What struck me about this book was how I found myself cheering for third party characters. Skye and Owen became the characters I cared most for because I found both of the leads (by turn) horrible.

Really good book! Loved how it turned out. Super enjoyable.

A modern, fiction story. The book centres around the 15 year relationship between Della and Jake. Sometimes as friends, lovers, husband and wife and apart. What drove me on to finish the book, was to find out how the relationship would end, as quickly as possible! Not in a good way!

I loved this book! Did not think I was going to like it as much as I did.

I keep stumbling with books set in New England for some reason, which I am loving, especially this one that is set in RI. I loved Della and Jake's story, I did want to shake Della sometimes, because I felt that she was being selfish, but as the story developed I could see her point.

I loved the way that the author presented each point of view. I will definitely read this author again.

This book had a great premise but the execution fell short,the dialogue at times resonated with a fourth grade level diction and typos abounded.It was a difficult read for the first 75% of the book and took me longer hours to complete, only because I needed to be able to give an honest,fully informed review.I have to say that the last 25% of the book almost redeemed it, as the story line got more interesting and encouraged me to keep reading.I have never really appreciated books that do not present the timelines chronologically, as it makes it more complex and difficult to follow the chain of events.I believe in forgiveness and learning from our mistakes, so the ending was a bit disappointing when the heroine once again breaks the heart of the guy that was truly worthy of her.Review provided courtesy of Netgalley.

Ahhhh, the pain of unrequited love, a third chance romance, a hero with his head up his arse, and a case of "be careful what you wish for".

Our hero and heroine have been friends since high school, and she has loved him, but for whatever reason, though we later learn he always loved her too, he never acted on it. So she was relegated to the friend zone, and she was there for him in every aspect of his life for years. She helped him keep his life (and his marriage) together, and he selfishly took that from her. He needed her and she willing gave whatever she could to continue to be in his life.

His marriage falls apart, he gets his head out of his ass, and they start a life together. But, he is a rising music star, and fame comes his way. She doesn't want to stand in the way of his dreams, he goes down the rabbit hole or stardom, and suddenly she is forced into a life she never wanted for either of them. And they drift apart, headed for disaster.

The storyline here was awesome. It had everything I like in my books. The style of writing, however, threw me off, and it would jarringly hit my in the face every now and then. This writer writes in present tense, but kind of seems to mix past tense and present tense. I won't pretend to be an English major and know the difference between all the different styles...I just know it seemed awkward to me...but don't let that stop you from reading this great story!!!

Anyone who has experience unrequited love knows how difficult it is to move on.

That's an underlying premise in this story.

Della has been in love with Jake for decades. She has a lifestyle many might envy. And, while she knows she and Jake can only be friends as he's married, it is a 'sacrifice' she's willing to make so that he can be in her life.

Then everything shifts when Jake and his wife split. Suddenly, there is an opportunity and Della decides to take action.

Their love is one of sparks and intense need for the other. But, then Jake's life continues to change and he is catapulted into stardom.

What ensues is their journey to see if their relationship can be sustained or if they have made it into a fantasy that is doomed.

While this book was entertaining, I also appreciated the deeper level of examining relationships and how choices we make can have devastating effects.

Overall I enjoyed the book. 4/5 stars. I would recommend it. Thank you for my netgalley copy. The beginning was a bit hard to get past but then the book improved. At times you liked and were annoyed with the two main characters but in the end it worked out. The characters were well written.

Meh.

That's the only way to describe this. For some reason, I was under the impression that this was going to be some great literary fiction, but instead was stuck in an insipid plot with confusing tense usage and two a-holes as the 'lead' characters.

There was many ways that this story could have been written but divorce, baby, cancer, marriage, fame, infidelity, etc etc etc etc all in 300 pages is a BIT much.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the book in exchange for this review.

Like some other viewers, I found the present tense writing jarring. I still hadn't adjusted to it by the time I'd reached the end of the book.

This story was at times difficult to read, because it is so heartbreaking. But it is engaging and relatable enough that you want to persevere to find out how it will end. I think it was supposed to have a happy ending, but I was just left with a melancholy sense of a life wasted. The period of time that the book spans draws out the saga to the point where I can't feel happy at the end.

I have given the book 4 stars because of the detail and characterisation that Jayne Conway has invested into her story. Without it, it could have been a shallow and anti-feminist romance novel. The level of detail justifies the decisions that the main characters make, providing important shades of grey in a too-often black-and-white genre.

The book seems like it's trying too hard. For lack of a better phrase, it was too much of a girl. If the author wanted to get Dellas thoughts across then write in first person. The third person narrative with deep dives into the characters conscious with minute analysis was too much. Women do tend to over analyze situations and this book was that one friend who kept repeating her analysis on that one boyfriend over and over again.

