REVIEW: Like You Mean It by Jillian Liota

 

Like You Mean It by Jillian Liota
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book Description: 

“I want to make you smile like you mean it.”

The day Cole Lannington says those words to me, I already know I’m falling. Hard. For a man I can never have. Because there’s no way in hell I’ll ever deserve a man like him.

Annie
All I need to do is keep my head above water. Push a little harder. Keep that smile plastered on my face for my son as we try to wade through the new life that’s threatening to drown us both.

But on the first day I can’t seem to hold it all together, I meet him. And for some reason, he comes to my aid. Before I know it, Cole steps in and becomes an important part of my life. Our lives. Fills a void left vacant by a man who never wanted to fill it in the first place.

Too bad he can never be more than a friend.

Cole
All I need to do is be a nice guy to my new neighbor. Make her smile a little bit. Find space in my tidy, structured life to ease the burden she carries so she and her son can enjoy life without the bastard who treated them like they were insignificant.

I don’t expect to talk and laugh and feel a warmth in my chest I didn’t know was missing until she showed up at my door. Somehow I end up caring about her more deeply than I should. But my friendship with Annie opens my eyes to what it could be like to have something deeper. To feel something stronger.

To fall in love like I mean it.

Like You Mean It is the first book in the Like You series and is a standalone novel.

Oh wow. Ok, so....Where has this book been all my life?!

I'm a sucker for slow burn romances. Mariana Zapata is one of my favorite authors. Unfortunately her backlist isn't that long (aka I'm all caught up on her books)...so I'm always on the look out for an author that writes a good slow burn. That's what I found here. I'm super grateful to my bff Nikki for telling me about this one. Lol, she was a smidgen frustrated when she was 57% into the book and they were still "just friends."...What I heard was "Lindsay, this is a great slow burn book and you'll absolutely love it!" I was honestly tempted to DNF the book I was in the middle of when she told me about this book. But alas, I was a good girl and finished it (it was not great).

I loved Cole and Annie. The way they met had me chuckling. I loved how protective Cole was of Annie and her son Jones. I loved how Cole fit right into their family without thinking or trying.

Part of why I love slow burn romances is because I love to see the characters start to fall for each other before they even realize they're falling for each other. And that was certainly the case here. Part of what drove Nikki crazy was the fact that at the start of the book, Cole had a girlfriend. Here's why that didn't bother me:

Neither Cole nor Annie set out to fall for each other. He was in a relationship, he thought he was happy. It took making a new friend to shine a light on the cracks that were already in his relationship. It made Cole reevaluate what he and Jess had, and was it something he really wanted. Annie had her own baggage. Her long time boyfriend, and father of her children, had just died. She had just moved across the country for a fresh start, and to be closer to her mom. She wasn't looking for a new relationship. She was just trying to survive the day to day as she rebuilt her life. And that's why I loved this book. It felt real. Neither person set out with the intentions of falling for each other. They became friends and it grew from there.

I'm not sure if Jillian Liota writes a lot of slow burners but I'll definitely be checking out her other books!

View all my reviews