This book was almost a 5 star read. It had some 6 or 7 star moments. I loved the dialog between Vivian and Oliver particularly the scene with them telling on each other at his parents house. I can really get behind a goofy heroine and she was that. I will say however I had a problem with her opening his mail and then trashing his house. Who does that? Oliver was a pretty nice tortured hero who fell hard for the heroine but he had some major issues that resulted in some not so sterling moments. Still I like a nice complicated hero also. This was a book where even though you knew you were waiting for the other shoe to drop you could still enjoy the journey which isn't always the case. I did guess what the deep secret in his past was pretty early on. Maybe because oddly I had just finished another book where the exact same thing happened to the hero. I liked that the heroing never gave up on the hero.

My biggest disappointment with the book was the ending. I think more pages should have been devoted to his recovery and less time to his just wasting time in Portland. But I really hated the epilogue. Normally I can take or leave them. This was I just didn't like at all. I would have rather their future had been left up to my imagination. ( )

I like this author. I put this book down approximately forever. I tried picking it back up, but I....

I just don't care.

My second book by Jewel E. Ann.

I liked it, but it wasn't special. Very sexy and emotional, but rushed at parts, which I didn't appreciate.
Still would love to read more by her. ( )

Sucker punched

Holy hell. I will never know why I read ugly cry type books. Do I hate myself!?!? This book was so good. I never wanted it to end. Vivian was a true warrior in this book. Makes me wish I had chosen that as my name of all my middle names that I had to choose from as my first name. Oliver. Oh my hell that guy is divine. My heart broke for him when I heard his secret. Together they were extraordinary. They bantered. They fought. They laughed. They even cried. His family was a treat. Kai even though I had a love hate relationship with him, I want him to have his own HEA. And her friend Alex. She continually cracked me up. Fantastic story. I don't think there is anything that this author can't write. ( )

Idle Bloom by Jewel E. Ann
Source: ARC from author
My Rating: 3½/5 stars
My Review:

Each and every morning Vivian Graham turns on half the morning commuters as she seductively consumes her donut and drinks her coffee. Completely oblivious, Viv all but makes love to the donut in an effort to thoroughly indulge her passion. While all the men are watching Viv, she is indulging another passion, ogling the super-hot guy who has recently joined the morning commute.

Oliver Konrad has no designs on having a happy life and until the day he dies, he will be content to live his life quietly and alone. He harbors a great amount of anger related to his past and simply can’t see himself ever allowing himself to trust or love anyone ever again. Though these things are always in the forefront of Oliver’s mind, he isn’t dead and certainly isn’t immune to the sight of the smokin’ hot girl who likes to seductively eat her donut every morning during the morning commute.

As fate would have it, Vivian and Oliver not only meet through their respective jobs but discover they are neighbors. The attraction between the two is instantaneous but both have some pretty serious baggage that may not allow either to fully commit to the other. Though Vivian appears happy on the outside, she is basically living a lie. Her parents have no idea she isn’t actually in college, her roommate’s parents have no idea she actually lives with her roommate and, her best friend has no idea how she really feels about him and the disastrous past they share. Adding to the tension and uncertainty is that fact that Oliver is significantly older than Vivian and the fact that he is clearly hiding something from Vivian.

The ups and downs experienced by Vivian and Oliver as a couple are extreme. From moments of earth-shattering passion to moments of sheer torment that involve a lot of harsh words, at least one black eye and, the destruction of property. The emotional swings and the highs and lows experienced by this couple would be enough to topple an emotionally stable couple. For Vivian and Oliver, it is something that damn near irreparably breaks them both on so many levels and forces each to face the demons of their past. When the truth of their respective pasts finally emerges, it is ugly and awful and pushes both characters to their very limits.

The Bottom Line: I was totally intrigued by both Vivian and Oliver and their stories are so twisted as to be nothing less than purely fascinating. Ann does a fine job of creating interesting characters who have a real depth to them. Oliver is morbidly sad yet hopeful for his future with Vivian and Vivian is only superficially happy and desperate to preserve what she has with Oliver. During the moments they are “happily” together they are generally having sex and ignoring their underlying issues. Once both are forced to deal with their issues they are also forced to dig deep and acknowledge what it is that makes them truly happy. My issue with this read and how I got to just three and a half stars has to do with the overall length of the read. No, I am not opposed to a lengthy read but I am opposed to a read that becomes repetitious. Once Oliver and Vivian’s cards are all on the table, the read should pick up speed and move far more quickly than it does. Instead, it becomes a sort of vicious cycle of anger, angst, sadness and, wild sex. I never thought I would hear myself say this but at some point, I got a bit tired of reading sex scenes. At the end of the day, Idle Bloom became a sort of weird read for me: I loved the characters and their story but found their story to be far longer than it needs to be. ( )