Book Review | Carry Me Home by Lia Riley

BOOK REVIEW | CARRY ME HOME

TITLE: Carry Me Home (Off the Map #3.1)

AUTHOR: Lia Riley

PUBLISHER: Forever Yours

RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2015

GENRE: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary

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Love doesn’t have to be perfect to be true…

Years ago, Tanner Green loved Sunny Letman. She was meant to be his first kiss, first love, first everything. Then their world spun upside-down and out of control.

Free-spirited Sunny doesn’t do commitment. Sure, guys are great for a night or a week, but she always leaves first. That is, until professional skateboarder and town golden boy, Tanner Green, unexpectedly walks back into her life.

Despite their broken history, a fragile and undeniably electric connection still holds them together. Now Tanner has to convince Sunny that even though love isn’t always perfect, it’s worth sticking around for…(this stand alone novella is part of the Off the Map series) (Description found on Amazon.com)

MY THOUGHTS

I’m a huge fan of Lia Riley. Over the last year she has become one of my favorite authors, so I’m always up for reading anything new of hers. Carry Me Home is a novella focused on a few side characters in her Off the Map series.

Tanner and Sunny’s story started years ago when they were children. They understood each other and what their situations were, but drama between their mother’s pulled them apart. As they got older they grew even further apart. It’s not until later that they finally start developing that relationship again. That’s where their story begins in Carry Me Home.

I enjoyed reading the story that Lia Riley developed for these two characters from the Off the Map series, especially Tanner. They both had difficult back stories that, in the end, brought them closer together. Sunny was one of the more frustrating characters. I kept saying to myself, “Ugh Sunny! Why don’t you just give in already. You know you like him”. Her noncommittal and stubborn attitude kept pushing Tanner away, but thankfully he wouldn’t let her. I liked Tanner because he knew exactly what he wanted and was fighting to obtain it. I believe their differing personalities balanced each other out and they eventually gave into their feelings.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy was how short it was, but that’s the nature of a novella. I definitely wanted more. I wonder how the story would have developed if Riley wrote it as a full novel. I guess I’m just going to have to ask her.

Overall, I would highly recommend Carry Me Home especially if you’re a fan of the Off the Map series. Even in it’s short length it showed you how love can develop no matter how different people are or how dire their circumstances might be.

If you’re interested in reading the Off the Map series, you can check out my reviews below.

Upside Down (Book #1)

Sideswiped (Book #2)

Inside Out (Book #3)

FAVORITE QUOTES

“We’ll never be the same again. We each carry a piece of the other. The way he watches me, I know he’s in this for a long time, not just a good time. And that idea doesn’t seem so scary anyone. In fact, I can’t wait.”

“Sunny is like her name. you can’t hope to hold sunshine. You can only bask in it for as long as it’s there. But weather changes. There are storms. Night always follows day. I know what I want can’t happen, but who ever said wanting needs to be reasonable or even sane?”

OVERALL RATING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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After studying at the University of Montana-Missoula, Lia Riley scoured the world armed only with a backpack, overconfidence and a terrible sense of direction. When not torturing heroes (because c’mon, who doesn’t love a good tortured hero?), Lia herds unruly chickens, camps, beach combs, daydreams about as-of-yet unwritten books, wades through a mile-high TBR pile and schemes yet another trip. She and her family live mostly in Northern California.