Book Review: Come to Me Quietly by AL Jackson

Come to Me Quietly

By AL Jackson

Release Date: January 7, 2013

Source: Publisher

Summary: Aleena Moore is content with her life. She has goals and dreams and an easy smile. She also has a secret she holds locked inside.

Jared Holt believes he doesn’t deserve to love or be loved. He destroys everything he touches. Haunted by the mistake that shattered his life, he’s fled from the memory of that pain.

Jared doesn’t know why he’s compelled to return, but finds himself drawn back to the place where it all began. The exact place where it ended. When he runs into his childhood best friend, Aleena’s older brother Christopher, he agrees to share Christopher and Aleena’s apartment while he looks for a place of his own.

Aleena is no longer the little girl Jared remembers from his past and evokes feelings in him he never wanted to feel again. Terrified of destroying her, he fights to keep her away. But her touch is something he can’t resist—the touch that sealed his fate.

Their pasts are intertwined and their futures uncertain. The only truths they know are the secrets they whisper in the night.

Review: All of the reviews I've read so far have absolutely raved about this book. It has an average of a 4.58 rating on Goodreads, so I couldn't wait for the chance to dive into this new adult romance. 

As a college student, Aly is content with her life sharing an apartment with her job working at a cafe to pass the summer. But when she walks into her apartment one day to find Jared, her first love and childhood best friend, sleeping on her couch, everything changes. Aly had never thought she'd see Jared again, and now that they're older, their relationship isn't as innocent as it was when they were kids. The only problem is that Jared's changed and can't overcome his past mistakes. Now that he's back and sees how perfect Aly still is, he knows he can never be good enough for her heart. 

It's obvious from the beginning that Aly is completely crazy for Jared, but I felt like there just wasn't enough chemistry for the passion they're both obsessed with. Both Jared and Aly pour out their feelings to the reader of this book (we get alternating viewpoints, so we see into both of their heads) and constantly talk about how much their pulled to the other one. The only problem, though, is that I didn't really get that intense chemistry as I was reading the book other than from when they talked about it. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that this book was a lot of talk about their emotions and no real plot/dialogue going on. Not a whole lot happened in this book except for Jared and Aly spending time in their apartment together, going to one party, and going to a bar. That's about it. 

Don't get me wrong, this was a really sweet romance that dealt with some real emotions. Jared did something right before he left town six years ago, but they don't reveal exactly what that was until about 250 pages in the book. I thought hiding the thing that scarred Jared so much from the reader, while every single other character in the book knows what is it, was kind of annoying. I think we should have been told sooner so that the not knowing didn't overpower the pain he was feeling. 

Overall, this was an enjoyable enough read, but left me wanting more substance and action than I got. There's a ton of emotion and romance to get you through the story, and I really enjoyed Aly as a main character. Her brothers and best friends were pretty great characters too. I'd recommend this one to those of you who like simple new adult romances, but be aware that not a whole lot will happen aside from the romance.