If
you’ve read my review for Overruled,
you’ll know that I said that I thought that it might be very difficult, if not
impossible, for Emma Chase to top Tangled
when it comes to deciding which of her books is my favorite and how I would
rank each of them. The reason I’m bringing this up is because I’m very excited
to say that Emma Chase did it. She completely topped Tangled with Sustained, and
I definitely think that Sustained is
her best book yet. That being said, I’ll admit that perhaps I’m being a bit
premature in saying that Sustained is
Emma Chase’s book yet since I haven’t read Appealed
at this point in time. However, if I had to say which of her books is my
favorite at the moment, it would definitely be Sustained; that being said, I’m totally open to the possibility
that I’ll end up thinking that she topped herself yet again once I read Appealed.
Based
on Overruled and Sustained alone, I have to say that I definitely think that the Legal Briefs series is even better than
the Tangled series. As much as I love
the Tangled series, it’s not without
its flaws, and I feel like the quality of the writing for the Tangled series as a whole definitely had
its share of ups and downs. Emma Chase’s writing for the Legal Briefs series on the other hand is definitely a lot stronger and
better than even her best writing for the Tangled
series was, in my opinion. Things that I felt could have been handled
better in Twisted and Tied in particular are handled a
lot better in the Legal Briefs
series.
For
starters, I’m really glad that she switched back and forth between Stanton and
Sofia’s points of view throughout Overruled
instead of writing most of the book from one character’s point of view and then
suddenly switching to a different character’s point of view towards the very
end of the book for the epilogue like she did with Twisted. Plus, as I said in my review for Overruled, I thought that Stanton’s dislike of JD was much more
understandable and easier to sympathize with than Drew’s dislike of Billy was
after Tangled. If you ask me, the
resolution of Stanton’s issues with JD was also handled a lot better than
Drew’s hatred towards Billy was resolved in Tied.
When
it comes to Sustained, there really
is a lot to love about this book, and it’s honestly kind of hard for me to know
where to start when it comes to talking about what I love about this book. For
starters, one thing that I’ve always felt that Emma Chase really excels at when
it comes to her books is being able to pretty much instantly get the readers
interested and invested in the story right off the bat. Whenever I’ve read one
of her books, I’ve always been able to get invested in the story within the
first few paragraphs, if not the first few sentences of the book, and that was
definitely the case with this book. It’s definitely a good thing that Chase’s
books aren’t the kind of books where the reader has to power through
approximately 50 or more pages before the story finally starts to get
interesting, especially considering the fact that her books are all less than
300 pages long. That’s something I’ve really come to appreciate about Chase’s
books since in addition to all of the books that I’ve reviewed in roughly the
past three to four months, possibly longer than that, I’ve also been reading
the book The Swan Gondola by Timothy
Schaffert so I can review it as well. I’m currently seventy pages into the
book, and I’m just now finally starting to get into the book.
Admittedly,
a big part of why it has taken me so long to read The Swan Gondola now that I’m actually starting to get into the
book is because there isn’t an audiobook version of it, and I just have a
really hard time disciplining myself to set aside time to sit down an read an
actual book. While I loved reading books as a kid, it’s become really hard for
me as an adult to get myself to sit down and read a book for an extended period
of time without thinking about all of the other stuff that I either need to do
or simply want to do. That’s a big part of why I’ve become such a huge fan of
audiobooks these days. Listening to audiobooks on my iPod allows me to enjoy a
book while I do other things at the same time, but I digress.
Getting
back to the subject of Sustained, I have
to give Emma Chase a lot of credit for beginning the book in a way that I’ve
never seen a romance novel begin before. Maybe I’m forgetting some other book
I’ve read, but I’m pretty sure that this is the first romance novel I’ve ever
read where the story begins with the protagonist of the book having a STD
scare. That being said, I really like how Chase handled Jake’s reaction to the
possibility that he might have gotten syphilis from a woman he’d slept with.
Personally, I like how it forced him to think about how he should actually consider
going on a few dates with a girl and getting to know them a little bit before
he sleeps with them. I would hope that having to deal with contracting an STD
or at least the possibility of having contracted an STD would make a person
rethink how they handle sex and dating.
Jake
is an all around really great character. When it comes to the protagonists of
each of Chase’s books, Jake definitely has the best and most compelling backstory,
as far I’m concerned. Jake’s backstory definitely has some tragic elements to
it when it comes to his father and the fact that his father was physically
abusive towards his mother. On the other hand, the whole thing with Jake getting
in trouble with the law when he was younger and the judge who took Jake under
his wing was definitely very touching, especially considering what the
relationship between Jake and the judge is like now that he’s an adult.
Personally, I thought it was really sweet that Jake apparently frequently
visits the judge at the care center that he lives at now that he sadly has
Alzheimer’s. The story behind each of Jake’s tattoos was also really
interesting.
