Ghosted

UGH THIS BOOK. It's so beautiful. And real. And raw. And brutal. And I literally don't know what to do with myself after I finished it and trust me I stalled as much as I can so it doesn't end. I think I need like 10 more post-epilogue chapters because I am so invested in these characters. I need to know that they will be OK 10, 20, 30 years later. Every now and then, there's this one book that just consumes you (coincidentally my last one, that I can recall at least, is a Darhower book too) and this is one of those. I'm going to be rambling on and on in this review but, really, all I wanted to say is that this is a damn beautiful book and you're missing out if you're not giving this a chance.“I don’t want to keep hurting you. I never wanted to hurt you.”It's unreal how much emotions this story drew out of me. I've been an emotional wreck all throughout. This is a second chance story at its finest. It's not for the faint of heart but the reward are all those raw emotions that it will draw out of you. It's a wonderful story of redemption, second chances, and the lengths one would or would not do for love.“You’re the queen. I’m just a commoner.”Jonathan and Kennedy met during their senior high school days with both being outsiders in their own ways. The connection is immediate, they became great friends and it wasn't long before the two are falling in love. Jonathan is unhappy in New York but he stayed for as long as he could because of Kennedy. After one incident, he decided that he's had enough and he wanted to runaway and pursue his dreams. He asked Kennedy to go with him and she said yes without hesitation. They eventually made it to LA and there the nightmare soon started. I won't go into much detail on what happens but let's just say that they faced the struggles of 90% of new actors who wanted to make it big in LA. Kennedy sacrificed everything while Jonathan pursued his dreams and eventually when Jonathan gave in to the temptation of drugs and booze, it became too much for Kennedy. She has allowed herself to become a secondary character in her own story. It came to a turning point when she became pregnant. And so... she walked away from him. From then on, Jonathan has been asking for a second chance but Kennedy can't give it until he cleans himself up especially now that they have a daughter. About six years later, Jonathan is now at the top of the Hollywood ladder. He's headlining the Breezeo comic book superhero franchise (which is also Kennedy's favorite comic book), he has legions of fans, his life is a tabloid's wet dream and yet he's very unhappy. He's been clean and sober for a year (the longest he's been after multiple rehab attempts) and after an accident where he needed to disappear for a while and recuperate, he decided to take a chance and try again to make amends with Kennedy and hopefully get a chance to be a part of kid's life. The things that happened from this point on will make you smile and cry and root for this family to make it.“She wrote it like it was meant for me, but I remember things differently. To me, she was the center of the universe, the sunlight that burned so bright, but she writes herself in the shadows, secondary in her own life. Instead, she made me the hero, the center of this alternate universe she invented around her.”Jonathan is a very complex hero and while I fell in love with him, I'm still not sure if I completely forgave the character (OK I think I did but you know what I mean...). He started out as a young starry eyed dreamer who easily won the heart of our heroine, Kennedy, but the lure of Hollywood fame, drugs, alcohol, and ultimately all his inner demons turned him into a horrible shell of himself. He is a good man and he loved Kennedy with all his heart but his addiction made it impossible for him to be the man that Kennedy deserves. He did a lot of f----d up