The Laws of Love, Lisa White ~ Book Review

Lisa White starts us off with an interesting character in Livi.  She's strong, professional, independent. We like her. *I* liked her.

She crashes into the love of her life pretty early on, and we're already rooting for their reunion. We're watching her blush and react like the teenager she was when she knew him.

What's he doing here? When did he come back?

I felt good about where they were heading. I had hopes that their reunion *might* take the predictable route and run throughout the story.

But Ms. White had other plans and reunited them fairly quickly. That was rough reading for me, because as much as I was happy that this was happening, I was missing backstory. Awkwardness was glossed over too quickly. When you run into that crush from high school? The one you still remember kissing? It can't fall into place that fast - can it?

This book is a really short novel in comparison to many that are out there these days. And with books oozing over into the 500+ page mark, something short and sweet is perfect for the holiday season. But sometimes losing length loses a little bit more. I'd have liked for Jake and Livi to reunite more slowly. Let us feel that the powerhouse working woman that Livi was and has been doesn't just disappear crying into the arms of her new "old" flame when things turn wrong.

And I'm disappointed in the way Nadine turned so quickly, too. I was feeling a bond and a relationship between her and Livi, and I had hopes they'd take that into a friendship, as well. I think I just read a similar type of "casting" and it was so strong that my hopes were these two women would support one another.

Overall, I'm not sure how to review the story. I don't want to give anything away, as is my norm, and I don't want to take you through the relationships too much more - for fear of making you totally confused!

For Ms. White, her debut novel is an interesting one, but I'd love to see more of what she can do with characters when she is granted more space to do so. I think given the chance to flesh out the reunion of Jake and Livi, we might have gotten from her the true love story that we - as readers - often look for. And if not, if things were meant to turn and the two were meant to separate - we'd have more background detail and more time to fully grasp why.

And for me? I would certainly pick up another book by this author, but hopefully a longer one so I can enjoy more detail and description, and less quick "sound-bites" throughout.

* I was provided with a copy of this book by TLC Book Tours to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed here are my own. There are affiliate links in this post. *

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