Maybe
For You
by Nicole McLaughlin is a very emotional storyline. The theme
allows readers to understand how to cope with loss and handle
grief. It is also a friends to lover’s story.
Many say that a guy and gal cannot be friends. This story
seems to prove that point. The different dynamic relationships
play a part in how people react to each other. Friends usually
can be direct and let their guards down without having to
build walls. Usually, these relationships are based on honesty
where each person can show their true selves. Some of the
best intimate relationships start off as friends. The heroine,
Alexis, and the hero, Jake began their friendship as pen pals
when she was deployed in Italy. They did not converse with
a writing object, but used the modern way, a phone text. McLaughlin
wanted “it to be a safer way to share feelings without
being face to face or voice to voice. These two can share
only when they feel like sharing.”
Alexis is not use to displaying her emotions, keeping everything
close to the chest. Her parents died in an auto accident,
she was raised by her older brother Dean, and now has lost
her fiancé in a military helicopter accident. Anyone
who has lost a loved one, especially when it is unexpected,
can relate to this powerful quote, “Several times she
had to talk herself out of just crawling back into bed…
Moving on, healing, required putting one foot in front of
the other. Even when it felt impossible.”
The story poignantly shows how those grieving can move on,
that time heals. There are also instances when something can
spur someone’s memory about a loved one, and that feeling
of being hit in the gut returns. “I wanted to write
about this because I experience it. I put in the book how
sometimes the weight of the pain feels brand new. I lost my
father when I was ten. I watched my mother and how she dealt
with losing a partner. I think I put my own feelings in these
scenes. My dad has been dead almost twenty-five years, and
every once in awhile a thought pops up in my head, and I cry
instantly. I think the grieving process is a long journey.”
But it is also a story of hope. After a year serving overseas,
Alexis returns to her home town in Kansas. Her brother offers
her a job at the Stag Distillery he owns with two friends.
But it also ended up becoming one of the most successful wedding
and event venues in the Kansas City metro area. To promote
their business one of the partners, Jake travels on the road
to find new clients. Realizing that Alex would be a good addition
for making sells, they decide she will travel with him. Ready
for a new challenge, Alexis agrees to accompany her new co-worker,
Jake. Soon the casual relationship becomes intense where both
realize they had strong feelings for each other.
“I wrote how their relationship was grounded in respect
and friendship. Both needed someone that they cared for. They
were able to tease and joke with each other, feeling very
comfortable, because they started out as friends. They appear
as opposites since Alexis is a survivor, strong, broken, vulnerable,
determined, desperate for a family, and is very guarded. Jake
is a player, a playboy, who always feels second best. As Alexis
opens up to him about her feelings he listens, doesn’t
pry or lecture about what she should be feeling. Slowly he
transitions from a playboy to a partner.”
Maybe For You is a very emotional story that will tug at the
heart. There are many touching scenes with very likable characters.
|