things. Things that are not easy to forgive. He took all the sacrifice and love of the woman who has believed in him from the beginning for granted. His actions in the chapter "Broken Promises" in particular broke me. It's a testament to Ms. Darhower's prowess that despite everything that Jonathan did, she still made me love the character and in the end, I wanted him to get his redemption and his HEA with Kennedy and Maddie. I think what sold me is how he took accountability for all his screw ups. He made no excuses nor did he try to defend himself (even though he wanted to) because ultimately, he knows that he messed up big time and everything was his fault. He took all the anger and the jabs that Kennedy threw at him because he knows he deserves it. In the present scenes, you can feel his genuine remorse and how he's hurting from seeing all the damage that he has done. I never doubted that even when he was at his worst in the past, he's always loved Kennedy and now in the present, he really wanted to make things right not only with her but also with the daughter that he grew to love above all else.“You don’t know this, but that woman? Even as she smiles, she’s utterly terrified. Your love is more than enough for her, but she feels pieces of it slipping away. Something inside of her is disintegrating. Her dream. She’s losing it.”Kennedy is one strong resilient heroine. Good god, this woman. The things she went through. Your heart will break to a million pieces for her. Truthfully, she's too good for Jonathan but the heart wants what it wants, right? What I like most about her is just how real she is. She is not a black and white character. She's not all out strong yet cold but she's not all out weak and emotional either. She's a strong woman who feels things. A woman who, despite all the hurt she's feeling, knows that she loves this broken man and that will never change. She's someone who knows that despite her love for him, she loves their daughter more and she will always come first.“I’ve loved you since before my eighteenth birthday when we sat on your father’s couch and watched me play dead on television”Can we talk about Maddie? The precious scene stealing daughter of Kennedy and Jonathan? This kid! UGH I love her. This girl is a ball of sunshine and everything I want in a child character. She is so darn adorable. I want to jump inside the book and hug her. Even if you end up hating this book, you will surely love Maddie. With this and another book of her's (that I won't mention as it sort of counts as a spoiler), I'm now convinced that Ms. Darhower writes the cutest and most adorable child characters ever. I absolutely love their dialogues. The supporting characters are also great in this book. There's at least one that you will love to hate and another (Jack) that will surely make you laugh and maybe shake your head.“Is that how I made you feel?”“It is.”“I’m sorry.”“Don’t be. It taught me something important.”“What’s that?”“Never make someone else the main character in your own story.”“I wasn’t accusing you of cheating. I just wanted to know how long it took you to move on.”“Oh, well, that’s an easy one. It hasn’t happened."I can't end this review without commenting on how great Darhower's writing is. It's like you're living these characters' lives and feeling all their thoughts and emotions - their hurt, their love, their happiness, their regrets. The way she weaves these words is beautiful and poetic. Almost every line can be something worth highlighting. I also thought the way she wrote the past was really clever. Since reading her past book, Menace, I've always wondered if she can replicate the cleverness of how she presented a certain POV there and she's successfully done that here! While reading this book, I feel like I'm reading different yet interconnected stories - the past, the present, and even Breezeo's story.

