Review: Love Me Harder by Remmy Duchene

Life hasn’t been perfect for Mathew Chance. Between not knowing who his parents are, and being bounced from foster home to foster home, he’s had to work for everything in his life. But lately, he seems to be overdoing it. With two jobs that barely give him time to breath, love is the last thing on his mind. He doesn’t know whether to bless fate or curse it for shoving Asher Mulgrew right into his path.

Wealthy divorce lawyer Asher Mulgrew has it all worked out. From a successful practice to a supportive sister and a fantastic niece, life is good. But he’s lonely. Though he’s not actively searching for a man, he isn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth when he meets bartender, Mathew Chance. Mathew has a wall built around his heart and Asher isn’t sure he can break through even if he wants to. 

This is one of those stories I'm finding very difficult to review. It fell into that three heart band for me, of books that I can't say I actively dislike, but that I can't quite find myself enthused about either.

The story as a premise was great. The execution didn't quite carry through for me though. What I felt this book needed more than anything was another edit. One that would correct some simple grammatical issues, but that would also tighten the story. Some moments were great, but then the story would fall a bit flat with the next sentence. Sometimes I had to re-read the sentences to get the meaning.

For example: "The sad part was that she hadn't even ask for the house..." Shouldn't this be asked?

Another moment that had me pondering was this interaction between him and his law clerk: "I'm retiring, Dahlia. This is your two weeks notice." ... okaaaay.....two weeks?? He's a divorce lawyer, he can seriously shut down his practice in a fortnight? I'm no expert, I could be completely and utterly wrong. Maybe it's a case of things working different stateside, but it felt off to me. Enough for me to spend too much time thinking about it, when I should have been reading. I mean, I have to give a months notice (and be given a months notice), and I work part time as a TA in a primary school.... It was little bits like this that threw me from the story long enough that it became a disjointed read for me.

All in all, I liked the characters created, I liked the storyline, I just wanted it more polished. The love between the characters was there, the story arc was there... it just didn't quite come together for me. Really I feel as though the publishers/editors could have done a more thorough job and the finished article would have been a completely different read. Of course, as ever, this is only my opinion. There is a sweet story there, and it's not - by far - the worst editing I've read... but it was all a bit meh in the end and meh is too easily forgotten. I will certainly be looking for more from this author, I've not given up on him yet. I wanted to like this more than I did and that gives me hope I'll enjoy the next read more. 

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A copy of this book was given in exchange for an honest review.