Worth the Wait by Jamie Beck Release Date: March 17, 2015 Publisher: Montlake Romance Book #1 in the St. James series Number of Pages: 304 Kindle edition Source: Kindle Lending Library (December selection) Contemporary Romance M/F Rating: NC-17 Read 12/26/18
Thirteen years ago, Vivi LeBrun was sketching a rooster and eating Oreos when she first met—and fell for—her friend’s brother, David St. James. Since then, her love for David has only intensified thanks to years of friendship with his family, who rescued her from a lonely, tumultuous childhood. As she travels to Block Island to vacation with the St. James siblings, Vivi daydreams about reuniting with David, hoping he’ll finally see her as his soul mate.
After his mother’s death, David distanced himself from his siblings, determined to hide a devastating family secret. Now, he’s brought a new girlfriend along to his homecoming—one who’s pushing for a serious commitment. The last thing he needs on his growing list of problems is his budding attraction to Vivi.
With tensions running high, David’s behavior triggers a series of events that might cost him the love he’s always taken for granted and Vivi the only real family she’s ever known.
Two new-to-me authors in a row that blew me away. I really adored this story. I’ll admit that at one point I thought the story was going to end up longer than it had to be, but I was wrong. The story that needed to be told, the journey that Vivi had to go through to find her confidence, the realizations David need to come by, all warranted the story continue past where I thought it would go.
Poor Vivi. She is everyone’s champion and always has a cheery outlook, but who is her champion? David has played that role in the past, but always while still keeping her in her neat little box of “friend” when she wanted more. Then he disappeared on her and the rest of his family after his mom passed away. Yet, when he turns back up with an unknown girlfriend in tow almost two years later, she still gives him the benefit of the doubt.
David has always been one to follow the rules. He’s always admired his parents and their relationship, felt he was the protector of his younger siblings, and he took Vivi under his wing when she and his sister became best friends. His world comes crashing down soon before his mom dies and finds he has to leave for a while so he can pick up the pieces on his own. Only he never really deals with the issues that caused him to run and, in the meantime, he’s pushed his siblings and Vivi away.
My heart breaks for David. He’s put in such a terrible position. As much as the stories of his mom make her seem like a wonderfully warm and caring person, I feel she put a huge burden on him that should never have been his to carry. And David’s personality won’t let him go against his mother’s wishes, even when they are making him seem like the bad guy in a terrible situation. As always, Vivi is there for David and is his biggest support.
I found there to be beautiful chemistry with David and Vivi and that chemistry really made the scenes with David’s current girlfriend awkward…which was perfect for the story. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the friendship chemistry with Vivi and Cat. Vivi seemed closer and to be more herself with Cat’s brothers. Part of that could be that Cat was written as being distant due to her own relationship issues at the time, and when I read the next story which features Cat I will hopefully learn to love her a bit more than I did in this story.
This was a good, solid read. The side characters, for the most part, were fleshed out wonderfully and really gave me a lot to look forward to in this series.
All In Good Time 
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