Seeing them through Joe’s and Raff’s eyes in the previous 2 books, I was excited to see Jed and Artie’s love story play out in the final book of the series. As Jed is a widower I was sure there would be so emotional stuff to play out for him to accept his moving on. But unfortunately Jed made it difficult for me to cheer for him at times. Yes, he is feeling guilty about moving on emotionally after the loss of his husband more than 10 years earlier, but he says some truly hurtful things to Artie. I don’t know if I’d be unable to unhear those things if I was Artie, even with his complicated feelings. As the reader we obviously see inside Jed’s thinking and he thinks some truly beautiful things about Artie, and has wanted him for over 6 months, but those thoughts don’t come out of his mouth, only the things that continue to break Artie’s heart piece by piece by piece. I would have loved a sitdown discussion between them where they confronted some of what was said.
The chemistry between these two was unmatched! Both their working and friendly relationship merged beautifully into a romantic relationship. These two were meant to be, but man did they have to go through it to get there. I just wanted to snuggle with Artie for a good chunk of the story. Overall I do give it 5 stars because Morton does a great job showing it is possible to find love after loss, but there are many complicated emotions (including guilt) that can come from that, but ultimately it is okay to move on if it’s right for you. I had tears in my eyes at times because the feelings were so palpable. The paper roses were a truly beautiful touch to the story.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this audiobook.