Absolution

Three Words: Wounded Widower. Emotional. Angsty AF. OK, so I can’t count.

4.5 Stars!
Sydney White is a gorgeous, single 28 yr. old woman living in New York. She loves her job at an advertising firm, and is focused on her career. She’s given up on finding the right man since she always seems to go after the one’s that are unattainable. Her new plan is no commitments, relationships, or complications. Then she meets a guy named Jace Montgomery who turns her world upside down. While planning her best friend Eve’s wedding she is determined nothing will go wrong. Jace is the older brother of the groom, and it’s come to her attention he’s unhinged, and a bit of a loose cannon lately. Sydney decides it’s her job to handle him for the weekend to make sure everything runs smoothly. What she doesn’t count on is him looking like a Greek god, and the way he will affect her with just one look of those beautiful, tortured eyes. One kiss and she can’t resist the pull she feels toward him. She wants him so bad, and soon realizes she’ll take whatever he has to offer.

Jace Montgomery lost his wife and hasn’t let himself grieve. The last year he’s just been trying to survive and navigate being a single parent. He runs one of the largest hedge funds in NY, and immersing himself in work has become his salvation. Guilt is his constant companion, and when he’s not distracted the pain is too much to take. He’s desperate to forget, and will do anything not to be alone with his thoughts. His anger is out of control, and he feels like he’ll break at any moment, so the last thing he needs is to be in his brothers wedding.

Everywhere Jace turns there’s the maid of honor, Sydney. He’s suffering, tired, and emotionally drained. He doesn’t know how to act around his family anymore. Sydney doesn’t treat him like he’s broken or fragile, and seems to accept him as he is. They form a friendship, and she makes him feel lighter. As they begin spending time together, she’s tearing down his walls. She’s exactly what he’s needed, and he can’t stop thinking about her. Soon he’s completely infatuated with her, and she makes him feel alive again every time they touch. She has a calming presence in his life, and makes him happy, but he’s confused by his feelings. Sydney craves something she thinks she can’t have, and has fallen for a man she believes will never be hers. Will Jace move on and have a future with Sydney, or let her go?

This was my first book by Ava Harrison, and it was fantastic! This story grips your heart from the beginning and holds on. It’s devastating, tragic, beautiful, emotional, and wickedly sexy! I can’t wait to read more by this fabulous author!

2018published, both-pov, contemporary, easy-to-read, friends-in-love, m-f-romance, nyc, plot, read, romance, sex

Poor Jace! He is a borderline alcoholic, sad man who is grieving and blames himself for his wife’s death.
Enter Sydney who loves to fix things, even if she gets hurt she couldn’t avoid, it is her nature.
He is dark and she is light, he is sad and she is happy, both are workaholic. He didn’t have time for his children, she taught him to find time for his personal life. Together, they are perfected, together they could try to be happy.
I was reading eagerly to understand what happened to him, anxious because I knew her ex could cause some problems.
I love this book, I love the characters, I love happy endings.
Thanks to Amazon Prime I found out this book, this author, this story.
Most of the book is sad and dark, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and her name is Sydney.

Jace is a pretty damaged widower and he is such a jerk to Sydney it is crazy that she still keeps trying. But a wonderful ending.

Audiobook Review:
Absolution is a beautiful tale of angst, raw passion, and love that is portrayed in a realistic way.
I struggled with writing this review as I had mix sentiments with this audiobook. As, I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. I just don’t know if it was just the character’s personalities I just didn’t relish, as they were fleshed out. The narrative is eloquently scripted and integrated, just not my favourite.

Sebastian York was an excellent choice for male narator. His performance was impeccable with just the right amount of angst in the right places. The pace & tone flows through smoothly with a baritone voice that changes when necessary.

Grace Grant Is a new narator as I haven’t listened to her before. I struggled with listening to her portions as she didn’t fit the part in my opinion. Her male voices were revolting.
I honestly think I would have enjoyed the ebook more because of the female narrator. Nothing personal, I just don’t think her voice was right for this one.

