Jaime Clevenger

Kate Owens has kept her attraction to her best friend Mo Calloway a carefully guarded secret for years. But she's worried that Mo is beginning to suspect her feelings. It's harder than ever to pretend there's nothing going on when a reservation mistake on a trip to Mexico leads to Kate sharing Mo's bed for five long nights. One fateful vacation could change everything.

All the Reasons I Need

KADY BURNS

I wanted to throw my book at the main characters in this book. It was basically the same conversation repeated 3 or 4 times. I did appreciate having a BIPOC lead character though.

Jude Silberfeld

First things first: I love the friendship between Kate, Mo and Julia. I love how Mo and Kate were there all the way for Julia in Three Reasons to Say Yes and how Julia’s there for them both in this one.

Having recently come out as bisexual, Kate is doing her best not to let what she sees as a crush on her best friend Mo ruin their friendship. The thing is, it’s not a crush, she’s been attracted to Mo from day one, when they became roomates at college sixteen years ago, but wasn’t ready to act on it for the longest time. She knows Mo loves her but she’s not sure it goes deeper than friendship, and even if it did, she doesn’t want to foist her issues on her.

The issues Kate was mentioned as having in book 1 are at the center of All the Reasons I Need. She’s facing them in the bravest way, and it made me feel so proud of her (I know she’s a fictional character, so what). Sure, she can be annoying, not being able to make up her mind, but she’s got reasons, which can’t be said for all lesfic characters acting the same way.

This book is much darker than the previous one, which was more about romance and families (remember the twins? they’re baaaaack). This is about trust, and faith in a way. Trusting the one you love to still love you once they know all your secrets, trusting yourself with that love, having faith in what you can achieve and what you deserve.

It’s not a light read but Clevenger manages to still keep it sweet, and sexy. Once again, the characters she creates have depth and layers, and the angst they go through – and make the reader go through – is coherent and justified.

This can probably be read as a standalone but I would recommend reading Three Reasons to Say Yes first, as much for Julia and Reed’s story as for the substantial glimpses into Mo and Kate’s relationship so far.

I received a free copy from the publisher for an honest review.

Megan Cooper

After reading Three Reasons to Say Yes I was pretty sure that there was going to be a follow on book for Mo and Kate. The two characters and their complex relationship were introduced and woven into the first book; but, things were left decidedly unresolved (for them). It was actually a nice way to set things up as Mo and Kate were such strong secondary characters in the first book, they are pretty well established and developed by the time that All the Reasons I Need hit the virtual book stand. I would strongly recommend reading the first book as it lays the groundwork for Mo and Kate and also because it was a great book in its own right.

This is a friends to lovers romance that is sixteen years in the making – so expect a slow burn. Spending a week sharing a resort room (with only one bed) isn’t going to be enough to resolve a decade and a half of unrequited love (on both Kate and Mo’s part). We start off the story with another trip to paradise – Mexico this time, basically picking up from the end of Three Reasons to Say Yes. Although Julia and Reed (and the Tasmanian Devil twins) are in the book, they are relegated to secondary characters who are there more as the bastions of rationale thinking. Although I really like Julia and Reed – they are obviously happy and we really don’t need to revisit how happy they are together. This book is all about Kate and Mo.

The story is told in third person POV from Kate’s perspective so you gain a tremendous amount of insight into a rather complex character. Mo’s is developed primarily through Kate’s viewpoint, with her own actions and words providing a clearer picture of her motivations. There’s a bit of flashbacks to fill in some gaps in Mo and Kate’s relationship that weren’t covered in the last book and provide a larger context of the friendship between Julia, Kate and Mo.

The tension that is hinted at during Three Reasons to Say Yes becomes the focal point of this book – in the first book there’s a strong undercurrent of attraction and mixed messages between Kate and Mo. Kate also comes out in Three Reasons to Say Yes, which just exacerbates the unspoken issues between the two.

This is a character driven romance – Kate has a lot of internal conflict as she struggles to define herself. The secrets she has kept from Mo and Julia have eaten away at her self-confidence and self-esteem and has created a seemingly inescapable cycle of never thinking she’s good enough or that anyone will want her for who she is, but has to fit other’s expectations. She spends most of the book pushing Mo away despite the deep emotions she feels for her friend – she struggles with what is right for Mo versus what is right for her.

Mo, for her part, is just as much to blame. She’s obviously head over heels in love with Kate but won’t take the chance. She seems to convince herself that she should move on, and not wait for Kate to come to her senses, but never really does. Instead she bounces from relationship to relationship with women who are obviously not good for her and self-sabotages any relationship before it can succeed.

At points I found myself rolling my eyes at Kate and Mo – they have spent the last sixteen dancing around each other, both too cautious, unsure or afraid to upset their friendship by admitting to the rather obvious deep feelings. Never in my life have I wanted two characters to get blindingly drunk, screw and get on with it already. Like Nike says – Just Do It!

There’s a lot more angst and baggage in this book and is definitely a more introspective story. There’s a number of issues being dealt with in this book (mostly by Kate) and they are not exploited or overwrought – Clevenger deftly weaves them in as part of the overall story and the impacts that they have had on the characters. If you aren’t a fan of slow burn type romance that is driven by lack of communication and unspoken longing/love, this may not be the best book for you.

Clevenger does do a great job with the characters and it’s a strong follow up, that isn’t a formulaic repeat, to Three Reasons to Say Yes.

I can easily seeing a third installment in the Paradise Series focusing on Terri, an early on potential love interest for Kate who developed into a strong supporting character in the early part of the book.

Recommended

All the Reasons I Need

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