Review for Finding Reese by Imy Santiago

Finding Reese by Imy Santiago

                                               


4 stars
Reviewed by Candace

Imy Santiago continues to deliver an amazing heartfelt story about this amazing trio in Finding Reese! As Catalina and Stryder have established their unrelenting love for one another and Jackson Reese has won his championship with his best friends by his side, the trio believes it’s time to relax and take a break while celebrating in Wyoming. But the unthinkable strikes again when Reese falls victim to his beloved mountains. Facing near death experiences and testing the strength of their bond and the power of love can change a person, but will they stand strong and conquer their fears or will they cower away and push everyone away so they slink further into the abyss of loneliness?

Santiago continues to do a magnificent job with her descriptive writing and gripping the reader from the very beginning. Her writing flows easily and creates a vivid picture for the reader to easily follow and imagine as if it were a movie playing in front of them.

There are two main storylines throughout this book! And I’m happy to say that the friendship between these three characters is as strong as ever! Imy Santiago continues to weave these three characters together effortlessly while showing the passionate bond and magnetic pull between Catalina and Stryder and also showing the depth of love between Jackson and Catalina as well as the strong brotherly love between Jackson and Stryder.

The first major storyline involves Jackson and his journey to overcome the horrific accident that left us with a cliffhanger at the end of the first book. After Catalina’s gift truly beckons his saving grace, he must pick up the pieces left in the wake of the avalanche and try to figure out how to move on with his life. Jackson struggles greatly with survivor’s guilt and there are so many emotions swirling inside of him that he’s like a ticking time bomb. We see him go through the gamut of emotions from self-destruction to self-loathing to anger to guilt to sadness and so forth. His emotions tugged at my heartstrings and had me wanting to hold him and hug him just like Catalina. I wanted to lift him up and give him words of comfort and strength just like Stryder and Catalina as they stood by his side. Their friendship and love for each other is what every person strives to have with their best friend. Someone who will stand next to you through your worst moments and never judge you but only lift you up and continue to support you even on your darkest days. Watching Jackson go through this horrific event and emotional roller coaster made me fall in love with him even more and wish that he finally finds the love and happiness that his two best friends share. He truly deserves his own happily-ever-after!

The other storyline involves Catalina and Stryder as their feelings evolve and determining what their future will hold. Dealing with Jackson after his accident strengthens their bond even more, but with work calling Stryder away, will their love stand the test of time? Can Stryder overcome his past and fears of infidelity while he’s away on assignment? Can Catalina believe in herself enough to let him go without sinking into depression and back into the hole that she’s been living in for the past four years?

There are two areas in the book that I was somewhat perplexed by and it’s these things that cause me not to love it as much as the first book. Essentially the couple are in their “honeymoon” phase where everything seems to be going smoothly, but deep down they both still have their insecurities about what the future holds. They tend to declare their love on multiple occasions and I totally understand why it would happen due to the power of love that grips them in the short amount of time they’ve spent together. It’s easy to wonder if all of this is too good to be true. But I feel like some of the inner dialogue was very redundant and repetitive and found myself skimming over it to get to more character interactions. The depth of their feelings was established in the first book and I wanted to watch them grow through actions more in this book more than inner monologues.

There is also an alleged event that is leaked to Stryder by an unreliable source that totally seems to be blown out of proportion and how Stryder handles it is so out of character to me. There is so much time spent on his weariness about infidelity while he’s gone but in the next moment he talks about how powerful his love is with Catalina. When he’s actually faced with something that he doesn’t understand, he totally shuts down and goes radio silence. And this all occurs within a short time span of the book and there are very little details. I feel like I would have liked more insight into Stryder’s thoughts as this warred in his thoughts and also more insight to Catalina’s thoughts as Stryder went through radio silence. This whole thing was somewhat odd to me, but the resolution was spectacular!

Now to the things I loved the most!

This quote speaks to me on so many levels! It embodies what love should be and what the power of those three little words should yield each time they are spoken! What an amazing way to put it!

"I. Love. You. - Three words: subject, verb, and object. Only eight letters, yet they yield the power to make my heart sink to the pit of my stomach, and ricochet back to its rightful place."

And I have to give Catalina props for dealing with the sneaky and vindictive Olivia. I am so happy to see her be put in her place!

While the story focuses on Catalina and Stryder getting their happily-ever-after, Jackson Reese honestly stole the show for me. I fell in love with his witty banter and jokes and his deep love for the two most important people in his life. I can’t wait to see his story unfold with the geeky single mom who has jokes of her own on his coffee cup! I can’t wait to read Saving Reese and hopefully watch him get his happily-ever-after!


Late Night Books Reviewer Candace