4 'hopeful' stars! 
 "The sun will rise no matter what pain we encounter. No matter how much we believe the world to be over, the sun will rise." 
 (I kept listening "I'd Rather Go Blind" & "I've Been Loving You Too Long (to Stop now)" by Etta James while reading... CLASSICS!!) 
 Ryan and Lauren have been married for six years, but they've been together for eleven. They met at nineteen years old at UCLA sophomore year in college. When they met, you felt the love and the happiness that they felt being around and with one another. They end up getting married after college, and something just changes. Slowly but surely resentment and hating one another begins which leads to them fighting and not solving their problems until one day they realize that the love just isn't there anymore. What do they decide to do about their marriage? They choose to go a year without speaking or see each other. Within that year, they can do whatever they want because they are 'separated'. Is this a typical love story? No, it's reality and life isn't always peaches and creams. We don't always get the happy endings or the knight coming to our rescue when in need of help. Sometimes, you have to branch out on your own and find yourself before you can be a wife or husband to someone else. 
 This story is remarkable, beautiful and heartfelt and I'm mad I couldn't cry through it because I'm the biggest crybaby when it comes to love but I couldn't because of Lauren. Lauren in her college years was likable, but as she grew up, I honestly found her annoying and indecisive. I hate when I don't fancy the heroine because It ends up killing the mood of the story and I would have rated this a five instead of a four but I honestly and truly did not like Lauren. It annoyed me how she acted cluelessly. She knew the answers to her questions but wanted to remind herself of the pain or just to hurt over something. I also hated how she couldn't do anything for herself. She isn't her own person, and I felt like throughout the book she couldn't find herself because she listened to what everyone else said instead of branching out on her own. 
 Throughout the separation, they don't speak at all until Lauren decides to stick her nose in Ryan's emails and sees he has draft messages that were meant to be sent to her and throughout her reading his draft's we get to see a little of how Ryan is doing and what he's going through. I honestly wish the story was spoken from his point of view, but we can't get what we always want right? BUT what got me the most irked by Lauren was that out of all Ryan's emails she only got the bad from it, and I don't like when someone chooses to pick apart something good just because they notice something they don't like. 
 "You remember wrong," I say, my tone clipped and pissed off. 
 "I don't remember wrong," he says, walking ahead and not even bothering to look back at me as he speaks. "You're the on with the bad memory." 
 "Oh, I see," I say, mocking him. "Just because I lost my keys this morning, suddenly, I'm an idiot?" 
 He turns and looks at me; I use the moment to try to catch up to him. The parking lot is hilly and steep. I'm slow. 
 "Yeah, Lauren, that's exactly what I said. I said you were an idiot." 
 "I mean, you basically did. You said that you know what you're talking about, like I don't." 
 Ryan, Oh charming adorable Ryan. Of course, Ryan had his flaws, but he wasn't remotely annoying as Lauren was. Actually, I wouldn't know since we didn't get his POV the only POV we got from him were from his emails but I'm still happy we got to see those because they were everything. I would have rated this book a five if I had more Ryan and less of Lauren. Every time Lauren read his email's I always caught myself with my hand across my heart in awe. You could tell and feel that he loved her, and it pained him to be apart from her. Don't you just love it when the hero just has a way with words? I DO! I think Ryan could do better than Lauren.. yep, I said. RYAN DESERVES BETTER! He so would be added to my book boyfriend list but since he wasn't that much in the story... I'll have him pending. 
 Let's talk about the other reason why this story was so great? Lauren's family. Lauren's family was her support system and what she couldn't live without. I loved that she was close with her family because I just love reading about hero or heroines that love their family because I'm so close to mine, so I get to relate more with them. My favorite out of everyone in her family was her grandma. Ugh, if only we could give her grandma an answer for all her words of wisdom and for just being that unique, sassy grandma that every just has to love, I would. I love how they all just wanted Lauren to be happy BUT didn't hate Ryan and try to make him seem like a horrible person just because Lauren was hurting. They showed the same sympathy for Ryan just as they did for Lauren because to them Ryan was still family (love it!). When people go through hard times, sometimes they need their boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse, best friends or just their family, and I'm happy that Lauren had at least her family to support and guide her along the way. 
 "Did he cheat on you? Is that what's happened?" 
 "No," I say. "Absolutely not. He wouldn't do that." 
 "Did he hit you?" 
 "Grandma! No!" 
 She throws her hands up in the air and back down on the counter. "Well, I don't get it." 
 (.......) 
 "Well, I have missed him far more than I ever realized I would. When he left, I thought I wasn't in love with him anymore, but I didn't realize just how much I did still love him. I do still love him. The minute he left, I felt the hole in my life that he filled. I couldn't have done that without missing him, without losing him." 
 "One might argue that you can get that kind of perspective from a long weekend away. You got anything else?" 
 SPEAK THE TRUTH GRANDMA! 
 I would be #13 if I was there when Lauren (#15 Mario Chalmers) and her grandma (#1 Chris Bosh) were talking 
 I know I'm not married, but I know that when I do get married and if we ever go through a situation like this, I would be communicating with my husband and trying my hardest to make it work. I wouldn't be okay with my husband seeing other people, not talking or seeing him... I couldn't do it. But different strokes for different folks, right? 
 Even though, I bashed Lauren majority of this review.. this book was phenomenal, and I do recommend everyone to read it because it could teach some lessons to people about to get married, are married, or just in general. I enjoyed this story and hoped to whoever reads it, does too! 
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