Truly Wanted by J.J. Hale is a friends to lovers romance about overcoming your fear to have the happiness you want and need.
When you love someone so much you’re terrified to lose them, how do you find the courage to accept their romantic love? Sam and Brooke have been friends since college. They’ve overcome Sam’s Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, and Brooke losing her beloved husband Jacob. Together they’re raising Brooke’s adorable son Fin and using every excuse they can find not to move past best friend status to lovers.
After a childhood of being passed around and not wanted by anyone, Sam needs commitment before she can trust. But she fully believes she’s unlovable because of her foster care upbringing. RSD gives her actual emotional pain when she even considers losing her best friend Brooke, who is the only person to have gotten past her defensive walls. The quickest way to losing Brooke may be telling her just how much she loves her.
Brooke loves Sam dearly, and so does her son Finley. They’re a perfect family already and if Brooke allows romance to bloom she risks losing everything. Jacob’s family adores Brooke and Fin and are closer to her than her own mother. She doesn’t want to harm Jacob’s memory by falling in love with the woman who was there for her entire marriage.
While battling their feelings and the fears those feelings bring, Sam discovers she has biological family and that brings even more fears of rejection and change.
Pros And My Favourite Parts
Despite every bit of angst Sam and Brooke managed to dredge up from the dark recesses of their fears, I never felt like they weren’t somehow working toward happiness. And they are very good at finding obstacles to happiness.
Sam is afraid of the literal pain she would feel if she lost Brooke and Finley. Her life has been about dealing with being alone in life and feeling like no one in the world wants her. Finding the courage to confront that fear is inspiring.
Brooke’s love means more to Sam than anything and she’s terrified of showing how much she wants Sam. I totally got how devastating the potential loss would mean for both the women if the nearly perfect family they had formed was to break apart from romantic entanglement. She loved her husband dearly and she and Sam both make sure Finley knows of him and understands how much they loved him. As with all their fears I understood the one that might take Jacob’s family away, that she was supplanting his memory with Sam.
The sheer number of fears was daunting and believable. They have a lot to overcome, and I liked that no one told them their fears were silly. I didn’t feel like they were being silly. Obtuse, sometimes, but people can be like that.
The power of friendship is a dominant theme. New friends and old make the women’s life better in every way, and it was very satisfying to watch.
Cons And Heads Up
It’s sad that Brooke is a widow, because she loved her husband very much. His fatal accident is not described graphically.
The Conclusion
This is a book about a two women who have loved each other deeply for years, yet they still have large barriers to overcome to be a complete couple. Sam worries her romantic love for Brooke will destroy their relationship and she’s been left too many times already in her life. Brooke wants to believe if it isn’t broken don’t fix it, and things are great as they are. She also doesn’t want to alienate her late husband’s family. But she wants romantic love and has to decide if she’ll risk everything she has to go for it.
There is a lot of back and forth emotionally for the women, as they continue to weigh the pros and cons of romance. Not once, though, was there a moment of indecision about how much they love each other, and that was great.
Excerpt from Truly Wanted by J.J. Hale
She pulled her eyes from the television and back to Brooke, her mind still fixated on the fairy-tale ending she’d just witnessed on screen. Her mouth went dry, and she blurted out her next sentence before she even had time to fully form it in her brain.
“We could. I mean…maybe we should make a deal. If we’re both single in, say, ten years, we can get married and live happily ever after together.”
Her shrug was intended to lighten her words and she threw in a trademark grin as if it were the most logical idea in the world. Sometimes her impulsivity was a gift that allowed her to experience things or take chances before the anxious side of her brain could talk her out of them. But more often than not it just left her as surprised by what came out of her mouth as anyone else.
Brooke’s glare didn’t help Sam’s heart rate return to its regular rhythm. “You’re being ridiculous. This isn’t the plot of a romance novel siting on that shelf.” She gestured vaguely at the bookshelf in the corner of the room. “Granted, it’s totally one I would read. But stop joking around. I’m having an actual crisis here, I’m being serious.”
“So am I,” Sam countered. “We prefer being with each other more than anyone else in the world. I won’t let you grow into an old spinster. I’d totally marry the shit out of you.”
Get It Online
When you use the links in this review and buy within 24 hours of clicking then we get a small commission that helps us run the site and it costs you nothing extra
Bits and Bobs
ISBN number: 9781636793320
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
If you enjoyed Truly Wanted by J.J. Hale then you should also look at
Note: I received a free review copy of Truly Wanted by J.J. Hale. No money was exchanged for this review. When you use our links to buy we get a small commission which supports the running of this site