I’m looking forward to listening to other books by Ava Harrison.

Nice easy quick read. It made me feel good.

Absolution by Ava Harrison was in a word, AMAZING! A second chance at love and life for Jace Montgomery, this book is jam packed with emotion so vividly written you experience all of the angst and happiness right along side! Incredibly well put together and developed! I won’t be forgetting Jace & Sydney anytime soon. Enjoy friends!

“He looks at me in a way that no one has ever looked at me, like I’m his salvation. He renders me speechless. He renders me useless. He’s like a meteor shower descending upon Earth, beautiful to look at even though it’s sure to cause destruction.”

Jace is tormented by his demons after losing his wife twelve months ago. He’s forgotten that he has children that need him, they’ve already lost one parent. Unfortunately their living parent has been absent leaving them to be brought up by their live in nanny. He buries himself behind his desk at the office or in a bottle of whiskey. Jace has a reputation of ruining things with his outbursts. His younger brother is getting married and Jace won’t be able to function without at least one of his crutches to numb his pain. With work out of the question he finds some solace in whiskey and the maid of honour. Sydney has been given the task of keeping Jace under control and out of trouble. It’s a daunting task as the man never smiles and looks like he’s in a trance. However Sydney sees a side to him that he doesn’t share with anyone. She has her own problems to deal with and is trying not to spiral out of control. Can she be his guiding light or has he fallen to far into the darkness?

Do you like A-hole characters? Do you like books that hit you in the gut? Do you like having your heart ripped from your chest and then pieced back together again? Yes? Then this is the book for you. The book deals with some very difficult situations and ultimately it’s a book about saving and forgiving yourself. It’s a book about realising that you have to do that in order to keep living and providing for the people in your life. Admitting to yourself about how you feel and letting the guilt go, allowing yourself to grieve. I thought it was handled beautifully. It’s raw, and hard to read at times. But, ultimately it’s uplifting and healing.

These characters are amazing, not necessarily amazing in the sense that I loved them the whole time, but in the sense that they made me react. Not always in a positive way, but that’s okay. I’m intrigued by Preston, and I shall be diving into his story next, I’m on the fence about Evie – so we’ll see how that goes.
Jace is an a-hole. First class a-hole. The things he says and does are just ball-punch worthy, but, the guy is grieving and guilt-ridden, so although I don’t excuse his behaviour, I can understand it to an extent. He was so broken. As the book progresses he improves, you can see him falling for Sydney and in essence, his kids…it was like they were rediscovering themselves as a family and that was beautiful to experience. Of course, just when you think he’s getting to good guy territory he goes and says something that makes you gasp and consider throwing your kindle. He comes good, in the end, he seeks help from the people that matter to him…the people that had always wanted to help, but he never let. I can understand why some people would have issues with certain things he does and says, but, it’s so obvious that it’s the guilt talking that I was able to forgive him.
I struggled with Sydney to begin with. She was a little too much of a fixer, to the point where she was pushing herself onto Jace and his family, saying and doing things that she really didn’t have any right to. But, as time went on I did start to understand her more and become more attached to her. I did get a little frustrated that she didn’t tell Jace about her ex and what he was doing, especially when the opportunity arose. I also felt for her, she was always picking the wrong guys and that stemmed from her childhood, and knowing the type of guys she’d been with in the past, I just wanted her to be happy. I wanted to shake her a few times, but again, she came good when she stood up and made the decision to do the right thing for her and basically say, ‘you know what, I’m worth more than this, I deserve better.’
Logan and Avery are just the sweetest kids, they’ve experienced such a huge loss in their lives and it was almost like they’d lost both their parents because Jace was so withdrawn from them, I mean, he still ensured they had someone, but it wasn’t him, and they felt that, so getting to see them opening up to Sydney and doing fun things together was heartwarming.
I liked that Jace and Sydney’s relationship was built on friendship and it was that friendship that started to break through Jace’s grief and guilt to make him look at his life and his decisions and start making better ones. The connection they had was palpable and the sexy times were off the charts sexy. I need to check my Kindle for scorch marks. I loved that this was not just about Jace and Sydney, but also the children, they played a big part in their relationship and the healing process, for so long Jace had pushed them away because he didn’t think they needed him, that he felt he was the reason their mother was gone, and watching him slowly start to do more with them, and reconnect as a family, well, it was beautiful.

