I fell in love with Tess when I was a teenager.Being in love has never been the problem.Time together, on the other hand, is.Life has caught up with us and we’ve lost focus on each other.Date night is a laughable concept. And sex?Well, it’s been months.Months.It’s time to take matters into my own hands and kidnap my wife for a week alone.The only problem? How do I convince Tess to fall back in … problem? How do I convince Tess to fall back in love with me when she never fell out of love in the first place?
How do we rebuild, from the ground up?
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Real Life Romance
Jennifer Van Wyk romances are like cat nip to me. Low angst, medium steam level, and characters that you want to become friends with. Tess and Barrett Ryan are no different. Married 22 years with 4 kids, they are desperate to re-connect and get their marriage back on track. I was rooting for them the whole time! I loved it!
Such an amazing story. It’s rare that we see a relationship from this view point, already married with kids and a family. So refreshing. Barrett and Tess have been married for 22 years and just don’t have the time for each other that they used to and it’s taking a toll on them. When they finally get to their breaking point and go away together, they bring back so many good memories of themselves over the years they’ve been together. Such a good book!!
I stumbled across Jennifer Van Wyk through another author a couple of years ago. Somehow I won a paperback book and some swag but didn’t think much of it at the time. (Sorry Jennifer!!) I didn’t read the book at the time because my eyes are old and ebooks that I can increase the font size are easier to read, and I didn’t think to pick up an ebook copy then, either. I honestly can’t remember why (most days I can’t remember why I even just walked into a certain room in my house!). Eventually, I did pick up Feels Like Home, her third book, and from the moment I started it, I was totally hooked on Jennifer Van Wyk’s words! So when I had to opportunity to pick up the newly re-covered ebook of From the Ground Up, I jumped at the chance this time, and you’d better believe I’m absolutely kicking myself for missing out on the greatness that is From the Ground Up for so long!
OK, enough gushing. On with the review…
Barrett and Tess were high school sweethearts that met, fell in love, and married young. They have a good life with four kids, however, their kids and life in general have begun to move them farther apart. They both realize their marriage is quickly approaching a crossroads and they have two options: work to fix it or divorce. Since they still love each other, their kids, and the life they have built together, Barrett takes it into his own hands to figure out a way to rebuild their relationship.
What I loved about this book:
Barrett and Tess: I’m close in age to these two crazy kids so it was easy to connect with these characters. I also have 3 kids, a husband, and a crazy life. And all marriages have ups and downs and times where you don’t feel like you’re as close as you once were. I’ve now read all of Jennifer’s books and I can honestly say that Tess and Barrett are my absolute favorite couple so far.
Texting Blunders! Really…you just have to read these! I made the mistake of reading most of this book while my husband was trying to sleep and it was SO hard not to literally laugh out loud at these!
Great support from family and friends. This couple is truly blessed with friends and family that love and adore them and would do anything to help them fix, well, THEM and make their marriage even better. Deeper. Stronger.
NICUnurse’s Rating: Honestly, I could go on and on about what I loved about this book. For a first book, this is the best debut novel I may have ever read. It’s now on my list of books that I’ll reread many, many times because I loved it that much. I’m wishing I had read it a couple of years ago, but so glad I DID finally read it.
I give From the Ground Up by Jennifer Van Wyk an absolute 5 out of 5 stars!
Refreshing. That is the best word I can come up with to describe this book by Jennifer Van Wyk. It was so refreshing to read a book that was real. That was raw. That was gritty. That realistically described what happens in a marriage. Marriage is hard. Life happens, and you lose sight in the day-to-day reality.
Love isn’t always the problem, and it certainly wasn’t the problem for Barrett and Tess. After twenty yeas of marriage, raising 4 children- from college-age all the way to elementary age, work, and life, Barrett and Tess see their marriage as stagnant. This brings unnecessary insecurities to the forefront of their minds. Somehow, they need to rediscover their love (and like) for each other and rebuild their marriage.
I absolutely loved this story! I highly recommend! The writing, story, and characters were beautiful and real. Refreshing!
From The Ground Up is a beautiful story of life and love after a romance book’s traditional HEA. Tess and Barrett fell in love long ago and have been married and built a wonderful life together for more than twenty years.
“Life is ugly and messy, and marriages are hard. If it were easy all the time, no one would appreciate the wonderful times. It’s in the messy that we appreciate the pristine.”
The stresses of work, home and family seem to be making the couple more and more distant. They need to find a way to keep blame and distrust from creeping between them.
“I love you, Tess. You need to understand that. You need to feel that. My soul is empty without yours attached to it. My heart, my love responds only to you. Even after I take my last breath on this earth, my love is yours.”
I loved this story of a couple rediscovering each other and seeing that their love and relationship doesn’t have to lose its closeness (or heat!) even after many years!
-4.5 Stars!-
As a romance reader- you read for HEA! From the Ground Up is a beautifully written and emotional story that is real and brings happily ever after- years later- when you have to fight for it! And when you want HEA- it is there- but it is work.
Tess and Barrett are a couple who are in the middle of raising an incredible family of 4 kids but get lost with each other. Through the book- they know after 20 years of marriage they do love each other but somewhere got lost and fight to rediscover their love again.
This book shows great relationships between family, friends and kids. It is about being honest, knowing real life issues exist and fighting to remember why they fell in love. Jennifer Van Wyk does an amazing job bringing readers in to love Tess and Barrett’s relationship that in the core is sweet, romantic, full of joy and family. A great book!