The
simple fact that Chase has written her books primarily, if not entirely, from
the guy’s point of view definitely makes it a lot easier for me to relate to the
protagonists of her books compared to the protagonists of most of the other
romance novels that I’ve read over the years, and it’s one of the main reasons
why I love her books so much. That being said, when it comes to the
protagonists of each of Chase’s books, Jake is definitely the one that I can personally
relate to the most, mainly because of his internal narrative. Emma Chase did a
really great job of injecting humor and heart into the story via Jake’s
internal thought process. There were definitely quite a few moments in the book
that I thought were genuinely funny and that actually made me laugh out loud. While
I don’t have kids, I’ve definitely had to deal with little kids who have a
habit of saying “Hi” to people repeatedly, even after you’ve already responded
to them the first time. That’s especially happened to me over the years when
I’ve interacted with little kids at the grocery store where I work, so I could
definitely relate to Jake being annoyed by Regan’s tendency to repeatedly say
“Hi” to him. I can also relate to Jake having to deal with teenage girls being
rude to him simply because he didn’t know who One Direction were.
Admittedly,
I’m a fan of One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer, who were also mentioned in
the book, but I’m not a big enough fan that I have the names of each member of
those bands committed to memory. I once had a girl send me a very rude and
condescending tweet on Twitter in response to a tweet of mine where I asked who
Zayn was after I saw that there was a trending topic related to him that didn’t
mention his last name. Honestly, the only member of One Direction that I can
remember both the first and last name of is Harry Styles. When it comes to 5
Seconds of Summer, I honestly wouldn’t be able to give even the first name of any
member of that band, but I digress. That being said, I found Jake’s internal
comments about One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer and what the members of
both of those bands look like rather amusing. I also have to confess that I
listened to a lot of One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer’s music while I
worked on writing this review, because their music is definitely a guilty
pleasure for me. While I like both One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer, I
definitely like 5 Seconds of Summer’s music a little bit more than One
Direction’s.
One
of the reasons why I’d say that Sustained
is Emma Chase’s best book yet, and my personal favorite of her books is because
I’m a huge fan of stories where the primary conflict in the story is very
person vs. self driven. At its core the primary conflict in Sustained is definitely of the internal
variety, rather than Jake being at odds with another character throughout the
book. The fact that a big part of the book is centered around Jake dealing with
an internal struggle, as opposed to Jake mostly dealing with an external
conflict is something that really sets Sustained
apart from all of the other books that Emma Chase has written at this point in
time. Jake’s internal struggle with wanting to be a part of Chelsea and the
kids’ lives, while also being afraid to make any kind of real commitment to
them was definitely handled very well, in my opinion.
When
I originally first read the plot summary for Sustained that’s on the back of the book, I admittedly thought that
it seemed kind of absurd that Emma Chase wrote the book with Chelsea having six
kids to take care of instead of Chelsea just having two or three kids to take
care of. However, after reading the book, I really think that Chase ultimately made
Chelsea having six kids to take care of work to her advantage. She definitely
did a great job of utilizing the overt storytelling opportunities that Chelsea
having six kids to take care of where there was a fairly wide age range between
the kids presented her with. It was a lot of fun reading about Jake going to
Mommy and Me classes, Jake helping Raymond deal with a bully, and subsequently
helping Chelsea deal with the principal of the kids’ school after Raymond got
in trouble for how he handled things with the kid that was bullying him. For
the record, there were a lot of other great moments like those in the book in
addition to the ones that I’ve mentioned. Those are simply a few of my favorite
examples of Jake helping Chelsea with the kids.
Something
else that I really liked about Sustained is
the fact that while Jake, Chelsea, and the kids were the focus of the book,
Stanton, Sofia and Presley were featured in the book a fair amount, too. The
fact that they were featured in Sustained
quite a bit really made me feel like the reader isn’t completely losing those
characters and that they weren’t being forgotten now that this book was
focusing on Jake and Chelsea. Plus, their presence in Sustained all felt very organic to me. Stanton’s involvement in the
story in particular really served an excellent purpose when it comes to the
resolution of the book.
I
feel like Chase also did a great job of giving the readers a bit of a preview
of the character Brent, who’s the protagonist of Appealed. Unlike the characters Matthew and Dee from the Tangled series, Brent definitely made
more of an impression on me in this book than Matthew and Dee did when I read Tangled and Twisted. As I said in my review for Tamed, I honestly don’t mind that Matthew and Dee hadn’t made
much of an impression on me and weren’t all that memorable in Tangled and Twisted. I was still able to thoroughly enjoy Tamed when I read it. However, the fact that Brent made more of an
impression on me in this book compared to how much of an impression Matthew and
Dee had made on me before I read Tamed
is just another one of the many, many, many things that I like about this book.