This is the first book I’ve read by Ava Harrison. It definitely won’t be my last. Ava’s writing is phenomenal – it is gut-wrenching, emotional, and raw. She destroyed my heart and slowly and surely mended it. It did take me a little while to get into the swing of it, there was a bit too much repetition for my liking at the beginning, (I think it was mentioned three times about Sydney’s ex and why he’s her ex,) but, once I got hooked, I was hooked hard and nothing could pull me away. I was captivated by these characters and this story. I had guessed one of the plot turns, and I knew the reactions to it were going to be bad…but, OMG, I never expected it to be that bad, I actually gasped. One of the best books I’ve read this year. I switched between the eBook and the audiobook, which isn’t something I do often and it actually worked really well, I listened more than I read. Sebastian York and Grace Grant were wonderful as Jace and Sydney. More about the narration later on. Single parent is one of my favourite type of stories and this one has blown almost all of the others out of the water. The angst and feels just captured my heart and wouldn’t let go. This cover, oh my word. You can keep all your shirtless guy covers, this right here is where it is at. This is what gets my attention, this is what hits my sexy radar. I looked into this book because of the cover. And, after finishing the book – it IS Jace. 1000%. This is a standalone, however, I personally feel readers would benefit greatly from reading Transference first. Not because Absolution doesn’t stand on its own, but because they interconnect, I’m about to start Transference and I know part of what happens and I think it takes away the guesswork, and I love the experience of reading a book for the first time and trying to figure what’s happening, what is going to happen, and if they’re going to get a HEA. But, of course, that is just personal taste.

I thought this audiobook was perfectly cast, Sebastian York was Jace. I think it’s the best performance I’ve ever listened to him do – of course, I’ve not listened to them all. His voice was deep and rather gruff…not how I’d normally describe him. The emotion he conveyed was astounding, you felt the pain the character was experiencing bleeding through the earbuds. The character and the performance were the three S’s – sexy, sweet, and swoony. Don’t get me wrong, the character is an A-Hole, but, he has sweet moments. He really does nail the single father aspects and his child’s voice is never over-compensating. Grace Grant was fantastic as Sydney too, she really gave that character life. It’s amazing how each emotion Sydney felt was conveyed in the tone Grace used…you believed that she was hurt, or unsure, or happy. It’s amazing to have that come through, not in words, but in tone and for the listener to be immersed. Grace is always so skilled at that.
Grace and Sebastian’s voices blended really well together in this book. Their performances mixed with Ava Harrison’s words at times brought tears to my eyes. They really nailed this story and these broken characters…they breathed life into them. It was wonderful to listen to and one of the best audiobooks of 2018.
I enjoyed the production and didn’t notice any issues. I’m still getting used to not having the chapter PoV said at each chapter announcement…which is especially jarring when you’re switching between reading and listening, but that is just a personal thing and I’m sure the more I listen to books that are like it, and it appears that it’s being done that way more and more, the more I’ll get used to it.

This was a very emotional read. From what happened to Jace and then later on what happens with Sidney. Loss is never easy to overcome and the author showed the struggles. While I cried for over half the book the author did an amazing job at capturing grief and overcoming it. I loved the characters and the banter they had, never during the harder scenes. There’s so much that I want to talk about but with the blurb being so secretive I would be worried about spoiling it. I will say that she wrote a beautiful story that will make your heart break but at the same time be mended back together. I plan to go and read the secondary characters book soon because I really like them too. 4 stars #2OCCJD