Breaking Free (Maddie & Kara #2) – D.R. Coghlan

This book has me in a bit of a conundrum when it comes to reviewing. I liked the characters, I enjoyed the writing, it’s a good follow-up from the first book and I would genuinely like the third possible part to finish the story of Maddie and Kara, yet I can’t list this amongst my 4/5 star reviews.

At times I found myself skimming/speed reading pages, wanting to get to the end and the reconciliation I knew would happen, finding all the ignoring each other in a long distance relationship frustrating. However, I can imagine that this is very realistic for some people in this type of situation. Another reason I’m finding it difficult to review – I believe most elements of the book are realistic – difficult families, bad friendships etc. Perhaps I was just looking for something to get lost in and the realism couldn’t take me away from day to day life enough.

The twist in the book is good, and was a good way of starting to encourage those on Maddie’s side to start seeing her differently. I was happy to guess the twist before it happened, but only just, so I didn’t spend the whole book wondering why Maddie couldn’t see it.

Kara’s storyline was good and I think showed a journey some people go on when they fall for someone and see themselves changing from the person they thought they were.

If you like realism in your lesbian romance books you should enjoy this one and even if you don’t there’s a lot to like here, just prepare to be a little frustrated along the way.