Hey there, bookworms! Happy weekend! I hope you’re all enjoying a few days of from work and obligations to relax and spend some time reading and tackling the TBR pile! I’m still slightly in upheaval mode from moving so my reading has slowed down some, but I figured I’d jump on here to give you a long overdo book review. I have plenty of books in the backlog but since there was a certain movie that debuted this Valentine’s Day weekend, I thought it only appropriate to do a combo book and move review. Now, let’s get to it and talk about The Will, book 1 in the Magdalene series by Kristen Ashley.
Early in her life, Josephine Malone learned the hard way that there was only one person she could love and trust: her grandmother, Lydia Malone. Out of necessity, unconsciously and very successfully, Josephine donned a disguise to keep all others at bay. She led a globetrotting lifestyle on the fringes of the fashion and music elite, but she kept herself distant.
While Josephine was trotting the globe, retired boxer Jake Spear was living in the same small town as Lydia. There was nothing disguised about Jake. Including the fact he made a habit of making very bad decisions about who to give his love.
But for Josephine and Jake, there was one person who adored them. One person who knew how to lead them to happiness. And one person who was intent on doing it.
Even if she had to do it as her final wish on this earth.
This is the first book of Ashley’s I’ve read and honestly, I’m a bit torn on how I feel about it. I listened to this one on Audible during my hours at the office, and for most of this book, it felt like a chore to listen to, unfortunately. Ashley writes long books (this one is 595 pages) which I generally I don’t have a problem with. I always approach books the same way, one page at a time. However, even in listening to this story, there was a lot of fluff that I felt could have been edited from the story.
I loved the characters of Josie and Jake, and I adored their entire dynamic. They’re both incredibly flawed human beings (which seems to come with the territory of romance novels) and they’ve both made plenty of mistakes when it came to finding love and happiness, but they have a chemistry and a connection that unfolds in a natural way and develops from strangers to friends to something far more intimate without bombarding the reader with smoldering sex, angst, and heartache. This is a different sort of romance.
Don’t get me wrong, I am obsessed with a sensual, sexy, steamy romance, and I’m not saying this book didn’t have it, but let me explain. The Will is considered a romance for more mature audiences. Often these days, romance novels feature characters in their 20s and younger. Sometimes, we get a couple in their 30s, and while age isn’t revealed, it’s understood Jake and Josie have experience and are still looking for their soulmate in their 40s, which means this story is told differently, the chemistry and connection is different, and the way they fight and makeup is different, but I loved reading about all of it. As a mid-thirties person myself, I’m in this very strange in-between phase where I’m attracted to the 20 something book boyfriends, but also the 40+ silver foxes.
Though their meeting was somewhat unconventional, I loved how fierce and protective Jake was of Josie and her grandmother, Libby’s iconic house (and therefore, her legacy). I loved what a good father he is, and I love how flawed he was and still is as a man. Josie is a woman with a past and a traumatic childhood who has to be handled with a certain amount of care when she has very few loved ones left in her life. Jake does that with tenderness and patience and Josie begins to open up as she becomes comfortable with him and his kids. She immediately takes in his three children (Connor, Amber, and Ethan) and treats them as her own, and doesn’t judge him for his notoriously colorful past and previous broken marriages.
My overall problem with this book goes back to the point I made in the beginning. This is a hefty book, which I’m normally on board with wholeheartedly. As C.S. Lewis once said, “you can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me”, which is what I normally think of when losing myself in a story. However, with this book, there were definitely moments that could have easily been trimmed. There was a whole colorful cast of characters in this book; various townspeople Josie and Jake encounter here-and-there who we could’ve done without. There were fairly lengthy conversations Josie had with the working girls at Jake’s stripe club that didn’t impact the story, drama with Connor (Jake’s oldest son) and multiple girls he was dating that could’ve been saved for a later installment perhaps when it was his own story, long, drawn-out conversations with Amber (Jake’s daughter) and her besties, the Taylors about hair and makeup, and dare I say it, even moments with Jake’s ex-wives that yes, added minor drama to the story, but who weren’t profound enough to merit a chunk of story time taking away from the dynamic of the main characters.
I was extremely interested and invested in Jake and Josie’s story. I wanted the tension to build and I wanted them to fall in love with each other, but the pages in between those moments felt beyond excessive and by time I got back to focusing on them, I felt derailed and had to get back on track, and therefore, felt a little less committed to their love story.
Where they redeemed themselves was over on Passionflix. Tosca Musk and her wonderful team brought these characters to life on screen and they did the trimming I so wanted to happen in the book. I know it’s sacrilegious to say that the movie is better than the book, but let me make two points as a devoted reader. One, in this case, it’s absolutely true. The movie is what I wanted the book to be. There were only two key scenes at the end of the book I would’ve loved to see portrayed in the movie, but I digress. Two, as a reader, there will never be a 100% win when it comes to putting books on screen. Over the years, I’ve had to separate the original story in the book to what I see portrayed in a movie or on a tv show. They’re two different mediums that both have their limitations and challenges so they’ll wind up diverting a little bit. In this case, I’m on team movie. The book was good, but not one of my favorites. Seeing Josie and Jake on screen for an hour and 45 minutes was far more satisfying.
Until next time, happy reading (and go check out this movie)!
For those of you who read this book and watched the Passionflix movie this weekend, do you have a preference? Leave me a comment and let me know!
