Review of Making It Last by Ruthie Knox

Ruthie Knox

Making It Last (Camelot #4)

Loveswept | July 15, 2013

Author’s website | Goodreads | Buy book here

Backblurb:
A hotel bar. A sexy stranger. A night of passion. There’s a part of Amber Mazzara that wants those things, wants to have a moment — just one — where life isn’t a complicated tangle of house and husband and kids and careers. Then, after a long, exhausting “vacation” with her family, her husband surprises her with a gift: a few days on the beach . . . alone.
Only she won’t be alone long, because a handsome man just bought her a drink.
He’s cool, he’s confident, and he wants to take Amber to bed and keep her there for days. Lucky for them both, he’s her husband. He’s only got a few days in Jamaica to make her wildest desires come true, but if he can pull it off, there’s reason to believe that this fantasy can last a lifetime.

Genre & Keywords: Contemporary Romance, M/F, Established Couple, Rekindling, Vacation, Jamaica

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Heat level: 2 out of 3 flames
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Making It Last is a novella about, as the title already indicates, an established couple that has to work on their relationship to make it last. We've met the couple, Amber and Tony, in the first of the Camelot series, How To Misbehave. In that story they met, fell in love and committed to start their future together.
Fast-forward 14 years. Amber and Tony are now married for 10 years, have three sons together, of which the youngest is 6 years old and just off to school. Tony is working long days because they're struggling financially. And Amber feels lost and lonely in their big house that Tony built for them.

During a short vacation with their extended family on Jamaica where Amber's brother gets married, everything comes to an insightful climax for Amber and eventually for Tony as well. Thanks to Amber's aunt Jamilla they are offered a few extra days on Jamaica, first it's just Amber who's staying, but later Tony joins her again, introducing himself as a stranger to her, seducing her all over. It's a cute scenario, which leads them to a hot and sexy bed scene. However, the rekindling of their sex life doesn't bring them an easy solution for their deeper problems. They have to find each other again on more levels than just the physical one.

I found it very enlightening that Knox, aside from the reestablishing of their sexual attraction, showed the deeper levels being recognized and worked on as well. The real problem solving happened later at home and not during their steamy night in that hotel room. And even then they don't have all the answers but they realize what's needed to make it last.
The author succeeded in portraying a very realistic long-term relationship in rough weather. Every relationship needs working on in the long run, maybe not as much as Tony and Amber's, or perhaps more, depending on the situation, but it's not a topic you read a lot about in romance stories. And that while, when it's as authentically done as it's here, it's such an interesting and entertaining topic. And like Knox proved, it can be as sexy as a falling in love type of story as well.

I like it very much that Knox made her main characters people with flaws. To be honest, at first I felt a slight antipathy for Amber because of her flaws, but Knox knew to turn those feelings in sympathy when the emotional developments proceeded. For a novella, this story packs a lot of emotions and feelings, aside from a smart take on an established relationship. I can highly recommend Amber and Tony's lovely love story. It's an uncommon, enjoyable and insightful story that has an interesting take on the romance genre, written in a fluent writing style.
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