Until the End of the Line by Hazel Yeats is a romance between a cautious romantic and a supposedly straight woman.
A wedding in the Irish town Dani’s sister Jane has adopted to live with her fiancé might seem scary and a lot to deal with, but Dani really needs a change to get away from her toxic ex. Maybe some time with some people who actually love her can drag her out of this low spot in her life.
The one thing that Jane really wants for her already fantasy wedding is for her good friend Sophie to come to Belfast as well. She has just the right guy to set up her very straight friend. But the first time Dani sees Sophie all she wants is to spend as much time with her as possible.
The more time they spend together the more Dani wonders just how straight Sophie is, and does she have a chance with this woman she’s quickly falling in love with.
Writing
The author takes their time getting to the romance, despite Dani’s immediate attraction to Sophie. It’s not a lazy or elaborate setup, but thorough. There are a fair number of characters to set up, including Jane’s soon to be mother-in-law Eileen, who I would happily read about in another story.
What seems like a simple story on its face grows more twisty, mostly because Sophie is not the open book she appears at first, and she’s not the only person with secrets and issues from their past. I was especially intrigued with the theme of how difficult it is to come out after a lot of severe programming against it, and how that affects a prospective new partner.
Pros And My Favourite Parts
I liked how twisty everything is. No one takes huge pains to hide things from people, but there is a lot of less than forthcoming interactions. For instance, Sophie is built up to be “the straightest person” Jane knows, but there are hints from the first moments she and Dani meet that gives a reader hope that Jane is not correct. Because Dani is so likeable and has been hurt by a toxic relationship, it’s fun to watch her grow into hoping this woman can become someone special in her life.
It’s easy to root for Dani and Sophie, both as individuals and as a prospective couple because both of them have gone through a lot of trauma. Each of them is walking through an emotional minefield on the way to love. They must each deal with their internal issues and learn to be sympathetic and supportive of the other. It’s not the rockiest road I’ve seen, but it definitely has its nail biting moments.
Heads Up
Sophie’s issues of having her personality squashed by parents who probably kept her from a loving relationship with her sister was tough to read.
The Conclusion
Dani is coming off a toxic relationship and gets a much needed request from her dear sister Jane to come to Belfast to be in her wedding. Once there, she discovers Jane is marrying into a great, loving family who embraces her, and meets Jane’s stunning friend Sophie. She’s supposed to be a straight friend, but Dani begins to have her doubts and hopes Sophie can overcome years of denial about her sexuality.
There is never any real doubt that Sophie is in the closet, so there is no coercion except to encourage her to live her life the way she wants rather than the way her parents want. Both Dani and Sophie have emotional baggage to contend with, but it’s a very hopeful love story.
Excerpt from Until the End of the Line by Hazel Yeats
There was just something about Sophie’s cropped dark hair, her lustrous green eyes, and her lovely face that immediately got Dani’s heart thumping. “Hi there,” she said.
She sent Sophie a small polite smile. Sometimes it was best to hide how you really felt. “Jane tells me I need to persuade you to come out here.” Jane shoved her. Dani shoved her back, laughing.
“What I meant to say, Sophie, is that this place is absolutely wonderful. The scenery is gorgeous, there’s nothing going on that could be remotely construed as civil war, there’s tea and haggis—”
“Not haggis,” Jane groaned. “That’s Scottish!”
“Okay, so it seems there’s no haggis. Which is gross anyway, so not a great loss. But the other stuff I said is all here. And there’s an ocean practically around the corner from where I’m staying, with wild cliffs and breathtaking coastal scenery in abundance. And there’s a whole museum dedicated to the Titanic. And there’s this ancient lookout tower called Scarbo Tower—”
“Not Scarbo,” Jane said, “Scrabo! In Newtonards.”
“That we saw yesterday from the car through a haze of rain and fog—”
“Although it actually rarely rains around these parts.” Jane seemed desperate to paint her new home in a positive light.
Dani brought her face closer to the screen. “I highly recommend it. I can’t believe TripAdvisor isn’t all over this place.”
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Bits and Bobs
ISBN number: 978-3-96324-878-8
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
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