Reviews

Meet Me Halfway by Lilian T. James

Only show reviews with written explanations

welcometomyescape's review against another edition

4.0

Between a three and a four for me so rounded up. This was cute and I loved Madison and Jamie and pretty much everything except Garrett tbh. He had his moments don't get me wrong (when he pulled out the blanket my heart BURST) but I just found he was a little too quick to jealousy and anger, and for Madison who has a past of being controlled and stalked by her bfs, Garrett seemed like the next in the series so didn't love that.

ginzelma's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense

4.75

agrippinaes's review against another edition

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4.0

Madison is a single mum working 3 jobs to get by. She’s disillusioned with men - and love - after 2 bad, abusive relationships in a row. Now her focus is on her 8-year-old son, Jamie, and getting herself the career she’s dreamed of. She feels she’s on the right track, having moved into a decent duplex, but when she has a series of unpleasant encounters with her handsome-but-grumpy neighbour, Garrett, some of the shine wears off. But once Garrett realises he’s misjduged Madison and the pair make amends, Madison starts to see a different side to Garrett.

I really enjoyed reading this. A lot of the tropes and content were just my kind of thing, and it has good, strong writing that I found really easy to engage with. I actually read this in one sitting and had a great time doing so. I really liked Madison’s character - her strength and determination was admirable and I was really rooting for her, especially given the fact that this book really does put her through the wringer. It took me longer to warm to Garrett, but by the end I really liked him. He was very sweet towards her and I liked how he wanted to take care of her.

The romance between them was quite good. It had great sexual tension and I really wanted them to act on their feelings. The slow burn is great, but

Spoiler

it was a shame we only got 1 sex scene because the one we got was really hot and steamy.

. I also liked Madison’s relationship with her son, Jamie, and how Jamie developed a bond with Garrett as well. It was quite cute.

I did, however, have some issues with Garrett. He was a little bit too pushy sometimes and the way he lost his temper I didn’t think worked sometimes. The book didn’t seem to fully address how his temper could have impacted Madison given the trauma she’d already been through. There were points where it came close but I was a bit disappointed by it as he did lose his temper a few times with her in a way that I thought was a bit heavy handed.

Aside from this, though, I thought this was a solid romance. I felt quite satisfied with it as a whole once I had finished it, although I would have liked a little bit more from the epilogue. I would recommend this to anyone looking for an age gap romance with a grumpy neighbour hero and a single parent heroine.

Content Notes:

Spoiler

Warnings: Intimate partner violence, violence, confrontation with an abusive ex-partner, sexual harassment / sexual assault (on-page), stalking (in past), vomiting.

Other: On-page sex, rough sex, unprotected sex

Spoiler

No condom use, brief discussion of birth control and STI status

, age gap

Spoiler

11 years; heroine is 25.

littlegiraffe's review against another edition

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4.0

Meet Me Halfway is a romance novel about a young single mother who has a lot of trauma in her past learning to overcome her trauma and fall in love again. The characters are well written, and the female lead is a rather strong character despite her past. Garrett, the male lead is exactly what women look for in a man, and I rather enjoyed watching him and Madisen fall in love.

hetvixcv's review against another edition

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3.0

I should seriously have taken my gut feeling into account. Somehow I knew this wasn’t for me like I got the feeling it wasn’t for me but I still read it and yeah it didn’t hit the spot.

Maddison was a single mom and was doing everything to give her boy a great future, she was struggling with too many side hustles and a job. Enter our male lead, Garrett, her neighbour and they hit it off. Firstly, the way she had two exes and had been hurt in the past was so heartbreaking. Garrett wasn’t bad per say but I just didn’t connect with him. He is just this grumpy older male who’s rude and really quick to judge Maddison and gets into bickering with her. I just didn’t like him that much and that ruined the book for me.