Review and Giveaway: Near and Far by Nicole Williams

**NEW YORK TIMES & USATODAY Bestselling Series**


There’s optimistic. And there’s Jesse Walker.

If he wasn’t so charming, his sunny disposition and incessant grin would get old. Fast.

Falling in love with the broken girl who had at first seemed immune to anything resembling love was the best thing to happen to Jesse since the Walkers adopted him when he was five.

As Jesse’s life continues at the ranch and Rowen begins making her mark in the Seattle art community, they wonder where the middle ground is. Or if there even is one.

As push comes to shove, they’re forced to make choices neither are eager to make, and Jesse and Rowen have to face what their lives might look like without the other.

Can two people with such tragic pasts and different presents expect a promising future together? Whatever the answer, they’ll need a lot more than love to make it.



*Recommended for mature readers due to moderate content and language.*

4.5 Star Review by Lisa Kane

Jesse and Rowen from Lost and Found are back in Near and Far. Jesse is still working the family ranch and Rowen is in Seattle going to art school. She has a new roommate, Alex, and works in a little shop owned by Alex’s friends with benefits, boss Sid. Hundreds of miles separate them, but they are still very much connected.

“For you, I’m a weak weak man. I’m so weak for you that you could break me with one word. You could end me with one look. You could ruin me with one touch.”

She stole whatever fraction of a piece of my heart I might have still possessed. Rowen Sterling had every last piece of me, and I didn’t want any of them back.

Josie, Jesse’s old girlfriend, has a cousin Jolene. You know the type; she was a former Miss Montana, just returned from the Peace Corps and is a classic passive aggressive man stealer. And whose man does she want? Rowen’s. It might be lost on Jesse, who sees only the good in people, but whenever Rowen manages to catch the Greyhound and visit Willow Springs, she is forced to see Jolene, doing all she can to get Jesse’s attention. Jesse has his own thorn in his side. Rowen has become friends with a super talented boy wonder TA at her school, Jax. He is a manwhore, and wants to add Rowen to his collection. He stoops to dirty tricks and subterfuge to try to keep Jesse and Rowen apart. Add to the mix Rowen is keeping something important from Jesse, something that will cause more longing and distance.

Sometimes Jesse felt very near, like last night when he curled around me in bed and held me until I fell asleep. And sometimes Jesse felt very far, like that morning when I woke up to an empty bed and cold sheets.

If distance and frenemies weren’t enough, there are dark things in Jesse’s past. So dark and so hurtful that they made my heart ache. At one point, I had to distance myself from this book and take a breath. How I wanted to hug this character; he could not be a sweeter, more generous guy and has such a cross to bear on his shoulders.

I’d known the person I’d been before it all started, how strong and sure I’d been, and it took all of a month to revert back to the boy I’d been years ago.

 Help comes from an unlikely source; Garth, his former best friend who betrayed him with Josie. He proves that he may act like an asshat on the outside, but there are layers to this guy. Maybe in another sequel, he can get his HEA too; he deserves one.

I enjoyed this book, even more so than Lost and Found. Somehow Lost and Found felt unfinished to me, more of a happily for now. I wondered how these two could make a relationship work when so many things would be against them. When I heard there would be a sequel, I hoped some of my questions would be answered. Lost and Found was primarily Rowen’s story and how her troubled past caused her to shut out those around her and isolated her from the light. This book is really Jesse’s story and how their past can come crashing back into the most stable person’s life and knock him to his knees. It is how he gets back up that is the important thing. Rowen and Jesse have matured and it so evident that these two broken halves can form a whole. William’s has written passages in this story that tugged at my heart and I found myself highlighting so many sentences and paragraphs, not wanting to miss a single beautiful word. Such beautiful words. Near and Far is an excellent read.  

“I realized that our past never leaves us. We might think we’ve left it behind, but that’s when it sneaks up and beats the hell out of you. Our past is always a part of us. The key is to accept it, acknowledge it from time to time, pay the piper, and get on with your life.”

Nook Near and Far

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