I wanted to like this book because I am Della. I have the best friend from college that I've been in love with for years. I'm 34, good career, well educated, tight circle of friends but I couldn't love Della even though we're the same in so many ways. The back and forth in time jumps of memories and present day convoluted the plot and made it confusing to keep up with. For the first 30% of the book, I thought I was reading to the past but confusing with the present, only to realize it's the past again. Maybe make the prolog and actual prolog of that first night together from his view instead of some mundane met gala event that made no sense and made the reader think of Della as a bipolar psychotic.

The characterization of the minor characters was also overly cartoonish. The mob member with the fergetabtit accent and the overly flamboyant gays, and psychotic real housewives princess with powerful daddy complexes were over the top. Yes those people exist in real life but for all of them to converge around this one person is unbelievable.

Plot could be great but it became a convoluted mess that tries too hard for the reader to like it.

I found this book too much of a maudlin, unrealistic romance novel for me to like. I found it very trite, the great love between Della and Jake, the fame, the heartbreak and the incredibly sappy ending.
Very disappointing.

I am so torn about this book. The present tense perspective and jumps from the present to the past without giving the reader the context of time were really irritating. Like it lost a star because of that irritating. I don't understand why authors choose to write in present tense, it is grammatically unpleasant. Della and Jacob were both kind of assholes too. I didn't really like Jacob that much as a romantic interest, his selfishness was extremely off-putting.

That being said, the story itself was very engrossing. I literally couldn't put it down. I'm not sure I actually enjoyed it but it was very entertaining. So mad props for the story telling but seriously present tense massively sucks.

I didn't actually finish this one. I stopped reading around 37% I just couldn't get through this one. I wanted to like it, but I felt like Della could do so much better. I think I just got annoyed with this one. I may finish it some day, but it wasn't my favorite from what I read...

Also, it was a little confusing going back and forth with the time, so having indicators of when the scenes are taking place would make the book make more sense.

I really enjoyed this book. Jayne takes the reader on a romance adventure that spans several years with the two main characters. The ending is fairly predictable but the way the book weaves to get there is unique and refreshing. One suggestion would be to add months or years -- sometimes the time shifts could get confusing. Otherwise, nice job!

Very well written, funny and difficult to put it down. I didn't like Jake, such a difficult and selfish character. I was mad at him most of the time, the way he was so cold to Della, the infidelities made me feel like sad and at the same time pretty mad at Della. I couldn't understand why she was still in love with him.
Thank you so much for the arc

I absolutely love Jayne's style of writing! She covers everything I want and need in a romance book...love, angst, and character development. She is definitely on my list of authors that I will automatically buy the book when a new one comes out!! And she definitely didn't disappoint with Say Something. Make sure you have a Kleenex or two when you read this story about unrequited love!

3.5/5. This book leaves me feeling rather ambivalent. On the one hand, the writing is very good, drawing me in and making me feel the joy and pain and the full roller-coaster ride that the characters experienced. But ah, the frustrations I had towards Jake, who just constantly leeched off Della emotionally and gave her very little in return. He was self-absorbed throughout the book, never really developed much personal growth along the way, except we are supposed to believe, right towards the end, after 2 damn years of estrangement from Della and his daughter Skye. And Della, she just got sucked right back in each time, and once again towards the end, when she finally had a chance of happiness with the very loving Owen, she chose the wrong path when two roads diverged. Della put it best, when she said:

If mind-fuckery were a sport, Jacob Wheeler was a gold-medal champion.

He needed her to constantly rescue and boost him up, regardless that by doing so, he was trampling on and climbing all over her to get his air. And when she finally needed rescuing, he ran away to be rich and famous, justifying that she was in the hands of good friends and loved ones. And the old excuse of being lonely, to justify his betrayal(?s) of her!

Talking about betrayal, there was a lot of infidelities in this book, which left me feeling a bit icky. Yes, they have this grand love and all, but their first time together was while he was married , and they proceeded to lie to Melanie about it afterwards. And then there's poor Owen, who got screwed over a few times by their screwing.

Her friends were great, especially Oskar, the exuberant and dramatic finger-clicking OTT bestie, who was always there to pick up the pieces of her heart and glue them back together like a mosaic. But Della, Della could be less of a doormat, and I cannot help but feel that she wasted the best years and the remaining years of her life for a very undeserving guy, who just did not grovel enough. In fact, I'm not sure any amount of grovelling will make up for his emotionally neglectful and oblivious treatment of her throughout the years.

The plot did hop around a fair bit, rather abrupt at times, taking me a few sentences to realise where along the timeline we have moved to. But, I shed tears. Yes, the author managed to move me despite me not caring about one half of the protagonists. So for that, I'll round it up to a 4 stars.