REVIEW: Clementine by R. Jean Wilson

23yo hospital volunteer wishes to be more than friends with gorgeous 27yo resident-surgeon Hero who she was immediately drawn to when they first met a few weeks ago.

They’ve spent a lot of time getting to know each other & going on outings since. She just isn’t sure how special she is to Hero since they’ve never gone on an official date & he’s always surrounded by a throng of eager women. Heroine doesn’t tell him she’s moving out of state for her physician’s assistant school until the day before she leaves. Hero’s response pushes their relationship to another level. What she sees the next day, however, breaks her heart. She immediately leaves the city & cuts all ties with him, no matter his constant texting & phone calls. How do they ever manage to get back together?

The chemistry simmered between Hero & heroine. I could feel their attraction from the first glance and the build-up was great. It had me eagerly turn the pages to see how & WHEN they were finally going to get together. Both Hero & heroine played along the edges of their romance, neither verbalizing what they truly wanted & felt for the other. Their work, career goals, & life trajectories seemed to be pulling them away from each other in the long run. The book is told from heroine’s point of view (POV) and we know her insecurities prevented her from believing that someone like Hero would be romantically serious with her. She didn’t want to take the risk of humiliating herself & getting her heart broken. So staying his friend seemed like the safer bet. We don’t really get Hero’s POV about why he wasn’t being more aggressive in pursuing heroine. He appeared to go with her speed & didn’t push her when she’d ignore or laugh off his advances. But finding out she was moving to another state gave him the impetus to cross the line into their romance.

What happened after and how Hero & heroine dealt with it was angsty. It surprised me how long it took for them to see each other again. The benefit of the 1.5 years apart, though, was that it gave their second-chance romance a level-headedness & maturity that was lacking before. Their celibacy during their time apart gave even more credibility to how sure they were about each other. Neither distance, time, nor temptations could sever their special connection.

The few sexual scenes were generalized. Interestingly, there were more details about the first time Hero & heroine got physical than the actual consummation scene. The consummation scene would’ve made a greater emotional impact with more details. Their aftermath conversation about fate was more philosophical and de-personalized their intimacy a bit. The little stories about other’s romance at the beginning of the chapter also seemed out of place & didn’t flow that well with the main storyline. Overall, writing flowed well & made for an easy read.

Recommended.

*ARC courtesy of the author in exchange for an honest review.
**A more detailed review is on my blog. Click here.