February 9, 2016 – Life and Other Disasters

Love has no rules.

It’s been a year since Eden Munro last saw Tyler Bruce: her stepbrother…and secret love. Although they swore to ignore their feelings and put their family first, Eden can’t help but feel excited when Tyler invites her to join him in New York City for the summer.
But it’s not like anything is going to happen. Eden is happy with her boyfriend Dean, and she knows gorgeous, green-eyed Tyler must have moved on as well. But as they spend the long, hot summer in the city that never sleeps, it becomes obvious that those old feelings are still there…simmering beneath the surface. Will Tyler and Eden be able to resist temptation?

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: March 1, 2016

I was provided with an eArc from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review! Also, I buddy-read it with Cristina @My Tiny Obsessions, so make sure to head over to her blog in the following days to check out her review! (It is out now, click here to read it!)

This is the second book in the DIMILY trilogy and I would advise against you reading this if you haven’t read the first book! (You can check out my previous post here.) Otherwise I am trying to make this a spoiler-free review, I can’t say the same about the comment-section.

I think I wasn’t aware how much time had actually passed between the first and the second book – 2 years is a lot! And to me it showed how much everyone can change in that amount of time. Eden, who is still dating Dean, has become so much more irritating, because she is just constantly jealous of the girls (of whom there are not that many) in Tyler’s life. I get the sting of jealousy every now and then but this girl was beyond reason in some instances. However, I am glad she realised that at some point herself.
And then there is Tyler. I wasn’t his biggest fan in the first book and he still makes some stupid decisions, but I like him so much more now. I am really rooting for him and not just with Eden either, but for him as a person in general – to actually fully heal and get better. He has become much more responsible and even there are still the anger issues, I hope that’s what he is tackling next.

There was some drinking and cheating in the first book and it’s going to happen again. The thing is that this time the cheating is a lot less excusable, because we aren’t talking about psycho Tiffani but rather about sweet and nice Dean. He’d deserve so much better and there are obviously going to consequences. Much more severe ones than the last time.

Without wanting to give away too much, you can definitely expect a couple of faces from the past beside Eden, Tyler and Dean though. None of whom I like very much by now. Then there are also some new characters and despite me being dubious of some of them at first, I think they are a great addition.

The new setting in New York City was quite cool, because of Maskame really describing the place from the eyes of an excited teen who’s never been there before. However, sometimes it was just a little too much for me. Sure, you can talk about the Central Park or Empire State Building, but if you go on about certain street numbers I have no clue where on the map we are.

In the end, I enjoyed getting back into the mess of Eden and Tyler. Their situation is a little uncommon and complicated, but I still don’t think that they were wrong to fall in love. It can happen! But it’s their surroundings that make everything so darn difficult and it’s interesting to see how they handle everything. But the last chapter – I am so not cool with the cliffhanger this ended on! It does make sense, don’t get me wrong, but it was just so harsh and raw! It’s devastating when you know that something has to happen, but everyone still gets hurt. I need to read how this is all going to come together in Did I Mention I Miss You?.

Fazit: 4/5 stars! Despite me not liking it as much as the first book, it’s still a really gripping story with a lot of emotions coursing through you while reading. I will definitely continue with the series!

4stars

Do you intend to read Did I Mention I Need You? Have you read the first book? What’s your take on step-siblings falling in love?

top-ten-tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish, if you want to know more about it, you can just click on the name! Because Valentine’s Day is so close we get a freebie and quite frankly I hate those. It’s way easier, like really, WAY EASIER to just follow a given topic or theme. However, I did fire up my brain cells and came up with an idea. What exactly is love? What do the bookish realms say about it? I found some quotes that might shed some light on the topic! This is going to be a little different than a ranking though, because I wouldn’t know how to do that (and I might need more than 10).

gonegirl

So, first things first. Not everything is love. Sometimes we just like the idea of a person and that can cloud the judgement of our own feelings. So, always keep that in mind I guess.

annakarenina

Also important to remember: there are so many kinds of love! Motherly love, platonic love, love love. You name it, it probably exists! All types of love are therefore valid. But enough about this, how is love supposed to feel?

clockworkprince

Okay, wow! That’s a nice image. But doesn’t that just mean that you are smitten with someone? How do you know it is love?

everyday

Quite the strong feeling then, huh? Rearranging the whole world for another human being seems extreme, but maybe it’s possible. It’s such a big promise though …

tfios

Good, I am going to shut up now! So, if it’s love you are going to move mountains, I get it! Still, it baffles me a little. I am far from perfect and so are other people, yet we still create this unbreakable bond with them.

sisterskeeper

So, that’s it then! We love each other despite our faults and mistakes. If it’s true love, we can overcome even that!

selection

Wait, now you have me confused! I thought love was everything and now you are telling me that it can be difficult too? Ugh, why is love so complicated?

allegiant

That means love is commitment then? It’s a choice to stay with each other and to work together to make it work?

bookthief

So, not leaving is a really important part then. But what about long distance relationships? They are not all doomed to fail, right?

dearjohn

Okay, if it’s from the pen of the King of Romance Nicholas Sparks, I will trust his opinion. Even though it does sort of make me wonder if it has anything to do with the first quote about being in love with the idea of someone ….

timetravelerswife

That’s a nice note. Since there are so many different kinds of love, we shouldn’t ever run out of it. I am going to freely interpret this now. There isn’t one true love, there are many true loves and we are always capable of loving again, even if we just lost someone who was really important to us. But finally there is one thing to remember:

romeoandjuliet

Sometimes love isn’t requited in the same way that we are willing to give it and that’s okay too. You can’t make someone love you, but you can be sure that there is someone out there for you! You just have to find them!

That’s it – my very unconventional TTT! I’ve learned a lot about love today. What do you think? What did you come up with for the freebie assignement?