Review: With One Word by Olivia Blake

Title: With One Word
Author: Olivia Blake
Published: Nov. 19, 2015
Publisher: Self
Pages: 310
Genre: Romance
Review: Ebook provided by author
Buy Links: Amazon, Amazon.uk 

Have you ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn't have?
Ever since my dad walked out eight years ago, my life has been Hell. My mother is an alcoholic whose "boyfriends" enjoy using me as a punching bag. Everything nice I've ever owned has ended up in the pawn shop so Mom could buy booze and cigarettes. Thanks to her reputation every guy I've ever gone out with has only been interested in one thing, so I've never had a real boyfriend. The only reason I didn't skip town the moment I turned eighteen is my little sister, Willow. She needs me, and I won't leave her behind. Now my best friend has moved across the country to go to college and I've got no one at all - except Grant. Grant is my knight in shining armor. He's the only man who has ever treated me like a person instead of trash, and he's always been there when I needed him. And now I'm afraid I'm falling in love with him. There's just one little problem.
Grant is my best friend's dad.
When my wife and son died in a plane crash nine years ago, Holly was the one who dragged my daughter and then me back to the world of the living. Her sweet, outgoing personality won us both over, and the girls have been inseparable ever since. It kills me to see what she’s had to endure since her father abandoned their family and her mother went to pieces, but Holly refuses to give up. Every single day she continues to struggle, both to keep going herself and to hold her little sister’s head above water. She’s the bravest person I’ve ever met. Yet sometime when I wasn’t paying attention, the girl grew up into a woman. I know she’s my daughter’s best friend and only half my age. She trusts me. I'm supposed to keep her safe. But while I’m fighting it as hard as I can, it doesn’t seem to matter.
I can't help wanting what I can never have.
Warning:This novel contains strong themes of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse (though *not* between the main characters). If these topics and situations disturb you, this book is probably not for you.

I received this book to give an honest review.

First off I don't really judge a book by the cover but after reading this book I would have to say the guy on the cover of this book is not what I expected Grant to look like lol.

We go back and forth between Holly's P.O.V and Grant's P.O.V. which the author did an amazing job on. I felt for Holly and her sister Willow on so many levels. I mean her mother went down hill after their father left and the life that Holly and Willow had to endure was just heartbreaking. Her mother doesn't deserve the title mom at all. I wanted to reach through the kindle and smack her around a few times. 

Grant is an older man in his forties while Holly is in her twenties so I can see the hesitation for Grant to not only fall for a young woman but to also fall for his daughter's best friend. Kind of awkward there in general but it ends up all working out. 

Holly as a character was really good, I loved how she had wanted to put her life on hold just so she could make sure her sister finished school and went to college. I mean the girl would put herself in harms way just to save her sister and that is just awesome. 

As the story progresses we see how Holly is treated within the town and when she starts really noticing Grant she fights her feelings for him for a long time and questions herself. She doesn't want to give him the reputation she and her sister have but he doesn't care about that. He loves Holly for Holly. The sweet girl who has her goal in sight to get herself and her sister out but at the end can she truly leave Grant? 

This book is literally filled with anger, love, and so much more. The author did an amazing job with the characters and the story. 

The only one small issue I had though nothing to lose a rating over is the fact that Grant mentions that Holly isn't as pretty as her sister Willow. For me that felt like a knife in the gut for him to even think that when he is in love with Holly. 

Olivia Blake is the romance alter-ego of erotica author Kelli Wolfe. I love reading romances – contemporary, paranormal, Regency, you name it. If you’ve read any of my work as Kelli Wolfe, you know that a lot of my stories already tended to have strong romantic elements. So I decided to give writing real romances a whirl and found that I really enjoy it.