Reviewer: Janet Davies
Title: I'll Be There For You
Author: Ellen Fisher
Publisher: Samhain Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1-59998-038-X
Release Date: June 2006
Genre/Sub-genre: Contemporary Romance
Year/Setting: Present Day - Norfolk, Virginia
Overall Rating: 4.0
Sexual Content Rating: Sexual
Language (Profanity) Rating: Mild
Violent Content Rating: None
Ellen's Website: www.ellenfisher.com
Alexander Frost and Jeri Winston have known each other forever. They were once high school nerds who had been able to rely on the other in times of innocence, upset and crisis. Ten years on, they are still there for each other but is it the same as it once was? Is it just friendship between them?
Alexander had always felt protective towards Jeri. He has loved her as a friend for ten years. He has also wanted her as a lover for the longest time. But the timing was never right and Alexander was never sure of Jeri’s feelings for him. Sure, they are great as friends but could Jeri ever look at him as a lover? Or does she still see him as the high school chess club geek who held her hand in times of crisis? Alexander still wants to hold her hand but now in a different way.
Although Jeri Winston has grown into a desirable woman, the insecure schoolgirl nerd still lurks within. When the once unattainable Connor Addison from her high school days takes a second look at her, Jeri is thrilled that he notices her. That had always been the plan, to make him want her. But now, having gained the object of her juvenile affection, Jeri is not so sure she wants him. Connor Addison is no Alexander.
Is it weird to suddenly look romantically at your best friend? Can lust ruin a perfectly good friendship? No one else seems to think so. So why are Alexander and Jeri making something so easy so difficult? Is it all the emotional baggage from their youth? Is it that what seems perfect is not necessarily so? Or is it all about taking a risk and ruining a great friendship by declaring your amorous intentions?
Misunderstanding and insecurities abound in I’ll Be There For You. I could easily identify with all the characters. Alexander is sweet and romantic and you just want him. Jeri is in the incarnate of every woman who suffered the angst of a teenage girl, with all the past insecurities still beneath the surface even though she has grown up. I believe anyone who thought they were a nerd or geek in high school will like the idea of the supposedly uncool person becoming the wantable one, and the popular kid at school growing up to have just as many problems as everyone else. High school is not a roadmap to life and adult life has so many more possibilities if you open your eyes to the obvious.
The book is slowly paced in the beginning as the characters become aware of the possibilities of what they are feeling. The pace changes dramatically towards the end when caution is thrown to the wind and sexual fantasies become realities. There is graphic sex but it does not take over the book.
I’ll Be There For You is about looking at your concept of perfect. Do you necessarily need or want to have the perfect one when the one who was always right for you was there without you realizing it. It’s about a book about going from enduring friendship to the heat of lust then to romantic love. It’s about wanting something you were never suppose to have and needing something that was always there. If you want a story where you can fall in love with the leading man and completely understand the heroine, then this is the book for you.
Janet
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