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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

ARC Review: The Waiting Game by J.L. Fynn


I have never read a book by J.L. Fynn before, but I was really intrigued by the idea of a book series about gypsies. The Waiting Game is the second full length book in the American Gypsies series, but is a prequel to The Long Game so I didn't have any problems with understanding anything by not having read the previous stories. I have mixed feelings on this book, but I did enjoy parts of this story. I will say that this book is completely original and is unlike anything else I have ever read. I am very interested to read the rest of the series and see how everything plays out.

Tommy is used to being on the road with his best friend Jim for most of the year. They are on the road when Jim's father Pop Reilly calls them home so that Jim can fulfill his duty to the clan and get married. Jim has avoided marriage for as long as he can because he is gay, and his clan would never accept it no matter who his dad is. When they return to the Village, Tommy agrees to go pick up Jim's soon to be wife. Tommy is instantly attracted to Maggie and feels much more than he should for her. Tommy tries to keep his distance from her, but finds it harder and harder to avoid her. After Jim and Maggie get married, Tommy thinks the biggest thing he has to worry about is protecting himself from falling in love with his best friend's wife. But soon, that is the least of his worries as everything starts to fall apart. Will Tommy be able to keep his friendship with Jim who has always been like a brother to him while he is married to the woman Tommy loves? Or will Tommy be left with nothing? And what happens when things within the clan turn dangerous?

I liked Tommy a lot. I felt so badly for him because he really got dealt a really bad hand in life. Not only is he orphaned with only his friend and his friend's family to help fill in the gaps, but then the woman he falls for just so happens to belong to his best friend. Talk about a no win situation. Tommy was so sweet and a great guy despite what the gypsies do for a living. He was a great friend and extremely loyal to those he cared about. But he really struggled with his feelings because of the bad situation he was in. I liked Maggie, but I felt like she was sort of wishy washy. One minute she would do and say one thing, and the next she was acting completely differently. I understand that they were in a difficult situation, but it still didn't quite work for me. I liked that she never gave in to what other people expected of her though, and that she would always go her own way and do what he wanted. You could tell that she was strong despite being shipped off to live with complete strangers and marry someone she had never met. I thought that Tommy and Maggie were really sweet together, but they also had a ton of chemistry. It was clear that they felt very deeply about each other in order to sacrifice so much in spite of their feeling and connection.

I did however think that the jumps in time were a bit disorienting and sort of took me out of the story. It would have been nice to get more of the in between so that things didn't seem so disjointed. I also would have liked to have seen more interaction between the characters. There was very little between Tommy and Maggie or even between Tommy and Jim. Even though the story was always moving forward, it felt like there we missed out on so much and the story ended up feeling a bit flat because of it. I did like that we were told the story in Tommy's POV. I always like it when we get the guy's POV and get to see what his thoughts and feelings are. I think that was part of why I felt a bit more connected to Tommy and liked him better than Maggie. I also thought that J.L. Fynn did a great job of keeping the reader guessing, and I liked that I never knew what was going to happen next. This story was filled with twists and turns and kept me interested until the end. I will admit that I was not a fan of the ending. It was not a bad ending, and there will be another book after this one. But without spoiling anything, the ending was just not what I had expected and therefore left me unsatisfied. I am interested to go back and read the first two stories in this series, and I can't wait to see what happens in the next book and how everything plays out. This book is really different and I would recommend to anyone who is looking for something unique. I will say that that I hope we get a bit more character development and depth with the other stories in this series and hopefully the characters will get the resolution they deserve.

**ARC provided by Inkslinger PR**

Purchase:Amazon | Kindle |



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