Until It Fades

Meet a couple who seem perfectly attuned even when they are in conflict.

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1. UNTIL IT FADES by K.A. Tucker

SYNOPSIS

Twenty-four-year-old truck stop waitress and single mother Catherine Wright has simple goals: to give her five-year-old daughter a happy life and to never again be the talk of the town in Balsam, Pennsylvania (population three thousand outside of tourist season).

And then one foggy night, on a lonely road back from another failed date, Catherine saves a man’s life. It isn’t until after the police have arrived that Catherine realizes exactly who it is she has rescued: Brett Madden, hockey icon and media darling.

Catherine has already had her fifteen minutes of fame and the last thing she wants is to have her past dragged back into the spotlight, only this time on a national stage. So she hides her identity. It works. For a time.

But when she finds the man she saved standing on her doorstep, desperate to thank her, all that changes. There’s an immediate connection, and it’s more electric than the bond of two people who endured a traumatic event. It’s something neither of them expected. Something that Catherine isn’t sure she can handle; something she is afraid to trust.

Because how long can an extraordinary man like Brett be interested in an ordinary woman like Catherine…before the spark fades?

BOOK REVIEW

K.A. Tucker was unsurprisingly amazing at writing this thoroughly-thought-through story about embracing the journey of getting to the place one gets to in life at a certain period of time. Until It Fades was sweet and swoony and sometimes even emotional. It was annoyingly slow to my liking but very intriguing.

That’s just how life is. A person can tell you he loves you one day and tell you that you need to move on the next. He can be everything to you, and then a mere memory.

Catherine Wright was a young single mother working as a truck stop waitress in a small town and doing her best to live a peaceful life with her adorable daughter, as well as move on from the damage of her rather wild teenage years. She was not necessarily the most admirable heroine ever, but she did have her moments. I loved her kindness, selflessness, and prudence. But other than that… I don’t know.

It does feel magical. It does feel like a fairy tale. That a man like Brett – so charming, so talented, so breathtakingly handsome, so seemingly perfect in every way – would become infatuated with an ordinary woman like me.

Brett Madden was a genuinely good man through and through. Since the book was primarily from Cath’s POV, I didn’t get to see enough of him. However, from what I did manage to see, he wasn’t a typical hotshot hockey star. Brett was absolutely unaffected by either his fame or wealth, a very grounded and generous man who treated everyone equally. He was caring and understanding. And for some not fully unfolded reason, he was drawn to the heroine.

He leans forward to drag his lips over mine. “I’ve been dying to do this since you walked through the door,” he whispers, his long, thick lashes tickling my skin as he blinks. “I wake up every morning thinking about you.” My head thumps softly against the wall as I close my eyes, reveling in the feel of his mouth against my ear. “I go to bed at night thinking about you.” Blood rushes through my veins with the adrenaline his words create. “Please tell me it’s not just me.”

I did like the chemistry between Catherine and Brett but wished I had more of just the two of them together. Especially since their relationship was very cliche—a rich guy swooped in and saved a damsel in distress—in order to make the story less tedious and more exciting. But don’t get me wrong, that wasn’t what really bothered me. It was the bland and drawn out pace that made me want to chuck the book across my living room at certain times. Slow burn romances are generally up my street, but this one was just too much.

There were a few jaw-dropping twists and turns though, that kept me invested in this story up until the very end. So overall, I would say that Until It Fades was quite an enjoyable read. Not my most favourite one by K.A. Tucker but still good to check out.