Review: Always Been Mine by Carina Adams

Always Been Mine is the debut novel from Carina Adams. I was really blown away with her writing style and her ability to evoke such emotions from the reader. I think that this story is one that you will definitely have strong feelings about, and I will warn you that there are some difficult topics dealt with in this story including cheating. I really liked Carina's writing style though, and I felt like she did a pretty great job of writing characters that have so many different facets to them that you are constantly learning new things about them as they grow and evolve over the course of this book. I can't wait to read more from her after having read this book.

On the surface, Josephine Walker appears to have it all. She has a great career, she is married to her college sweetheart and has two beautiful children. She also has her coworker and best friend Matt. When Jo's life begins to fall apart and her marriage fails, she turns to Matt for comfort. There has always been an attraction between them, but for the first time she starts to really see him as more than just a friend. Matt has been in love with Jo for awhile, but has resigned himself to having only friendship with Jo rather than nothing. With her marriage in jeopardy, Jo finally begins to see that she wants more than just stable and boring. She wants wild and she wants Matt. But things between them won't be easy after everything in their pasts as well as the secrets that Matt has kept from Jo. Can Jo and Matt take their friendship to the next level, or will they destroy everything including the friendship that they both can't live without?

I really loved Matt. He was so great all the way through this story until the very end when he made me a little mad. But he was Jo's rock and I adored him. He was sweet and kind, funny and caring. He truly loved Jo and would have done anything for her. I loved that he was a professional during the day and had a great job, but that he was also really sexy with tattoos and lived the biker lifestyle at night. He was complicated and had a lot of secrets, and I really enjoyed seeing his layers be peeled back a little at a time. I will admit that while I loved Matt, I struggled with Jo for most of this book. She had a tendency to be wishy washy, and I hated her mood swings. I had a problem with a lot of her actions, and I just didn't like or understand most of what she did. Just as she finally started to really get her act together, I felt like the story was almost over. I will say that the chemistry between Matt and Jo was amazing. They had the physical attraction, but they also had such a strong bond and base from their friendship. I thought that these two were absolutely made for each other, and I never stopped rooting for them to figure things out.

Overall, I thought that this was a really great story. It was different and wasn't something that I had read before. I liked that this story pushed boundaries and really showed a journey. Matt and Jo grew and evolved over the course of this book and had a lot of really hard things that they had to confront and deal with. This book will definitely run you through the emotional wringer, but I loved that Carina was able to really evoke such strong feelings. I am really looking forward to seeing what else she writes in the future and I can't wait to read the next chapter in Jo and Matt's lives. I would recommend this story if you are looking for something different and something that will draw you in and keep your interest. I couldn't wait to see how things would play out and couldn't put this book down.

**Review Copy Provided by Between the Sheets Promotions**

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