Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Book #Review: Perfect Fit (Perfect Duo Book 2) by Brenda Jackson

Book Title: Perfect Fit ( The Perfect Series)
Author:  Brenda Jackson |WebsiteTwitterFacebook|
Publisher: Kensington Books (dafina)
Genre: Romance, African American Romance
Series/Standalone: Series Book 2
Format: Mass Market 
Cost: $6.99
Pages: 388
How I got it: Purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
Publication Date: Feb 01, 2011
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Synopsis:
Sage Dunbar is dealt a shattering double blow when she discovers that her fiancé has depleted her bank accounts and her father has been having an affair. Reeling with shock, she accepts a job promotion that involves relocating to Anchorage, Alaska. She never expects to cross paths with a man who will challenge everything she thought she knew about love.

Gabe's "sex-only" relationship policy has been working just fine, keeping him free of messy entanglements and emotional baggage. Then he meets Sage, and his no-commitment ways start to lose their appeal. But Sage isn't ready to give her heart and trust to another man any time soon. With a single-minded determination that surprises even him, Gabe resolves to convince her that true love can erase every obstacle--real or imagined--in its path. . ..

Praise for Brenda Jackson's Perfect Timing
I picked this one up pretty quickly after reading Perfect Timing. Since I origianally started witht his book I was able to dive right in with some background on the main character telling the story.  I dived into this having glimpsed the character from the previous book and having formed an idea of who he was due to his actions and the advice he gave in book one.

Now Brenda writes characters that are amazingly relatable. They are successful, come from different backgrounds but have stories and experiences the reader has had or knows someone who has lived it. This makes for a really good and immersive reading experience.  The characters are all well written, fleshed out and well rounded.  In this one we meet up again with Gabe who is a successful businessman who is happy to be in a new town due to the change in his firm, with his best friend now a married man, he's the one doing the traveling, and while there sees a vision across the room. This woman immediately draws him in and he's beyond disappointed when he realizes that she's so confident and glowing happily because she's a successful woman who is engaged. And he's got the feeling she's happy with her place in life.

With this being the start of the story I wasn't sure what was going to happen to bring these two together, because as y'all know I don't read synopsis, especially from favorite authors. They are just autobuy and read.  The story is told in two parts, the beginning with everyone's background and the laying down of information as to what leads us to the second part. And when we find out what happens to send Sage running to the cold wilds of Alaska, I totally agreed with her. I was freaking out and cussing out everyone involved.  Dealt such a heartbreaking blow she goes away to find a good way to explain to her family what happened and discovers a secret so soul destroying it just about breaks her.  I couldn't help but feel her pain, because Goddess above knows I wouldn't know what to do or say in that situation.  I do know I would rage though, just be so angry.

The premise of this story is the lesson each of the characters has to learn in forgiveness and letting go. Even though Gabe had created these rules to protect himself he hadn't really dealt with his own issues from his situation and this caused a constant back and forth between him and Sage.  As Sage, I was also annoyed that people kept insisting she didn't know her own mind and would come around once she stopped being mad. Listen, I'm not that forgiving and this isn't one of those moments a person can just get over, so stop asking me to be the bigger person. I can forgive, but forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean reconciliation.

Now I have very strong feelings about cheating. I'm not going to say that everyone else should follow my lead, it's your relationship do what works for you. However, I highlighted this discussion between the person being cheated on and Sage and I just wanted to slap them.
While he didn’t tell me everything that was going on with him at work, I felt something was bothering him, and I became concerned. But not concerned enough to start spending more time with him to get to the root of the problem. Instead, I became more and more absorbed in what I was doing—my church work, my charities, my frustrations to move forward and make wedding plans, and my own job. I wasn’t there for him. Unfortunately, someone else was.” ~~~ Only a strong woman, a very strong woman, could admit as well as accept something like that.
Let me explain to you, no matter how much you work at taking care of your relationship if your partner is going to cheat THEY WILL CHEAT. It's bullshyt to try to lift the burden of their bad behavior by saying you should have done more.  We are partners for a good long time and you didn't think to come to me and say " I think my job is in jeopardy, I'm going to have to work harder and longer to prove to them that I'm still good at it". You made a unilateral choice to take yourself off and sleep with someone else because I couldn't read your effing mind?? Is you crazy??

If you want to forgive them then say it's because Y'all have history and you don't feel like starting over. Don't serve me some religious bullshyt that we are called to forgive. No. They cheated,, they had plenty of time in which to make a change to walk away to not actually take their clothes off and sleep with that person. And to then have someone else help hide your duplicity?? Nah son,  I hate how women, especially black women are expected to absorb the trauma of their partners lying, cheating and putting their health at risk and work at forgiving them, when we know full well that if the reverse happened those women would be dogged out and called all kinds of names.

I did like the progression of the story and loved the parallels in growth that both Sage & Gabe had to go through.  Even though Sage didn't believe she had anything left to learn.  I would have loved more from her friend Rose's story as we were only getting snippets and a few spoke of trauma not being addressed. I did love the growth she also went through and how that helped her open up to avenues she normally wouldn't have looked at without making those changes. 

It was a sweet ending and a good story. I loved the romance of it, the building of a friendship then slow dating, the slow unfolding of love and the acceptance of the gift that love is.  Forgiveness comes in many forms and letting go comes when the heart has fully healed. It leaves scars but each love is a lesson and a chance to embrace change and I loved this story for that.
 ★★★☆
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Happy Reading my loves, 

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