywhere.....