Book Review — When It Rains by Lisa De Jong

“When it rains… Think of me.” 

• Buy WHEN IT RAINS (Kindle)

When It Rains is a well-written, highly emotional story about love, loss and healing. It’s gut-wrenchingly sad at times but also has many beautiful moments and is the kind of story that really make you feel.

This is going to be a very unconventional review for me though…  it’s the kind I always find so scary for me to write but honesty always comes first with me even if I run and hide in a corner after posting it :/

I feel very torn about this book and, to be honest, I actually would not have read it of my own accord had I known the details of the plot in advance because, in my eyes, this is a love triangle romance and personally, I’m just not usually a fan of them. There are certain exceptions to the rule for me but they are rare and the majority of them just don’t appeal to me. In the interest of being fully open though, I’ll say that different readers have varied outlooks as to whether or not this book counts as a love triangle though and the person who recommended it to me did not see it as one. I respect their opinion but simply feel differently about it.

For the record, my definition of a love triangle is when two people are in love with the same person but only one of them can be picked. In the case of this book, there were two guys in love with the same girl and she had to choose between them. It was an unconventional triangle but it still was one to me.

The specific part that bothered me here though was the heroine’s decisions throughout the book regarding the two guys and so personally I will say that this book was not for me.

However, I realize that a) many of you are fans of love triangles, b) some of you might not see it as one, and c) that those of you who don’t like triangles should know what this is about in order to help make a decision about whether or not you wish to read it….

So, in an effort to be fair to everyone, I have written a 2-part review. The first part will be for readers who do not usually enjoy love triangles, and the second part will be for readers who do. Each part will have a separate rating because regardless of my own personal feelings, I feel I owe it to the book to look at it objectively.

But before anything, here’s a little about the book…

The basic story line follows the heroine, Kate, who has grown up living next door to a guy, Beau. They’ve been inseparable best friends and as they got older, they both knew in their hearts that they were each other’s forever. Unfortunately, one rainy night without Beau there to protect her, a guy rips away a part of Kate’s life, taking something from her that she could never get back.

“My once picture perfect view of the world was gone, and all that remained were a bunch of broken pieces that I couldn’t glue back together.”

Ashamed and confused, she kept her nightmare hidden from everyone in her life for over 2 years not even telling Beau despite how desperately he cared for her and tried to get her to open up to him about it. He knew something was wrong but he didn’t know what and he was willing to wait for her, be there for her and support her no matter what.

“I love you. I think I’ve loved you since I was five…. If you ask me to stay, I’ll stay,” he says, searching my eyes. I’m always worried that he’ll find the truth buried in there somewhere, but he hasn’t yet. I pray he never will.

But Kate didn’t feel worthy of his love and kept pushing him further and further away… and finally when he left for college, she severed nearly all their ties wanting him to go on and find his happiness without her.

At this point in her life, Asher walks in. Gorgeous, mysterious and totally into her, he pushes her to face her fears and get back the pieces of her life that were stolen from her. For whatever reason, he is the one she can accept help from and she falls hard for him. But he is hiding a huge secret… one that that quite literally changes everything…

PART #1 – FOR READERS WHO DO *NOT* LIKE LOVE TRIANGLES

Rating: 2.5 stars

First, if you are a fan of triangles or if the idea of the story I mentioned above doesn’t bother you at all, just skip straight down to Part #2 because chances are high that you’ll actually love this book.

I’m not going to lie though, when I first finished the book, I was pretty furious. As a reader who desperately seeks commitment and a stable, solid relationship between characters, I found this to be a very hard read.

I think the problem was how strongly I connected with Beau in the beginning and how much I believed in their future and as such, I was honestly just incredibly frustrated with Kate. I mean I tried to be understanding of her given the horrible trauma she’d suffered but, at the same time, her decisions just did not sit right with me. I hated the way she kept pushing Beau away — it hurt so much — and I tried not to be judgmental because everyone copes with pain differently but it still broke. my. fucking. heart.

“I don’t know why I keep him at arm’s length when it’s obvious he just wants to be there for me, but I also don’t know why he lets me. He just wants what’s best for me, but I hate that he keeps sacrificing his own happiness to give it to me. I don’t deserve it.”

I felt absolutely terrible for Beau and the whole situation really just made me sad because here he was desperately in love with this girl who wouldn’t tell him what was hurting her and kept pushing him away. He wanted to help her so badly but she wouldn’t let him. I kept trying to think of the story from his perspective and thinking of that just made my heart bleed.

