#REVIEW #BLOG TOUR STOP! "While You Were Gone" by Kate Moretti

Description:

A Companion Novella to the NYT Bestseller Thought I Knew You

Despite Karen Caughee’s intense focus on her music, her life is drifting out of its lane. Her alcoholic mother keeps calling from bars for early-morning rides, her boyfriend doesn’t think she gets him, and that Toronto Symphony Orchestra position she applied for ends up going to her friend, Amy. By chance, she meets American Greg Randolf just before she’s in a car accident. He pulls her from the wreckage, but after major surgery, her recovery is slow. Without her music, her life’s pursuit, Karen is pushed further adrift.

Greg stays by her side while she heals, and he sees her every time he’s in Toronto for work. Without any other support or friendship in her life, Karen craves his enthusiastic attention, and their friendship deepens to love. Though she’s fallen hard for him, he doesn’t share everything with her. In one heartrending moment, Karen’s life comes to a crossroads, and she must face the full truth about who Greg is, and about who she has become.

MY TAKE:

3 Stars

I love this author’s writing a LOT! The way this author writes, she is 'very' talented! I read and reviewed Thought I Knew You and I loved the book! I gave it a five star rating, too, because it truly deserved it. I highly suggest reading that book first, in the order these were written. After the first book, this can be read, if so desired, as a follow-up. If not read that way, I know this book WILL take away from the first book, and very well may take a lot away from the first book if you read this novella first. (The author did put this book as 1.5, meaning it is to come ‘after’ the first book, and I’m glad she did.) This book made the New York Times Bestsellers list and the USA Today bestseller list with ‘Thought I Knew You’ in May of 2014! She also won the Big Al’s Books and Pals 2013 Reader’s Choice Award Romance Winner (per Amazon for that one.) Congratulations to this author again! This proves how well she writes and how excellent this book is!

When I was finished with that book, I was done, I felt very satisfied, and the ending, well, that is how that couple in that story were left. Good or bad, happy or sad, that is the way this author wrote the end of that story. Sure, when you finish reading a book, you can be left with unanswered questions at times, but that happens with almost every book out there. That is the story, that is how it was written. There are things we loved about the book and then there are those little things we may be questioning or not agree with. It happens in every book. Sure, people probably had questions about this book, but it’s not ANY different from any other book. In fact, this book has been compared to Gone Girl, but you don’t see that author writing another book, a 1.5 follow-up book explaining anything more about it. Yes, I don’t understand the reason why this author felt the need to publish this book. She has an excellent, award winning book she wrote, and I feel she should have left it at that and I much rather would have liked to have seen her move on and write a NEW book! A brand new stand-alone book because this author writes so well she could be celebrating that book hitting the charts. Instead, this author is staying in the past with this book and writing the sides of the story of other characters from the first book.

I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed because this book was really good. This author CAN WRITE! I would have much preferred to spend my time reading a NEW book with new characters and have seen her leave these as they are. Again, this book made it huge, it was so successful hitting the bestseller charts and the romance award, too! I kind of feel this author caved due to the moral issues some readers had, and this is holding this author back.

In the beginning of the book, the author has a “Dear Reader” letter. She tells us this book is a stand-alone novella based on the first book. I’m glad she wrote that. She continues on to tell us apparently some readers had issues with Claire and Greg’s final decision in that first book, so I happen to feel this author is trying to make the ‘bad guy’ look better. The author goes on to tell us (and what I believe is she is standing up for her own characters she wrote) more about the characters from the first book, and trying (per what she wrote in this letter to us) to make Greg and Karen human, more lovable, despite their mistakes.

I could go on standing up for more reasons why I think this author should have just moved on to writing her next book, and I could list all the reasons why I don’t believe we are privy to every character’s side of every story, just as in real life we often don’t always get the side of every story about the people closest to us. I can think of many things from my first marriage I still don’t have answers to, but . . . I will never get them. I wish I had an author out there to write my ex’s side of the story so I could understand a lot more about a lot of the things that happened and the real reason why about so many things, but then again do I really want to find out about all of the details and KNOW EVERYTHING that led up to the end of our marriage after learning his side of the story? NO way! What if the character of Claire were to read this book and learn ALL the details about her husband’s side of the story? How do you think she would feel reading and learning all of the intimate details about her husband? Not good. See, writing like this could go on and on, back and forth, over and over, and this is why I feel the way I do about this book.

I tried to write this review without giving ANY spoilers for the first book or give ANY information that would reflect back onto the first book because I think that first book was just excellent, so in case this review sounds vague and/or maybe even a little spotty in places, this is why. I don’t even want to talk about what this novella is about because most anything I say will give a lot of information about the first book’s story away. Besides, there are so many other detailed reviews about this book already, I don't want to 'add' more information than what you already have.

Kate Moretti, please keep writing well into the future! You are SO talented and we LOVE how wonderful you write that we want more!! We can’t wait for your next new book! 
This book was provided to me by the author and her publicist through Red Adept Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author:

Kate Moretti lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, two kids, and a dog. She’s worked in the pharmaceutical industry for ten years as a scientist, and has been an avid fiction reader her entire life.

She enjoys traveling and cooking, although with two kids, a day job, and writing, she doesn’t get to do those things as much as she’d like.

Her lifelong dream is to buy an old house with a secret passageway.

Visit Kate:

Goodreads page: http://bit.ly/1W4cgMS

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/katemorettiwriter

Twitter: @KateMoretti1

Blog: A Beaker’s Reflection

Red Adept Publishing Page: http://bit.ly/RAPWhileGo