Judith’s review of Hard to Handle (Love in the Balance, #2) by Jessica Lemmon

ONCE BURNED Sadie Howard never dates a guy more than once-but Fate has other plans for her when it comes to Aiden Downey, the one that got away. Aiden loved her, left her, and broke her heart. Yet suddenly she’s bumping into him at every turn, driven to distraction by his wicked grin and rock-hard body. Now she can’t resist finishing what they started-as long as she doesn’t let herself fall in love . . . 

TWICE AS TEMPTING Aiden Downey threw away the best thing he ever had when he let Sadie go, and now he’s determined to win back the woman he’s always wanted. Sadie agrees to let him into her life-and her bed-as long as there are no strings attached. But Aiden’s not about to make the same mistake again. Can he convince her to take a second chance on a once-in-a-lifetime love?

The main characters in this romance novel first appeared in Book I of this series — Tempting the Billionaire — and met on the same occasion as those two main characters (Shane and Crickett) and under the same set of circumstances.   The prequel to this book — Can’t Let Go — fleshes out the early encounters between Aiden and Sadie and while the action in that novella runs concurrently with Book I, it gives the reader greater understanding of the emotional roller coaster this love affair made as a result of some significant life challenges.  Now Aiden and Sadie are thrown together as maid of honor and best man at Shane and Crickett’s wedding, all of this happening nearly a year after the ending of the prequel.  And if the reader thinks these two are encased in emotional iron in that story, get ready.  They are emotionally unavailable to anyone now, especially to one another.

These is underlying threads of anger, disappointment, denial, and sadness running through this story.  As connected as these two in the beginning, it seems they aren’t able to read each other at all now as they try to peer through layers and layers of old baggage and hurt.  Aiden is still grieving his mother’s death and trying to circumvent the lingering anger of his siblings over some of the decisions he made regarding his mother’s final days.  Sadie won’t admit it, but she is still grieving the death of her relationship with Trey who has now married her sister, and most of all she is mourning the loss of what was to have been the perfect wedding.  This girl just can’t move on.  And perhaps that is the crux of the entire tale.  All the players are waltzing around The Great Betrayal, especially Sadie’s mother and stepfather who chide her constantly about refusing to “forgive” Celeste for enticing her fiance away from her.  It’s a tangled web of pure emotional mess and it is against this mental and emotional background Sadie must continually deal with Aiden, even when she doesn’t want to.

This is a beautifully written piece of romance literature, full of love and caring, understanding and frustration, disappointment and hope.  Crickett and Sadie remain best friends who really do turn to one another in troubled times,  and even in the midst of sibling criticism and lingering upset, Aiden’s brothers and sister and their father are working to move on from the mother’s death.  Lots and lots of deep emotion to cloud judgment and upend what would ordinarily remain and good decision environment.  In the final analysis both Aiden and Sadie are stuck, big time.

Having read the other two works in this series I was anxious to read this latest book.  It not only chronicles Aiden and Sadie but also fills in the on-going stories of characters who appeared in the other two books.   They are so well crafted that it felt as if I was reading about real people with overwhelming emotional pressure.  I could feel their frustration and disappointment;  I knew how Sadie felt when she kept having to work with Aiden when what she wanted most was to leave him in the dust.  But life doesn’t work that way and, it appears, neither does it work in Ms Lemmon’s stories.  It’s this quality that gives this novel the grit and edge we find in the lives and experiences of real people and certainly insured that this is not one of those tales that feels like a HEA right from the start.  And these two people are the kind that show up in really good stories and they enchant us as the author removes layer after layer of their personality and experience so that there is rhyme and reason to what they bring down upon themselves and their relationship.

This is a terrific read and one that will grab the reader’s imagination and burrow deeply into the heart and mind of all who take the time to enjoy and appreciate this well-written novel.  I didn’t feel that the relationship was either allowed to drag–if it did so it was for very good reasons–or made to accelerate unduly and not in keeping with the story overall.

This is one of those romance novels you really need to read, especially if you are a fan of contemporary romance fiction and have read other works by this author.  It’s well worth the time to read and appreciate.

I give it a rating of 4.25 out of 5

The Series:

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This title is available from Forever Publishing.  You can buy it here or here in e-format.  This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.