This was an interesting story, and I enjoyed it. I like the different style of writing. There was not a lot of drama and no last quarter break up.There are a bunch of grammatical errors throughout the story.This is a personal pet peeve of mine, so I didn't mark it down for this. I hate when there are loving, understanding, well-off parents who want to be involved, and the MC "HAS" to do everything on their own. They work multiple jobs, or so many hours that they are barely scraping by and never see their child. They also live in a bad neighborhood because that's what is best for their kid. I don't get it. Personal pet peeve rant over.*This book is rated R. The F word is used more than once. The spice scenes are explicitly detailed.

‘But love is only as strong as the people who fuel it.’What a story! We can’t stop gushing about this second chance romance! We loved everything about it..….e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g! But then, of course the phenomenally talented J M Darhower wouldn’t just write a Hollywood, second chance love story with a fabulous couple and the most adorable little girl you could meet, we should have known she would own it! A wonderfully executed, well-paced emotional love story, with the perfect mix of passion, angst, heartbreak, sweetness and swoon, together with fabulous characters we can’t stop thinking about it. We found ourselves constantly torn between never wanting this story to end, yet desperate to finish to see how it would all play out.“You’re the queen. I’m just the commoner.‘We’d be here for days if we listed all the things we loved about Ghosted! This story exemplified the second chance theme. To experience the angst, the longing, the hurt and the pain of the characters having their hearts broken and trying to find their way back to one another, we need to feel…really feel the second chance element in order for it to grip our hearts and stir up those aching emotions and JM Darhower did that and more! Jonathan and Kennedy’s heartbreaking, heart-warming, painful and beautiful love story gripped us from the very start!“I need you to know…that even when I completely f**ed up, I never once stopped loving you.”Jonathan Elliot Cunningham and Kennedy Reagan Garfield met at 17 when Jonathan walked into Kennedy’s American Politics class and straight into her heart. From that moment, the two became inseparable sharing their dreams and hopes. All Kennedy wanted was Jonathan, all Jonathan wanted was to be successful actor, and take care of his ‘queen’. Kennedy owned his soul…that is, until his demons took hold and their world fell apart. But how? Why? How did they come to that moment in the present? What made Jonathan self-destruct the way he did? All will be revealed! Trust us!‘I don’t know how I’m feeling. I’m a twisted up mess, a broken once-hopeful romantic, holding my heart in a clenched fist and begging him to take it, yet I’m afraid to let go and give him that kind of control.Because the last time I gave my heart to him, he crushed it.’How JM Darhower intrinsically wove the past with the present, and the clever and unique way in which she took us back to the sweet, swoony yet tumultuous four years in Jonathan and Kennedy’s young lives, simultaneously toying with our emotions was brilliant! Nothing felt contrived, with past and present flowing naturally ensuring we were so connected to Kennedy, Jonathan and Maddie in the present, left no doubt we would experience, first hand the utter torment and despair, as we’re taken back to witness the disintegration of the hopes, dreams and love of Kennedy and Jonathan. It tore us apart!‘Your dream has become my nightmare, and I’m begging you to let me wake up.’Ghosted radiated emotion, transfixing us through every heart rending moment. Be it from the past love and starry eyes of two young dreamers, or the present with two people trying to deal with the past, attempting to repair their hearts for the sake of their little girl who was an absolute bundle of cuteness. And ohhh…those interactions with little Maddie and Jonathan will leave you in a puddle! Oh gosh, one scene in particular broke us as we shared the innocence of this cute little child and the utter hopelessness felt by a father trying to repair his past mistakes – that scene as well as others, had us in tears.‘A day without you is going to be like a day without the sun. Don’t let her days go dark.’Every moment in this story was heartfelt, beautiful, happy, maddening and saddening. JM Darhower breathed life into this theme, never flinching or sugar coating Jonathan’s demons, telling us exactly what was in his and Kennedy’s hearts, pulling us into her story, delivering realistic characterisation in Kennedy, Jonathan, Maddie and the supporting characters. Throughout Ghosted, she summoned our emotions in a story about the complexities of love – hopeless and hopeful love.JM Darhower is an author who can convey a thousand words and a million feelings with one sentence, and once again, she has astonished us with her incredibly beautiful and raw storytelling. And oh that epilogue….! Prepare to have Jonathan, Kennedy and the adorable little Maddie steal your hearts!‘You can’t get caught up and forget she’s sitting at home waiting for you. Because you live in a big, big world now, but hers is very small.’

Loved this story and my heart was aching for the characters, loved it so much, highly recommend!!

Eu li esse livro por causa de uma trend no twitter, e felizmente me apaixonei ainda na sinopse. O livro é incrível! A história é triste, verdadeira, os personagens são bem escritos e desenvolvidos, no final eu queria mais e mais dessa história.

Super bello!

