The Love Series Spotlight!!! ~ Crystal's Many Reviewers

Let Love In:

What would happen if you lost everything? If the people who were supposed to love you unconditionally were no longer there for you, how would your world change?

That’s exactly what happened to Madeleine Becker when her parents died when she was ten years old. Ripped from her home and everything that she has ever loved, she is forced to start all over again. The only way for her to move on is to build walls around her heart and keep everyone at a safe distance. Her logic: she can't get hurt if she doesn't fall in love.

That theory is blown to pieces when she meets Reid Connely during her freshman year at college. He is gorgeous and darkly mysterious. He understands Maddy's pain all too well, but sharing his pain would mean breaking down the walls he put up around his own heart. Conflicted between loving Maddy and hiding his dark past, Reid starts to reevaluate his world. Maddy's inner strength, snarky personality and breath taking beauty help Reid to make peace with his past.

Together they find out what happens when they let love in.

Reid, Reid, Reid…so darkly furtive. I think he has enough dark mystery to throw more than a few girls off axis, and make you want to let him in, if you know what I mean. *wink, wink*

Maddy has had a difficult and emotionally stunted life. Her family died when she was young, so she’s built quite a few walls around her heart in order to shield herself from loss. Until she meets Reid, the aforementioned furtive hero of our story. In Reid, Maddy finds a kindred spirit, with as many scars around his heart as her. They “get” one another, which is the cornerstone of their attraction and ultimately their love for one another. What’s interesting is that what pulls them together is what they have to fight from ripping them apart…oh, the dramatic irony of it all.

As I’ve found with Melissa’s other books, her writing style really pulls you into the story. Her description of the character’s and their emotions resonates with the reader and keeps you reading to find out just what happens! I will recommend that you have the next book in the series queued up to start right after you finish this one, because it’s a cliffhanger. A “I will kick you in the junk if you don’t fix this” kind of cliffhanger at that. 4 stars!

Let Love Stay:

If you’re lucky, you’ll fall in love – truly, madly and deeply in love. But what happens when that honest and pure love isn’t enough to erase your fears? What happens when your past rears its ugly head and threatens your future?

Maddy and Reid had that kind of love – the all-encompassing, Earth shattering, once in a lifetime kind of love. Then life happened. Old wounds that were thought to be long healed and scabbed over are ripped opened and they are forced to face the possibility that, maybe, they are not strong enough to fight their demons and embrace the light.

Together, they found out what love is, but now they will each need to heal on their own before they can ever be together again. They must face their fears and beat down their pasts in order to find their way through this crazy uphill battle called love.

They’ve let love in, but now, they need to find out how to Let Love Stay.

If you enjoyed “Let Love In”, then you must – of course - read this follow up. Especially since LLI left us all with a bit of a cliffhanger, you just have to find out if Reid manned up…if Maddy and Reid can get past their issues and be together. The angst! The unknown! It’s all too much!

This pretty much picks up right where LLI ended. Reid has walked away from Maddy at a time when she needed him the most. He has some serious issues to get through, and then he has to try and win himself back in the good graces of Maddy…oy. It’s a tall order. However, you get to see Reid pretty much run the whole gamut of human emotions in this book. He goes from a boy to a man in a lot of ways, and works through his issues in order to be the man that Maddy needs and deserves. It was really a pleasure to read and follow his transformation.

Maddy’s character is just as complicated as Reid’s, and she has issues of her own to work out. I really felt like at the end of LLI, she was a bit unfair to him. She tried to mold him into something that he just wasn’t able to be, to give her things that he wasn’t able to give at that point in time. However, it took her ultimatum to ultimately shift both of them out of their comfort zones and confront things that needed to be confronted.

This is a really emotional story, and I have to give props to Melissa Collins for writing it so well. You feel everything right along with the characters, which is what grips you and pulls you into the story. I’m really glad I read both of these books back to back, because I would have been emotionally devastated to have to wait to find out what happened to Reid and Maddy!

This book fulfilled all the requirements for me for a good read. It was emotionally investing, well told, and well developed with good characters that capture your interest. I must also mention that there’s quite a bit of sex in this book. I’m all about the sexy-time (as you well know), but I have to admit at times, it felt like a bit of overkill. I never thought I’d say that, but there it is. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. 4 stars.

I’ve always been an avid reader. Majoring in English Literature was a no brainer. Becoming a teacher and instilling my love for reading into my students was also a no brainer. I’ve spent the last ten years teaching and I’ve loved (mostly) every minute of it. When I was home on maternity leave for my third son, I discovered a new genre that sparked my creativity. My passion for writing sprang from my love of reading and once I knew I had a story to tell, I couldn’t wait to get it out there. I only hope that my readers enjoy reading my story as much as I enjoyed writing it.