See, I’d have understood it if Kate hadn’t been able to let anyone in (relationship-wise) but she pretty much just let Asher in instantly. And I won’t deny that what Asher did for her was beautiful – he healed her inside and out and if I hadn’t been feeling so broken-hearted over Beau, I would have enjoyed the Asher parts of the story SO much more. He was a gorgeous character with a huge heart and what he helped Kate get back was admittedly priceless.

I just felt so indredibly conflicted because on one hand I loved Asher and what he was doing for Kate, but on the other hand, the price (breaking Beau’s heart) was just too great for me to as fully be invested in it as I would have wanted to be.

There are readers who did not see this as a love triangle though because technically Kate wasn’t in a relationship with Beau at the time that she started being serious with Asher. But I guess for me, that was just a technicality. I actually felt like she actually was in love with Beau from the start but, because of her trauma, she didn’t feel worthy of him and couldn’t admit it to herself. She’d wanted what was best for him but given how she didn’t feel worthy of him, it basically felt to me like she was pushing him away for his own good, but not because she didn’t love him… add in the fact that Beau was certainly in love with her while she was letting Asher into her life and all of this for me turned into the kind of love triangle that I didn’t enjoy.

Also, like I mentioned above, there was a huge twist with Asher which I honestly guessed even before starting the book. By looking at the book cover and reading the one quote that was posted everywhere in association to the book → “When it rains… Think of me.” ← I put two and two together.

While most of my frustration lay with Kate, Asher also did something that rubbed me the wrong way in that when he saw (in person) just how deeply Beau loved Kate, he had an opportunity to come clean about his secret and he didn’t. At that point, I really felt like he should have been open about it. It was his chance and he didn’t take it.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how Beau must have been feeling throughout this all and it just broke my heart. I’m hiding the rest of this paragraph as a SPOILER because it reveals Asher’s secret AND who Kate ends up with.

*sigh. I cared deeply for both Beau and Asher in their own way. I guess I just really really wish they were not in the same story 🙁

PART #2 – FOR FANS OF LOVE TRIANGLES

Rating: 4.5+ stars

I truly believe that if you are okay with love triangles, is a good chance you may absolutely love this book so I’m going to try and write this as fairly as I can because if the story line doesn’t bother you, then really this is a beautiful, heart wrenching and very well-written read.

The flip side to everything I wrote above is that people are not perfect. Nobody is. And everyone reacts to trauma differently. When something that life changing occurs, it hard to judge how it affects people so in that respect, I tried to be more understanding of Kate (and Asher to a certain extent).

Regarding the story’s presentation, I have to say that I loved this author’s writing style. She conveyed the emotions so vividly and was able to make me connect me very strongly to these characters right from the beginning. I’m always very impressed with a book that’s able to have me nearly in tears in the first 10% because that just goes to show just how quickly I became totally invested in the story.

The whole book had a constant deliciously angsty feeling. It was thrilling, a little mysterious and very beautiful in many respects. It also absolutely broke my heart and made me ache when the twist played out.

As much as it made me sad to see how much Kate pushed Beau away, I have to admit that what Asher gave her was truly beautiful. He was insistent, pushed his way into her life and pulled her out of her shell.

“I want to know you. I want to know what it is that made you cry, but more than that, I want to know what I have to do to make you happy again,” he says, his voice soft.

He healed her, help her find herself again and brought her back to life. He gave her a second chance, he really did… I just wish he didn’t have to break someone else’s heart to do it.

The ending is bittersweet but, as I said, people aren’t perfect and life certainly isn’t a fairy tale. Sometimes it throws curve balls that change everything you’d planned, and sometimes it hands you a lifeline that helps you survive. Overall, the writing is beautiful, and the story is very well put together and truly made me feel. 

CONCLUSION

Even though this story may not have been for me, in all honesty I do believe that many people will love this book. It really puts your heart right through the ringer and I can see it ending up on many readers’ favorites list for sure. My intention here is really not to deter you from reading this book.

Had I had a more accurate understanding of the direction of the story line before reading the book, I would simply not have read it because this is not the type of story line that appeals to me personally. That does not mean there is anything wrong with it. Every person reads a different book and no two people’s reading experience is the same. I encourage you to check this book out and see for yourself because who knows, you may end up absolutely loving it.

• Buy WHEN IT RAINS (Kindle)