Taking My Love by Nickie Nalley Seidler

 Evelynn Mayer’s life was perfect. Then one day it was laying in ruins around her shattered heart. Danny, the man who’s been her best friend, her lover, her soul mate for the past four years vanishes without a trace. Ev is lost and confused. She doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do next. The only thing she wants is to know why Danny left, but that answer isn’t coming.

Ev tries to stop asking why this happened to her and fights to pick up the pieces of her life. She knows she can count on the one person who’s been by her side since childhood, her best friend, Clark. He’s the one to catch her every time she falters. His encouragement keeps her from giving up. He teaches her not to dwell on the unanswered questions. In order to rise above the despair chipping away at her soul, Ev decides she needs distractions to focus her attention on, instead of wallowing in her despair. She fights hard to put Danny behind her and make her life resemble normal again.

When life provides her the answer, she’ll need Clark’s strength more than ever, but this may be the one time her friend can’t be strong enough for her. Things are rarely as simple as they seem. When true motivations are revealed, Ev’s fragile world is once again threatened. Mixed emotions always end with a heartache. Will her heart make the right choice; the choice only Evelynn Mayer can make.

When Life is slipping away, do you fall with it…or fight for it?

In this book we have three main characters. We have Evelyn (Ev for short) who is a photographer. We also have Clark who has been her best friend for over 20 years, and Danny who is her boyfriend that she has been with for over 4 years.

"It's not easy trying to part with the memories of an asshole that you were so in love with, who just up and left you. Especially when you never thought you'd have to forget them. I'm trying, but I can only see the good in Danny, and then I get confused on what went so wrong that he left me."

I signed up for this book because I have been in the same situation as Ev before. She came home from work one day to find her boyfriend of four years had packed up his things and vanished into thin air. I never found out what happened with mine that got (went) away so obviously wanted to find out why Ev's boyfriend left. I also wanted to know if what I felt was what someone else thought someone should feel in these circumstances.

"All I did was love him. How could he just walk away from me? I wish I knew why I can't let go of the love and just feel the anger."

So, I honestly felt a lot of the same anger/emotions that Ev did when Danny left her. The author did hit that right on the money. What I didn't have that she did was a male best friend that was there to pick up the pieces. Clark helped her through all of her despair, made her eat when she didn't remember, reminded her to shower, and tried to help her out of her funk. All while they both realized they may have more than friend feelings toward each other. I really appreciated that they didn't just jump into something and that Ev wanted to preserve their friendship. She made sure they were actual feelings and she wasn't just using them to replace her feelings for the hurt she felt by Danny leaving.

"There was an awkward moment for just a second and it almost felt intimate. It felt right-it felt like I should be there. I quickly swept the idea from my mind, since he's my best friend. I didn't want to go there with him."

So where this book totally fell apart for me was when she discovers why Danny left. I could totally understand the dilemma she must have felt. I just wish she would have taken more time to consider the consequences of her decisions. She turned out to be such a big jerk to Clark. I even made a note on my Kindle about what a selfish person she was. I can't imagine acting that way toward any of my friends, especially one I had feelings for. The book definitely needs to be edited for basic grammar errors and while I loved the plot, I sort of felt like this book (only 90 pages) was just a long outline for the real story. I really hope the author will consider making it a full length story and expanding on a lot of the concepts in the book.