REVIEW - Bliss by Maven West:

Title: Bliss

Author: Maven West

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publication Date: July 2013

Format: Ebook and Paperback

Copy Provided by: Author

My Goodreads Review Link

Book Blurb:

Falling in love and then losing the most important person in your life…
Was it fate? For three years Morgan was married to the love of her life, Eric. A perfect marriage, a perfect friendship everything she could want, everything she needed. But when Eric dies in a car accident, everything she ever wanted is taken on that same fateful day.
And then she meets Carter Sterling, he’s your typical player. And there is one serious problem—Carter is seeing her friend, Ana.

Morgan is desperately searching for someone to fill the emptiness inside of her. But getting involved with Carter or anyone may not be what she needs. But Carter has his own plans, and Morgan isn’t part of it. All she wants is to feel that way again…

Warning: Contains explicit situations and language.

Reviewers Note: Bliss is a Romance written by Maven West. I read this as a R2R (Read to Review) with Fifty Shades Support Group at Goodreads. As always, a special thank you to the mods and author for allowing me to participate.

2 Somber Stars!
Lots of Potential, But Just Not For Me...

The Review:
This was a short story of about 110 pages. Bliss had A LOT of potential. There was a great deal of angsty material to pull from but the execution just didn’t hold up for me.

Morgan lost her husband, the man she considered her soulmate, nine months ago in a car crash. She’s existing day to day, trying not to subcomb to the darkness that threatens to envelop her. She can’t move forward as she’s stuck in the past, grieving over a man so perfect, no one can compare. I actually liked Morgan to a point. Her grief was real and I could feel it as she struggled day to day. She’s having a pseudo relationship with her grief counselor, which I found kind of tacky on his part, and she’s going through the motions of life, but the emotions are nonexistent for her. She can’t feel anything past her sorrow.

Her best friend, Ana, who seems to annoy her and seems to be very self centered, likes to take her out clubbing and hook up with guys. She introduces Morgan to her new boyfriend, Carter, and Morgan can’t help but compare him to her late husband with his rock star hair, his incredible good looks and his British heritage.

Carter is the handsome and sexy bad boy whose troubled past keeps him from committing and loving. He thinks love is a sham and relationships aren’t worth the time invested. He hooks up with Ana to try and use her father's connections to propel his acting career all the while flirting with Morgan who, for the first time in a long time, feels some sort of connection with another man.

All the elements are there for a great story but for me, it felt rushed, the character actions and reasoning's made little sense, the conflicts came together to easily and the plot was a bit shallow. There’s also a twist with the characters that came out of nowhere and it felt it was only added to serve the purpose of allowing the mains to hook up without guilt or shame. Things just came together to easily for my taste. I could definitely feel sympathy for Morgan and her circumstances, but her disregard for her friend, before the big reveal, was a bit on the low side. Carter just made me furious with his blatant disregard for anyone’s feelings except himself. It wasn’t until the end that I felt a bit of respect for him but the ending was so rushed, the feeling was fleeting.

The Wrap Up:
I think with a bit more story, more time with each character, perhaps some emotional flashbacks of Eric and Morgan and a good editor (because there were some serious editing mistakes), this story would have been a great read instead of just an ok read. I wanted to like it, had the potential to love it but it all just left me disappointed.

....