While
I thought that Emma Chase did a really good job of incorporating the fact that
Stanton and Sofia are lawyers into Overruled,
I thought she did an even better job of incorporating the fact that Jake is a
lawyer into Sustained. The parts of
the book where Jake was acting as Chelsea’s attorney were definitely a real
highlight of the book for me personally. Maybe this will sound like an odd
comparison to make, but Jake’s overall demeanor and approach to being a lawyer when
he was helping Chelsea in court, and he was cross examining the director of
CFSA, reminded me a lot of the character Sharon Raydor from the TV show Major Crimes and Sharon’s overall
approach and demeanor to being a police captain. I absolutely love both the
character Sharon Raydor and the show Major
Crimes in general, so I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Jake act in a similar
manner.
I’m
not ashamed to admit that when it comes to romantic comedies and TV shows that
are classified as dramas, there have definitely been quite a few times over the
years when I’ve cried while I was watching them. I’ve been a huge fan of Power Rangers ever since it first
premiered in 1993, and as weird as this might sound, even to this day, there
have been times when Power Rangers
has made me cry. However, when it comes to books, I’m pretty sure that Sustained is the first book that I’ve
ever read that has gotten me even just slightly teary eyed. I don’t know why,
but when it comes to books, I’ve never been a crier. The part of the book that
really got to me was the part where Stanton, Sofia and Brent were doing their “intervention”
to get Jake to see that he is a family man, which is something that he had denied
being or wanting to be throughout the book.
When
it comes to that particular scene, what probably did me in the most was the
part where Stanton was telling Jake about what becoming a dad when he was only
seventeen years old was like for him. Having Stanton tell Jake about what
becoming a dad when he was still in high school was like for him was a great
move on Chase’s part, because I felt like by doing that, she wasn’t just taking
advantage of the overt storytelling opportunities that were presented in this
book, she was also doing a great job of utilizing the overt storytelling
opportunities that were presented in Overruled
as well. Plus, doing that was simply a really great way to acknowledge
Stanton’s own backstory, while moving the plot of Sustained forward at the same time. Honestly, just thinking about
that scene as I’ve worked on writing this review has gotten me kind of teary
eyed all over again. The “intervention” scene is just such a sweet and touching
scene, and it’s definitely one of my favorite parts of the book. I definitely
think it’s a real testament to Emma Chase and her talent as a writer that Sustained actually made me cry, which
really is something that has never happened whenever I’ve read a book in the
past. Plus, the fact that this book actually made me cry, even a little bit, is
just one of the many, many, many reasons why I think this is her best book yet.
I
feel like I should also mention that Sustained
continues the trend of Emma Chase’s books being even steamier than the Fifty Shades books, but honestly, I’ve
just come to expect that at this point.
Not
only do I think that this is Emma Chase’s best book yet from the standpoint of
her writing; I also think it’s Sebastian York’s best work yet as a narrator for
audiobooks that I’ve listened to, and I’m including the audiobook version of
Lauren Blakely’s book, Big Rock,
when I say that. The writing for Sustained
is already awesome on its own, but I feel like Sebastian York enhanced my
enjoyment of the book even more with his reading of the book. I hadn’t even
heard of Sebastian York prior to reading Tangled,
but I definitely get excited whenever I look for an audiobook on iTunes and I
see that Sebastian York is the narrator, or one of the narrators, for it now.
For
example, I’ve wanted to check out Christina Lauren’s books since before I had even
discovered Emma Chase’s books, but I recently discovered that Sebastian York is
the narrator for the audiobook versions of some of their books, which has
definitely gotten me excited to read them. For the record, Deacon Lee who did
the audiobook versions of Tamed from
the Tangled series and the next book
in the Legal Briefs series, Appealed, and Jason Carpenter who was
one of the narrators for Overruled,
has also narrated some of Christina Lauren’s books as well. Speaking of Jason
Carpenter, while I thought that he did a fantastic job reading the chapters of Overruled that were written from
Stanton’s point of view, I also thought that Sebastian York did a great job of
reading Stanton’s dialogue in Sustained.
All
in all, Sustained truly is Emma
Chase’s best book yet, and I honestly can’t think of anything that I don’t like
about it. There really is a lot to love about this book. Jake is a great
character with an incredibly compelling backstory. Chelsea and all of the kids
are also fantastic characters. This book had quite a few genuinely funny
moments in it, and it definitely made me laugh at times. As I said earlier, I
think it’s quite an accomplishment on Chase’s part that this book caused me to
get teary eyed when I was reading the “intervention” scene where Jake realizes
that he’s a family man after all. I’m pretty sure that this is the first book
that has ever made me cry at all while I was reading it. I also really like
that this book gave the reader somewhat of preview of the character Brent since
he’s the protagonist of Appealed,
which I’ll definitely be reading fairly soon.
That
being said, my final score for Sustained
is 12 out of 10, because a 10 out of 10 simply wouldn’t be a high enough score
for this book. :)
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