4 Star Review: Three Rivers (A Gateway to Love, #1) by Chloe T. Barlow

Friday 9 May 2014

Three Rivers by Chloe T. Barlow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A love borne from tragedy, secrets and lies is a love that will face challenges but ultimately its biggest challenge will be one of survival. This book tells such a story as it meanders just like it's Three Rivers towards happiness and salvation.

Althea has loved and lost but unexpectedly she finds happiness in her late husband's best friend, Griffen. After finding out she was pregnant a short while after losing Jack, Althea throws her life into her work and raising her son and remaining a loyal wife and widow in honour of Jack's memory.

Existing but not living, her friends Aubrey and Jenna step in to help her to find herself once again and it's on one of the 'baby step' nights out that Althea comes across the charismatic Griffin in a bar. Assuming him to be a stranger she enjoys a night in his company before fleeing home and back to her sheltered life one again.

Griffin is haunted by this beautiful woman who captured his heart at first glance but is rewarded when he comes face to face with her the next day only to find out she is his late best friend's widow. Shocked but secretly pleased to see Griffin again, Althea agrees to spend the next 2 weeks in his company, the only stipulation is that their relationship ends in 2 weeks and they each return to their lives, living apart. As their feelings for one another grow though they each know that separating isn't going to be easy but Althea is determined to break their ties and to remain loyal to Jack's memory.

After Griffin finds out Jack's secret though and starts to unravel a trail of mystery and suspicion, he knows that Althea is going to need him to protect her and save her from harm whilst at the same time helping her to realise that it's time for her to move on with her life; with him.

This was a well thought out and written book. The author has created an interesting set of characters and I am looking forward to read more about Jenna and Brey. At times I found the book too drawn out though and although extremely hot was missing something to keep me fully absorbed in the storyline. It's a true contemporary romance which borders on adult romance and possibly outside the boundaries of my normal reads; that said, I will definitely read Jenna's story.