Sophie Swift: Out from Under You

Title: Out from Under You
Author: Sophie Swift
Release Date: August 1, 2013

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Synopsis:
“Love is an earthquake. It comes when you least expect it. It rips the ground clear away. Right out from under you.”

The day Lia Smart met Grayson Walker, eight years ago, was the day she fell helplessly in love with him. Coincidentally, it was the same day Grayson fell in love with someone else: Lia’s smarter, sexier, superior-in-every-way older sister, Alex.

Now, nearly a decade later, Alex and Grayson are long over and twenty-two-year-old Lia has finally managed to forget all those lonely nights she spent pining after her sister’s boyfriend. But when Grayson unexpectedly arrives back in town with Alex for Labor Day weekend and the two announce that they’re not only back together but engaged, all the feelings that Lia buried suddenly come bubbling back to the surface.

But Lia is no longer the awkward, gangly tomboy she was at fourteen. Far from it. And Grayson is conflicted by the lustful thoughts he’s now having for her. He knows he could never act on those thoughts, however. Grayson has always prided himself on being one of the “good guys.” But as the weekend wears on, he’s finding this new grown-up version of Lia more and more impossible to resist...

Heartbreaking and sexy with a dash of humor, Sophie Swift crafts a passionate, unforgettable tale about desire, growing up, and the kind of love that shakes us to the core.

My Review:

Brutally honest opinion: This book is sublime! Sophie Swift has just gained a spot on my automatic buy list. Out from Under You is a love triangle between Lia, Grayson and her sister Alex. Yes, I realize some people refuse to read love triangle books, I used to be one of them, but they have no idea what they are missing. Ms. Swift has such a refreshing voice, she does not write with rose-colored glasses on and her story has a much more realistic tone to it than most books these days. 

I did have aggravating moments when reading this. I could not get behind some of Lia's actions, I wanted to knee Grayson in the balls a couple of times, and I hated Alex. BUT, I think that is how the author intended it to be. It would not be any fun to read books where time after time you agree with every choice the characters make or even like every character. There is cheating in this book, but there is cheating in real life too. Sophie Swift hands us a cast of characters that have gotten caught up in lives that they did not want for themselves. Grayson is stuck in the corporate world when he'd rather be in the kitchen, and Lia is in the kitchen when she's rather be drawing. Life happened to these characters and Lia and Grayson ultimately decide to take their lives back.

"I got to her not because there's no place else to go. But because she's the only place to be." ~Grayson

Out from Under You is written in alternating point of views between Grayson and Lia. I love books that allow me to be inside the character's head, but even more so when I can be in multiple characters heads. I like to read and feel the emotion from both sides of the spectrum and see that the intense feelings one person has is reciprocated. Ms. Swift is certainly a Master of Words, she is able to convey the tug-o-war of feelings between Grayson and Lia in a non-redundant way. Reading the struggle between the two did not seem like I was watching a ping-pong match, each back and forth had a new conflict attached to it. 

Grayson and Lia have known each other for years, and while her love has not always been returned, his feelings and personality have changed. Grayson is no longer happy with his life and it takes seeing, that kind of defeat in Lia for him to be able to realize he is on the same road. Lia gave up her education and life to run her mother's restaurant. When her mother abandoned her daughters and husband Lia stepped up to try to keep everyone together. What she ends up learning is that you have to live your life for yourself, you have to be happy before you can make other people feel alive. Then there's Alex, she reminds me of King Midas, everything she touched turned to gold. But, she learns her own lesson: you can only live your life so selfishly before karma steps in. 

I feel like in the end everyone got what they went after, whether it was their intended goal is another matter. I would not let the cheating/love triangle aspect be too big of a decision maker in choosing to read this book because there are more circumstances at work here than meets the eye. Out from Under You was a good change of pace in my reading list, it was not all clean cut, with a happily ever after for everyone, type of book. There is a HEA for some, just not for all. I would definitely recommend picking up a copy of Sophie Swift's debut novel. Also, I have to thank the lovely and talented Lauren Blakely, I actually won a copy of Out from Under You in one of her Facebook giveaways! It was on my TBR list I just hadn't gotten around to one-clicking it yet :)

Happy Reading!

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