- [ ] "Day's feel like months without you."'Ghosted' is a second chance, single mom, slow-burn romance done to perfection. It was well developed, filled with anticipation-you just cant help but want to turn the page to find out what happens next. But not just that, it was beautifully written, emotional, heart-breaking and oh so angsty. The story is told in dual POV, as well as an alternating POV and timeframe, where the past and present come together. At first, I was sceptical about this-dual timelines are not really a favourite of mine-however, I'm glad to be proven wrong because I loved the way the past and present were revealed, with them being in such different contrast to one another was quite refreshing to read as I found myself falling in love with Jonathan in the present story, yet also becoming angered by is actions in the past-it held a good balance of sweetness and angst at the same time.MADDIE, MADDIE, MADDIE. COME ONNN CAN YOU GET ANY CUTER??!!! This kid had me laughing and crying. She's one the most cutest, sweet, funny, smart and sassy kids I've had the pleasure of reading about before. She was just everything honestly!I honestly really enjoyed reading about Jonathan's growth the most. I felt for Jonathan I really did, I know how addiction can make someone do terrible things but that wasn't an excuse for his behaviour either; I'm glad the author didn't use it as a way to excuse him what he did, he was held accountable. Some of the things he said to Kennedy broke my heart, because she was there for him; she gave up her dreams so he could chase his, and he knew this but his actions didn't always portray it either. But being able to see how he was trying-in the present-to be better for Kennedy and Maddie helped to redeem his awful behaviour towards them in the past.- [ ] "There's very little I want in this world more than I want this woman."- [ ] "You're the queen baby... I'm just a commoner."We also come to understand how Kennedy was justified in the way she dealt with things in the past. She made the decision to put her daughter first-something we would all would do if we were in her situation-even if it means she had to struggle being a single mum. She didn't allow Jonathan to be in their lives until he had gotten clean and was ready to be a father and this you could tell was so hard for her to do, yet something that needed to be done and I can't fault her for that. You could say that she struggles when she didn't have to, that she could have taken the money that Jonathon was offering, but to Kennedy it wasn't what she wanted and I understood and commended her decision on that. I loved her character, my heart broke for her; she was the personification that love can't conquer all because she stayed with Jonathon for longer than she really should have but there came a time where she had to leave in order to get a better future and outcome for her daughter. Kennedy helped Jonathon to obtain his dream, she was the one to truly believe in him, but his dream became her nightmare.- [ ] "Everything I do is for he-anything to keep the smile on her face, because that smile is what keeps me going. It's the reason I get out of bed in the morning. That smile tells me I'm doing okay."One of the things I loved so much was the love everyone had for Maddie and vice versa. The relationship between Maddie and Kennedy was so wholesome, a true mother/daughter bond-"I love you more than everything, except for her."-and then when Jonathan came into Maddie's life, their bond became instant. All of the family moments had to be my fave because they were just so heart-warmingly wholesome. Chapter 16 was everything!- [ ] "You think Mommy's pretty, too?" "I think she's the most beautiful woman in the world."From the start to the end I was enthralled by this book; I cried, I laughed, it was truly an emotional rollercoaster reading this. 'Ghosted' is now a new fave of mine, its definitely a favourite read of the year and I'm so lucky to have found it so early on. Slow burn romances don't get enough credit, especially when they're this good; I fully loved how Jonathan, Kennedy and Madison's story progressed, he wasn't forgiven within the first hundred pages, it took time for Kennedy to trust him again, for her to open up her heart once more to him. The gradual way their story evolved was so beautifully written and such a great read.- [ ] "It's like I've finally figured out the point of it all, the purpose of our story-it's her."--------Tropes:- second chance- single mom- slow burn- celebrity romance- high school sweetheartsContents warnings:- drug addiction- alcohol addiction--------Quotes:- [ ] “I wasn’t accusing you of cheating. I just wanted to know how long it took you to move on.” “Oh, well, that’s an easy one,” he says. “It hasn’t happened.”- [ ] "I met my match with you.” “Match made in heaven.” “Or hell. Depends on who you ask.”- [ ] “The fire? It still burns. Something tells me it always will, no matter who tries to put it out.”- [ ] “Because I love you,” he says. “More than whiskey?” I ask. “More than whiskey,” he agrees. “More than cocaine.”- [ ] “And third, he’s one of my favorite things ‘cuz he’s my daddy. And ‘cuz he’s Breezeo."- [ ] “Never make someone else the main character in your own story.”

Oh my God! This book has a whirlwind of emotions. I made me cry at times and smile at the same time. It literally broke my heart when he said "Tell that to someone who cares" Oh God it was so hurtful, I couldn't stop my tears at that.But then they got back together but I wish there was some more to the Epilogue. I don't know but it felt incomplete.