Jordan Stella enters the contemporary fiction world with her debut novel and delivers an emotional journey and psychological dissection of the personal choices a woman had made then and the way they affect other people’s lives now.Adriana Austin is a strong-willed woman but the past is keeping her hostage. After her sister’s death, her family falls apart and the world stops making sense. She puts … making sense. She puts a mask of ignorance on her face, constantly repeating that everything is fine.
The mask crack at the moment Neal Cassidy steps foot in town as the new major shareholder of her father’s business. Seven years ago, Adriana publicly blamed Neal for her sister’s death and made him run away. He is here now, seeking revenge and Adriana has no other option but to fight back.
The hardest battle turns out to be the one you have with yourself.
One war. Two rivals. Will there be a winner at all?
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3.5 Stars
So this one was a difficult read to pigeon-hole in terms of genre and I’m not really sure I would put this in the romantic category at all: if I was pushed to actually pinpoint this stories place may be more of an imploding type drama with elements of enemies to lovers.
But ultimately at its heart, this dealt specifically with dysfunctional family dynamics and the eye of the storm itself namely Adriana Austin and Neal Cassidy.
This tale basically deals with the aftermath of Adriana’s sister’s death and the blame she places in this instance on her sister Monica’s ex-boyfriend’s shoulders managing in the process to ruin his life while running him and his family out of there shared home-town.
Now, seven-years later Neil is back and out for blood mainly Adriana’s and as these two go head to head in there shared mutual hatred things do heat up dramatically.
So this was in my opinion well written and engaging.
“My then and your now” uses its ability to immerse and engage within the narrative to hook its reader’s attention rather than any graphic shock undertakings and this for me was all about the feels: both good and bad.
It’s light on the sexual side of things: this being implied rather than expanded on: this is not a criticism in itself folks rather an observation: it’s not always necessary and I don’t feel this missed out any for any lack-of.
Here we focus more on a journey of self-discovery and personal reflection.
One issue, I did have Adriana herself was not a very likeable individual.
She was very much on a self-imposed path of destruction: blaming all around her for the direction her life had taken.
Conveniently placing blame and laying animosity in her wake; it’s all about her and how she fares and all else be damned and the way she treats everyone around her acting like a spoilt and petulant child: well let’s just say she wasn’t the easiest person to empathise with.
On the other hand, I do understand how she had evolved into this wretched and toxic individual.
Her whole life and family had imploded leaving her an island; alone and poisoned.
She was so pigheaded: but equally so was Neil who I do feel definitely came across as the better and more level headed of the two.
I think maybe I had such a strong reaction originally to Adriana because the majority of this story is told from her pov: this maybe gave me more of a sense of her than of others involved here.
I wanted her to grow and expand as a person especially since I feel her sister would have been upset and horrified at the twos destructive antics.
I have only two other observations to add one being I felt this could have been a tad shorter in length and still portrayed the same overall message and two I would have prefered an alternate finale to the one I got.
I do understand the sentiment behind it but for me, it felt bittersweet.
Ultimately at its heart, this story does have a powerful and at times hardhitting message to impart.
I will leave you with these thoughts: I may not have taken fully to all the individuals contained between these pages but this was still for me a worthwhile endeavour and a story that I did enjoy.
I voluntary reviewed an Arc of My Then and Your Now.
All opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
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