GRR Reviews Loving From Afar by Mona Ingram

Loving From Afar is about choices and consequences, about honor and sacrifice, about the road not taken and make the best with what you got, and about second chances. However, the MMC Cole was not believable and the FMC feels like a doormat to have stuck pining for Cole all this time as to the point of "why are you still pining for that man?"

Allison and Cole had their future planned. Then Cole, one night, made a decision that was rational at the time, but invariably changed two lives and set a chain of events in motion that drove the couple apart. Cole was arrested for a jewelry store robbery he did not commit, but he refused to give up the name of the perp, so he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He did not know that during this time, Allison would make friends, then was betrayed by those friends when she was raped at a party and became pregnant. They went their separate ways, each believing they were betrayed by the other, or were too ashamed of admitting to their feelings. They didn't try to keep in touch. Ten years later, Cole is back in town... his father is very ill, and Cole needed to figure things out with Allison...

The emotional toil simply did not work for me. Cole was planning a life with Allison, so why would he give that up and go to jail for a crime he did NOT commit, knowing that to do so will destroy his plans and Allison? That spur of moment decision that cost him TEN YEARS in total? And why did Allison wait for him? Really makes no sense when you think about it.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Guy makes a decision that cost him happiness with the girl; ten years late, girl was changed, but still pined for him

Tropes: fated mate, reunion, scars, PTSD

Overall Rating:  2/5