REVIEW: Keeping Her by Cora Carmack

In Keeping Her (Losing It #1.5) by Cora Carmack, This novella finds Garrick Taylor ready to take his new fiancee Bliss Edwards to London to meet his parents for the first time. He purposefully hasn’t told her much about his childhood or about his parents so as not to scare her off too much. Garrick knows Bliss is more than a little frightened of meeting his mother based on the one sided conversations she hears whenever his mother calls. But he’s willing to put up with anything his parents throw at him. So long as he can move forward in his life and marry Bliss.

‘She was the ultimate game changer. I hadn’t known what it was like to meet a person so full of joy that just by being near her, I was elevated to a happier place. I’d never been with someone who was able to captivate every part of me–mind, body, and soul.’

Bliss is scared out of her mind to finally meet Garrick’s parents. She only knows snippets of information about them and honestly, it doesn’t look promising for her to make a good impression. She is excited however to have Garrick show her around London, to take in the sights and spend time with him in his hometown. When they land at the airport, right off the bat she meets two of his closest friends and the fun begins. They regale her with childhood stories of Garrick and help her calm down with a few pints of local ale before taking her to meet his parents.

‘This was somehow the worst and best moment of my life. In fact, most of our relationship fell into those categories. Best boyfriend. Worst embarrassing moment. Best kiss. Worst excuse ever. Best (well…only) sex. Worst timing. But I could take all the worsts, if the best always followed.’

They make a smashing grand entrance into his childhood home to find a surprise engagement party awaiting them. Garrick is swept away to talk business with his father’s colleagues while Bliss is forced to play nice with Garrick’s mother. He realizes yet again how lucky he was to escape this lifestyle, grand as it may seem to some, but fake is what it has always been to him. He only wants to provide for Bliss and for their future while making her the happiest he possibly can every day of their lives. Bliss has a tough time feeling as though she fits in to this upper class world but comes to realize that Garrick wants her for who she already is and he doesn’t need her to change in order to love her.

This novella by Cora Carmack brings us up to speed on where Garrick and Bliss are in their relationship since the first novel Losing It. It would be pretty easy to just jump in and begin reading this, even if you haven’t read the first book, but it might make the story a bit more seamless if you had. Each chapter switches back and forth between Bliss and Garrick’s points of view, which I found fun and interesting. And the writing is in turns comical, romantic and sarcastic, filled with lots of pop culture references. If you’re a fan of the New Adult genre, or are just finding your way into it, I would definitely check out Cora Carmack’s Losing It series.

Book Info

Garrick Taylor and Bliss Edwards managed to find their happily-ever-after despite a rather . . . ahem . . . complicated start. By comparison, meeting the parents should be an absolute breeze, right?

But from the moment the pair lands in London, new snags just keep cropping up: a disapproving mother-in-law-to-be, more than one (mostly) minor mishap, and the realization that perhaps they aren’t quite as ready for their future as they thought.

As it turns out, the only thing harder than finding love is keeping it.