Don’t Let Go is a Modern Vintage Romance, bringing you all the emotions of classic Mills & Boon novels with a modern, steamy touch. It features your favorite tropes:
* Marriage in Crisis- There is give and take in every relationship, and rarely, when analyzed, is it a true 50/50. Now, a 60/40 relationship can usually keep going without much issue. But what if that give and take is more 80/20? or 90/10 and has been going on for years? What if your spouse believes providing is all they need to do? You need to be more understanding. You need to quit your job. You should be grateful. I am a catch! Etc…Well put on your seatbelts, because this marriage in crisis is going to get a little bumpy!
* Overheard-The heroine overhears husband talking to female work colleague…sharing things that were not work related.
* Medical-the H is a highly sought after cardio surgeon. It is an important job. He saves lives on a daily basis. Funny that his job consists of fixing hearts, when he is breaking the heroine’s at the same time!
* Later In Life-Not explicitly stated with an actual number, but characters are early 40’s
* Other Woman Drama-Tory is another female coworker who smells success and ambition and wants in on the action. Not deterred by the fact that the object of her affection is married with 2 kids. These women always get me, because they never want to be with someone and go through the struggle years, nope! They want the already established attractive male, even if he is married with children. Better yet because she wont have to mess her body up and the children won’t be around much.
* Betrayal & Grovel-He betrayed his marriage by
* No Cheating-there is no cheating. Not even emotionally. He shared information with the ow, but this was not an ongoing thing. He kept things pretty professional up to this point and is very in love with his wife. He didn’t even notice that the ow was making some very calculated moves.
* Complete Standalone-It is a complete stand alone. There are no reoccurring characters from other stories here
So, I really found myself relating to many of the feelings expressed by Jayne in this story. Even though my life with my husband does not come close to the one between Rhys and Jayne financially speaking or even family wise, it was very easy to relate to the issues they were having. I am not going to use this platform to go into the specifics of my own relationship, but just saying….I feel Jayne’s exhaustion and defeatist attitude to the situation deeply.
The next part has slight spoilers, so stop now if you do not want anything spoiling your reading . 🛑 SPOILERS POSSIBLE 🛑 SLIGHT SPOILERS HAPPENING NOW 🛑
Rhys is a successful Doctor and his job his high stress. He has a drive to prove himself rooted in his childhood. While he was going to school, Jayne sacrificed her dreams of being a lawyer to support his of becoming a Dr. She has held a job their whole marriage as a paralegal and office manager at a law firm. She is well respected, works hard, and loves what she does. While doing this, she also takes on most if not all of the responsibility of keeping her family running smoothly. Notice I said family, because it isn’t just about taking care of the kids, she also takes care of her husband. He basically doesn’t have to think about anything except his job. He comes home when he wants to he leaves when he needs to …no thought to how the kids are getting to school, what activities they are in, no dinner planning, no laundry cleaning etc…. When he is asked to step up, or pay attention etc…he strikes out as his wife. He gets defensive and “runs” away to the shower or the office. Now on a certain level this reaction is due to guilt. He knows that he is leaving much of their life up to Jayne, yet he feels he can’t or won’t change his way of life. Basically, indicating what he does is more important and Jayne should just quit her job. Worse than that, he even dictates her personal time. She finally decides she is going to do a girl’s night, but it falls on yet another hospital shindig where she gets to be decorative and ignored while he flits around being the big man! He basically threatens her with taking a coworker instead if she doesn’t go(he regrets that, but he knows Tory the ow, is a jealousy bait for his wife, later in the story he gets a taste of jealousy himself).
So she cancels on her friends(again) and goes. This time he does try and stick close to his wife.
So we see the ins and outs, and the ups and downs. Rhys puts in an attempt to do better, but ends up failing his wife and children again. She goes to see him at work to drop off his lucky cap, and that’s when she overhears him telling the ow stuff, that he shouldn’t. She leaves quietly but goes home to lie in wait like a leopard waiting to strike. Now, I want to be clear, Rhys is not having an emotional affair. He knows he went over the line sharing things with Tory, but it is not like they have had ongoing discussions. We see his thoughts clearly, and never once has it been indicated that he is interested in Tory at all. This was a one off as far as sharing his life with Tory. What the stupid hunk of a Dr. doesn’t see, is how Tory has ingratiated herself and was prompting him to share, so she could stroke his ego…and men love their ego stroked 😂….
Anyhoo, he gets home to an angry wife. He knows what he said. He knows what she heard. From here on out, changes need to be made if this marriage is to survive. It looks like Jayne is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice, but thanks to some friend intervention, Rhys realizes that it should not be her to make anymore sacrifices to save their marriage and destroy who she is. So Rhys makes a decision. I am not going to say he sacrifices anything, because I think, and Rhys would agree…the change he made probably benefited him more than anyone else!
The new and improved Rhys was wonderful to see. The family working together, the memories they made. The two children in the story were well written. They enhanced the story, not detracted from it. We also had Paul and Claire, two very good friends of the couple. Claire was instrumental in getting Rhys to truly look at himself and what he was doing. Jayne’s bff didn’t have a huge role, but the few scenes she had were some great comic relief. She was most decidedly anti Rhys in the beginning, but by the end of the book she was regaling him with stories about her dates like he was just another gal pal 😂 We also get to see in the bonus epilogue, that Jayne finally fulfills a lifelong dream, and she has the support of her husband and children. They are her biggest cheerleaders.
I really feel this story does a great job exploring the dynamics in a marriage that most of us have been up against. I love Maya’s overheards and marriage in peril stories, so having them both in one story was a double positive for me! Oh, and let’s not forget the smexy times. One of the sexiest moments took place in the car after the H gets a little bit jealous of Jayne’s younger boss! Also, satisfying is when Jayne gets to put the ow wannabe in her place, with her husband by her side cheering her on!
All around a very satisfying story!!! I read this arc so fast because I wanted to get to the next chapter, I will most likely reread it before it releases in March 😂