Hi, I'm thrilled to show you my review of I Stand Before You by S.R Grey, that literally melted my heart. Be sure to read my 5 stars review and enter tour wide Giveaway!
About The Book:
Title: I Stand Before You (Judge Me Not #1)
Author: S. R Grey
When it comes to tattooed bad boys, Chase Gartner is the real deal. Partying, engaging in meaningless sex, getting into fights---Chase indulges in it all during his late teen years, thus firmly solidifying his status as a heartbreakingly gorgeous but way-too dangerous-to-trust guy in his hometown of Harmony Creek, Ohio. Then, following one fateful night of reckless decisions, Chase's actions finally catch up to him and land him in prison.
Now, four years have passed and Chase finds himself a free man. He returns to Harmony Creek, ready to pick up the pieces and start rebuilding his shattered life.
Things are off to a promising start when he meets Kay Stanton, a young woman with a tragic past of her own. Despite a powerful attraction, Chase and Kay are naturally hesitant to become involved. That's why friendship feels like the safest option. But when passions ignite and love blossoms, a relationship that is destined and meant to be can only be resisted for so long. When Chase and Kay finally succumb to their feelings they realize being together feels more right and true than anything they have ever experienced.
But their love is soon tested. Chase's wild past still haunts and tempts him, and Kay is keeping a secret that could tear them apart.
I Stand Before You is a journey of hope and forgiveness, coming to terms with the past and moving forward. But mostly it's a story of two damaged people who take a chance, open their hearts, and find true love.
New Adult/Contemporary Romance genres. First in a series.
***warning: contains graphic sexual situations, drug use, some violence, and profanity***
Now, four years have passed and Chase finds himself a free man. He returns to Harmony Creek, ready to pick up the pieces and start rebuilding his shattered life.
Things are off to a promising start when he meets Kay Stanton, a young woman with a tragic past of her own. Despite a powerful attraction, Chase and Kay are naturally hesitant to become involved. That's why friendship feels like the safest option. But when passions ignite and love blossoms, a relationship that is destined and meant to be can only be resisted for so long. When Chase and Kay finally succumb to their feelings they realize being together feels more right and true than anything they have ever experienced.
But their love is soon tested. Chase's wild past still haunts and tempts him, and Kay is keeping a secret that could tear them apart.
I Stand Before You is a journey of hope and forgiveness, coming to terms with the past and moving forward. But mostly it's a story of two damaged people who take a chance, open their hearts, and find true love.
New Adult/Contemporary Romance genres. First in a series.
***warning: contains graphic sexual situations, drug use, some violence, and profanity***
My Thoughts:
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I stand before you. Judge me not.
I Stand Before You was exactly what I thought it would be. Full of angst, mistakes, terrible pasts and love. Fantastic concept with great twist plus perfect writing made me devoured it! What's not to adore in sensual story of second chances, dealing with demons of past and finding your place in world? This exceptional novel will bring you to new world of passion and love that has no borders and is realistic enough to make you feel you are a part of this story.
Chase's life is not even close to perfect or normal, after death of his father, when Chase was only seventeen, he's become only a shell of who he was before. Sent by her mother to live with his grandma in Harmony Creek, Chase feels he’s not needed. Now when he's twenty, he spends his time with bad crowd, slowly destroying himself with drugs, alcohol and mindless sex. Toe after toe he's crossing the border between good and bad as well as becoming addicted to drugs.
One night when he's out with his friend, they decide to make another irreversible step. They will deal ecstasty. But before Chase can do his first transaction, he is caught by the police and has to spend four years in prison. Every day there was a struggle and fight for his own sanity. He saw things no one was supposed to see.
When his sentence ends, Chase goes back to Harmony Creek to go back to normal life without drugs, alcohol and sex. But living in small town when everyone is judgemental and doesn't want to give him a chance to show he's changed, Chase has hard time with socializing. The only people who showed him they believe him and wanted to give him second chance is Father Maridale and first grade teacher Kay Stanton.
Kay is full of grief and guilt. Almost four years ago her little sister died because of her. Cast away by her mother, she's lonely and doesn't have anyone to lean on. She finished college and started working as a teacher in small school with hope her life could be less empty. But when summer comes and she doesn't have companionship of children she's slowly dying inside.
Thanks to Father Maridale she gets second job as a secretary in church where she meets Chase. The man who can heal her. They start creating amazing friendship with hope of being less lonely. But when they start spending more and more time together and confess their's secrets to each other, their relationship changes.
The best thing in this book are characters, because Chase and Kay made this novel beautiful and touching. No matter how bad their decisions were and how many mistakes they made you can help loving both of them.
Their complex personalities and stunning writing made Grey one of my favorite storytellers. She has not only wrote about Kay and Chase action but also went deeper and showed how their minds work.
Every decision and new step was explained in a way that made you realize what kind of people they really are. Chase is not your typical bad boy character from New Adult novels. He's definitely unique and beautiful. He doesn't decide to be better person for a girl he's in love with. He made this decision before he met Kay, because he needed it for himself. And no matter how many slips he made along the way he still gets up every time and tries harder.
Kay is another complex character. My heart ached for her. Her loss and guilt were so entwined together it was hard for her to let go and understand everything that happened. Her love for her baby sister was heartwarming yet still my heart swell with pain every time she was mentioned.
Together Chase and Kay were fantastic. If I make the list of the best book couples in 2013 they will be there in top five. I adored how they could be teasing each other and having fun together, sharing passionate nights and confessing their's deeper secrets. This was a great portrait how relationship should work.
I Stand Before You is touching, emotional and compelling, well written story about living your life the best you can, letting go of the pass as well as a heartbreaking novel about loss, love, and slowly giving yourself a chance in moving on. I loved it and I can’t wait for more in this series. For those of you that are curious there is not relationship cliffhanger, it ends in perfect moment that’s a great opening for another book.
* ARC provided by author in exchange for honest review *
View all my reviews
Thank you, Patricia! I really appreciate you taking part in the blog tour for I Stand Before You. :)
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