‘There’s nothing more magical than your mere existence bringing complete joy to another human. And there’s nothing more soul-crushing than that same existence inflicting an eternity of pain.’
What a heartbreaking rollercoaster! Jewel E Ann sure knows how to wring out every ounce of emotion from us, and in her latest book For Lucy, the emotion was in overdrive as we found ourselves alternating between anger, tears, sadness, frustration, pain, and love.
‘We fought with passion. We lived without regret. And we loved to the depths of our souls.’
Despite being one of our favourite romance authors, we wouldn’t class For Lucy as a romance. It’s a gut-wrenching story of grief, life, and second chances that features one of the most beautiful male characters we’ve ever read. Emmett Riley is a man who loves with his whole heart and then some.
Told solely in Emmett’s pov (except for a chapter from their daughter Lucy), we experience firsthand the utter love and devotion Emmett has for his ex-wife Tatum. The fact they have been divorced for five years means little to Emmett’s heart, which is deemed to love Tatum until eternity. She is it for Emmett and moving on is something he can’t contemplate. This man broke our hearts.
‘We didn’t just fall in love, we collided until our souls tangled until we knew any attempt to live without each other would leave us crippled.’
In Emmett, Jewel E Ann wrote a wonderful, caring, and vulnerable man who made an immense choice, at the cost of his heart for the sake of his daughter, Lucy. Not only is this guy a beautifully caring and selfless man, but he’s also a devoted father to Lucy. Oh, this man, he was almost too perfect.
“And your heart…” Lucy’s tone shifts into one that’s more serious “is almost too big for your chest. It’s almost too big for this world. And nobody knows that better than I do.”
‘Well fuck…. The girl knows how to hit her dad squarely in the feels.’
With the scales tipped unequivocally in Emmett’s favour, thanks to the exquisite way in which the author wrote his character, we found it impossible to warm to Tatum or even like her. We were infuriated when Tatum insensitively dismissed Emmett’s feelings, knowing how much he loved her, protected her, and respected her. The hypocrisy was astounding.
‘This is what It looks like when the love has died and been replaced with a toxic pain that will linger forever like a slow poisoning of one’s soul.’
There’s no doubt we felt immense sympathy for Tatum – the tragedy they had experienced would forever change you and mark you, and of course, each person’s way of coping with a tragedy is their own. However, for us, there were times when Tatum came across as selfish and uncaring. This could perhaps be because Emmett was written as an overtly warm and caring man who wore his heart on his sleeve. It was Emmett and Lucy who we held close in our hearts.
‘I will never be with another person as long as Tatum is alive. It wouldn’t be fair to someone else. There’s no way I could love another woman the way I love her. My love for her is not contingent on her love for me. It’s not even contingent on us being married.
Saying “I do” didn’t make me love her more, it just gave her my last name.’
Gut wrenchingly raw, powerful, poignant, and thought-provoking reading. For Lucy, held us hostage as we read towards the catalyst for the destruction of such a loving and passionate marriage. Each page was a brutal hit to our hearts, and because of this we must warn readers that the crux of this story will be a huge trigger for some of you, so please reach out to us if you’d like more details! We have to say that we have spent hours discussing this story, the beautiful writing and the characters we loved, Emmet and Lucy. Our star rating reflects those hours spent talking with heightened emotions and those two wonderfully written characters.
‘It’s hard not being her husband. I did it well until the very end. And maybe she’ll never know that my last act was exactly what she asked me to do…’’
