Sandy M’s review of Guilty Needs by Shiloh Walker
Contemporary Paranormal Romance eBook released by Ellora’s Cave 1 Sep 08
This is a book full of love, romance, friendship, pain, and a host of emotions. We’ve heard the concept before — dying woman asks best friend to love and take care of her husband when she’s gone — but Ms. Walker definitely gives us a few twists to test that love and romance, throws a little of the paranormal in to complicate an already tenuous situation, and gives us pause to doubt a happily ever after is imminent.
She weaves guilt and need together into her hero, Colby, so well that I wasn’t sure for the longest time if he’d ever get his life back and if he’d ever be able to love again. And just when he makes it that far, his actions take happiness right out his hands and tosses it to the wind. Colby has known Alyssa and Bree for most of their lives. Although one of those geeky boys in high school, he won the friendship of the two girls before they fell in love with him and it was Alyssa who eventually won his heart, who he married. Now after eight years, she’s gone and buried just hours ago and he’s appalled that he’s thinking of his wife’s best friend in the most inappropriate ways. Not knowing how to deal with such a situation, he leaves town for parts unknown to try to handle his grief on his own and to get Bree out of his head.
Bree has loved Colby every minute Alyssa has, but Alyssa spoke up first years ago and won his heart before Bree could. She buried those feelings, though, during the eight years her friends were married, never once thinking about acting on them. So when Alyssa, just hours before her death, asks Bree to take care of Colby, to love him like she always has, Bree only agrees at first to avoid causing her friend any extra undue stress and further heartache. It’s later when Colby finally breaks down, when the grief overwhelms him and he needs her that she knows she can’t hide her love any longer. But Colby isn’t able to handle such thoughts and actions, so when he returns home a year later, she’s determined to once again keep her feelings to herself and be the friend she’s always been. Even though her best friend’s ghost wants her to do otherwise.
What I liked most about these characters is the love and friendship you felt between them all the time. Both Bree and Colby are devastated, of course, when Alyssa finally succumbs to her cancer. Bree was there for her friend every minute of her illness, as well as Colby. He loves his wife with all his heart and he loves Bree for giving of herself so freely to both of them, something their other friends couldn’t do.
Even when Colby comes home after his soul-search sojourn, he tries his damnedest to keep feelings of friendship between himself and Bree, and as much as his need cries out for her, his guilt eats at him with the same desperation. It’s when he finally lets go of the past that his friendship has a chance to turn into love, something he never thought to experience again after Alyssa.
Just when you think all is well and happily ever after is right around the corner, a little piece of the past rises up to throw Colby for a loop, so much so that his rage is totally out control and he does something that knocks the foundation of happiness for both he and Bree so off kilter it seems impossible for them to go on. We then get to experience lasting friendship and how truly deep love can be despite their separate reactions to his uncharacteristic behavior.
The characters in this book will tug and pull at your heart just as much as they they’ll make you smile and laugh. The emotion in the story packs a punch, whether from anguish and grief to full-out fury to crushing despair, lonely unhappiness and guilty needs.
Grade: B+
Summary:
The day his wife died, Colby knew his life was over. At least, that’s how he wanted it to be. He didn’t want to feel anything, not even when his wife’s best friend, Bree, offered him solace. He just took off. But he couldn’t outrun the pain and he couldn’t outrun the dreams. Hot, sweaty dreams that threaten to drive him mad. He can’t stop thinking about Bree.
A year later, he returns home, determined to close the book on his old life. But those dreams — those dark, guilty needs — haven’t gone away. They threaten to consume him. And it doesn’t help that his wife’s ghost is haunting him…encouraging him…
Read an excerpt.
