Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Review: Did I Mention I Love You? by Estelle Maskame

Series: The DIMILY Trilogy #1
Release date: December 1st 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:
When sixteen-year-old Eden Munro agrees to spend the summer with her estranged father in the beachfront city of Santa Monica, California, she has no idea what she’s letting herself in for. Eden's parents are divorced and have gone their separate ways, and now her father has a brand new family. For Eden, this means she's about to meet three new step-brothers. The eldest of the three is Tyler Bruce, a troubled teenager with a short temper and a huge ego. Complete polar opposites, Eden quickly finds herself thrust into a world full of new experiences as Tyler's group of friends take her under their wing. But the one thing she just can't understand is Tyler, and the more she presses to figure out the truth about him, the more she finds herself falling for the one person she shouldn't – her step-brother.

Throw in Tyler's clingy girlfriend and a guy who has his eyes set on Eden, and there's secrets, lies and a whole lot of drama. But how can Eden keep her feelings under control? And can she ever work out the truth about Tyler? 

Did I Mention I Love You is the first book in the phenomenal DIMILY trilogy, following the lives of Eden Munro and Tyler Bruce as they try to find their way in an increasingly confusing world.


*Publisher approved request via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.



After reading the blurb, I knew going into the story there would be romantic feelings between the step-siblings, I just wasn't expecting it to be so intense and that I wouldn't be uncomfortable at all. In fact, I rooted for Tyler and Eden in spite of the situation, and I think that has a lot to do with their characters and how much they pulled me in. The author created these two teenagers with their own individual issues, on top of being drawn into a new family structure they didn't want to deal with.

Eden came to Santa Monica for the summer after her father's "invite", but really she just wanted to escape her life in Portland for a while, no matter if she hadn't forgiven her father for walking out on her mother. There was a lot of tension and awkwardness that Eden's father wouldn't address, instead he did his best to sweep his past issues under the rug and pretend like everything was all merry, but he was all too high and mighty when it came to handling Tyler. I didn't like him at all, and it got worse when it turned out who really wanted Eden to visit Santa Monica. 

Eden felt like her father traded her in for his new family, only she came to realize that his new family had problems of their own. One step-brother in particular kept stirring up trouble: Tyler.
At first she was put off by Tyler and his rebellious behavior. She all but written him off as a lost cause until she discovered that his issues were deeper than she thought. Tyler's activities began to worry Eden, and no matter how hard he tried to put up a facade and pushed her concerns away, Eden continued trying to help Tyler. For reasons beyond her understanding, she found herself wanting to understand him and the pain he was suppressing with those terrible methods. 

In no time both discovered their intense feelings for each other and things became even more complicated. They tried real hard to put an end to it but their hearts just wouldn't comply. And what I liked a lot about the story was that while their feelings were growing, there were other things going on. Like the way both characters were unraveling and I was learning a lot more about them as the story moved along. There were things addressed towards the end that answered questions I had, and of course, Tyler's lunatic girlfriend kept things exciting on the crazy side when some parts were getting too serious for me. 

To conclude, it was an intriguing story with likable characters. The writing's great and I loved the summery setting. I could feel the warmth seeping from the pages. No lie. Santa Monica is now on my bucket list as one of the places I want to visit. 
However, in regards to the supporting characters, I would have liked to get to know the other friend more, Meghan. Was that her name? She often seemed distracted with her crush but it would have been nice to have her spend more time with Eden without Rachel or Tiffany. I wish I could have felt the presence of Tyler's little brothers more as well. But those things didn't really take away from me enjoying the story anyway, because my focus was mainly on how Eden and Tyler's relationship would play out. 

I must say, Did I Mention I Love You? turned out to be quite an interesting surprise. To be honest, at first I really didn't think I'd like it so much because the opening was a little off for me, but as it progressed these characters had me seriously seeing things from their perspective and it made me wonder what I would have done if I were in the same situation. I look forward to reading the next book and I cannot wait to see how Eden and Tyler cope while being alone in the big apple. 





About the Author
Estelle MaskameEstelle Maskame is a novelist from Peterhead in Scotland. After gaining universal acclaim online during her teenage years, she signed a print contract with the Edinburgh-based publisher Black & White Publishing at the age of seventeen. She left school and now writes full-time from the comfort of her bed. Did I Mention I Love You? is her first novel.






6 comments:

  1. I must admit that the step siblings angle is kind of (morbidly) intriguing. I'm glad you enjoyed this one, Shane.

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    Replies
    1. I know right. Intriguing is the word for this one :)

      Thanks, Joy.

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  2. I'm definitely looking forward to reading this one!! It's one of the books on my Clean Slate Read-a-Thon list for January! So glad to see how much you enjoyed it! :)

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  3. I tend to stay away from anything dealing with step-siblings. This does sound interesting. Great review!

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    1. Yeah me too, but this one turned out to be too intriguing to stay away from. And I thought the story wasn't too uncomfortable.

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