PLAIN JAYNE by Laura Drewry

PLAIN JAYNE

by Laura Drewry

ARC Review

Release: April 8, 2014, Loveswept

My rating: 3.5 of 5 ⭐️

Jayne Morgan was moving back to town, 12 years after her grandmother had shown her the door. Back to run the bookstore this same grandmother surprisingly left her in her will. Except, the bookstore she finds is a far cry from the one she once knew, and she has limited time and funds to put it back to rights. Just her luck that Nick Scott was waiting at the door when she got there.

Contractor and more importantly, her best friend since elementary school, Nick had always been there for her. Of course his mother had never cared for her and things had gotten a bit awkward at his wife's funeral a few years ago, but they would always be friends. Which is why Nick insisted she stay at his place, when they found the bookstore and the apartment above in a state of disrepair.

Knowing the living arrangement - however temporary and innocent - would send the tongues wagging, Jayne did her best to assure everyone they were simply friends. Now if only her heart would listen as well, but Nick had never seen her as more and she had managed so far. That is, until Nick started displaying more than simple 'friendly' attention to her......

****

Laura Drewry writes a slightly bitter-sweet story of a great friendship that has seen its ups and downs over a couple of decades, suddenly transforming into something it perhaps had been destined to become all along. Not necessarily an original plot, but one executed very well by Ms. Drewry. 

Jayne had always been terribly misjudged - and none of it by anything she did. Everyone seemed too preoccupied with what they assumed about her, to take the time to find out if there was any truth to it. The only person who seemed to be able to see her clearly and accept her wholely her entire life was Nick, who always believed the best of her. And yet she managed to keep her biggest secret for twenty-five years.

In typical male fashion, Nick couldn't see what was before him in all those years, until he was about to lose it. He simply had never questioned why Jayne was the one person who could bring him comfort, or why her mere presence lightened his day. It's just the way it always had been. And then he almost saw it slip away.....

I was really engaged in the earlier parts of the story, but found myself getting a little weary with the ongoing forehead slapping density of the characters. The confusion around feelings remains confusion as long as you don't talk about anything, which is exactly what these two end up doing......NOT talking, which eventually resulted in my forehead slapping...... 

I found parts of the story to be truly heart-wrenching, in particular from Jayne's point of view, who bore no guilt for anything, yet bore the brunt for a lot. So utterly unfair, it strongly appealed to the protector in me, wanting to rear up in her defense, and I was rather peeved our hero didn't do a stronger job of that. Someone had stand up for that woman!!

This story has a happy end, thank goodness! Jayne deserves one, and I guess Nick does too, even if he is a clueless ditz - however sweet. Great rainy day read, which is exactly what it turned out to be for me!

✨A taunting, transformative and touching double-take!✨

**Copy provided in return for an honest review.**