Author: Tessa Bailey
Publication Date: 26 September 2017
Publisher: Forever Romance
Series: Romancing the Clarkson's, book 4
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Recommendation: 18 and Up
Rating: 4 Stars
~ I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ~
Book Description:
A love of a lifetime . . .Leaving Belmont Clarkson is the hardest thing Sage Alexander has ever done. From the moment they met, she knew Belmont was the one, and getting up close and personal with him on his family's epic road trip has taken her desire to a new, even hotter level. But there's no way she can go there---not without revealing secrets that could devastate them both.
Losing Sage is not an option. Belmont's heart is hers, has alwaysbeen hers. He knows she's hiding something from him, but nothing will stand in his way of telling her just how much she means to him. Finding her is easy---saving her from her past could cost him everything.
My Review:
If you are a Tessa Bailey fan this is the book you have been waiting for. This is the book that is the soul of the entire Romancing the Clarkson's series and for a fan of this series the makes this book their soul so you can imagine how exciting this day is for all the Bailey's Babes, the readers that have been swooning, fawning, and biting their nails over our beloved Belmont and Sage. I can almost guarantee that by the end of the day today there will be a collective sigh heard round the world as readers close the back cover and clutch this book to their chest both pleased at the end to the series and sad that it has all come to an end.
The one thing you need to know about this book is it is utterly sigh worthy. As always with a Tessa Bailey book all the swoon and romance is there, but there is also a softness to this story, a deep sadness that is both heart breaking and beautiful. Too Beautiful to Break is a book about fears, about discovering them, concurring them, accepting them, and letting them go.
If you have read the previous books in this series you know how difficult Belmont's back story was going to be. He's a broken man, broken in such a way that the only ease he finds from his hurt and fears is either on the water or in the presence of Sage Alexander. There is a peace that he brings to her that he can't find anywhere else and he has needed her badly during his and his siblings cross country adventure, a trip that has taken him away from the contentment his work and the water give him and put him through an emotional hurricane. Once Sage arrives he can finally breathe but then everything changes when she leaves him standing at train station lost and confused. That moment with Belmont, it broke my heart as much as it broke his. Imagining him completely lost with out his anchor pulled me right into his hurricane of emotions and had me clutching my heart over his pain.
Sage has to leave Belmont behind, she has to get home, home to a life she tried to run from but was always tethered to, one she knew she would always have to return to. She has to run from Belmont because he offers her too much safety. He offers her a way to lose herself in his arms and in his love, but it's an unhealthy dependency that she fears finding herself in with him, the same type of dependency she lived through with her parents, parents she loves but can not let herself become like.
I love this story, I loved the heartache, I loved the back story, I loved the romance, I LOVED Belmont, I loved almost everything...the one thing that keeps me from giving Too Beautiful to Break a 5 star rating is that I didn't love Sage as much as I wanted to. You know how sometimes you wait so long for a book, there is so much build up, that the book can ultimately disappoint you because it just isn't everything you craved and hoped for, a little of this happened here but it was only with one character, everything else hit the mark. For me Sage was just a little too wishy-washy. Of all the characters to give everything to and then rip it all away Belmont is the last one it should ever be done to. I struggled a little to see her side of things for some reason this idea that she could allow herself to be so totally immersed in another person, that she's strong enough to walk away from him, that she is strong enough to fight a battle for her family, but she isn't strong enough to set up a life with Belmont that supports them both with out losing one another seemed strange to me. It may just be that due to my own independence I can't understand where she is coming from but it hurt to see the way she pulls and pushes Belmont through life. But honestly this challenge for me is just a drop in the bucket of a beautiful story, one that deserves to be read and loved.
I highly suggest reading this series from start to finish particularly when it comes to reading Too Beautiful to Break, you need to know Belmont before going into this story, you need to see how he loves his family, how he depends on them, but how he fights for them and fights to give them their happiness. You need to see his quiet and heart breaking interactions with Sage so you can feel the true force of his book. You need to see that he is the soul, the pillar of this family and that of everyone his happiness is what this whole series has ultimately been leading up to. That this sad little boy, this broken man gets the chance to find happiness, safety, and love.
~ HAPPY READING ~
Tessa Bailey is originally from Carlsbad, California. The day after high school graduation, she packed her yearbook, ripped jeans and laptop, driving cross-country to New York City in under four days.
Her most valuable life experiences were learned thereafter while waitressing at K-Dees, a Manhattan pub owned by her uncle. Inside those four walls, she met her husband, best friend and discovered the magic of classic rock, managing to put herself through Kingsborough Community College and the English program at Pace University at the same time. Several stunted attempts to enter the work force as a journalist followed, but romance writing continued to demand her attention.
She now lives in Long Island, New York with her husband of ten years and six-year-old daughter. Although she is severely sleep-deprived, she is incredibly happy to be living her dream of writing about people falling in love.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance that she found success. She likes to find humor in the strangest places. Lexi believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome or foursome may seem.
