'Meet Me Halfway' by Lillian T. James

In her book, 'Meet Me Halfway', Lillian T. James, unknowingly, writes a cautionary tale on how victims of abuse are vulnerable to fall into other abusive relationships. And if portraying this had been her goal, it would have been a great book. Sadly, that wasn't the case...

The book's portrayal of single motherhood was great and the only reason why I even finished it because the romance was awful. The MMC of this book is a HUGE red flag. He was possessive, quick to anger and overprotective with the FMC long before they even got together. And I understand how, like in real life, some FMCs find these character traits attractive. However, it did not made any sense at all for the FMC of this book, Madison, to be one of those characters. Madison is a single mother who is still traumatized by being in a physical and emotional abusive relationship. In fact, when we meet her, she has been running and hiding for five years from her ex. And yet, the author attempts to get us to believe that her savior and soulmate is a man who seems just as toxic as the one she's running from. I cannot fathom how someone read this story and believed that Garret was someone who Maddison deserved. She deserved so much better than ending with a man who is not much different at all than her ex. It gets even more uncomfortable when he starts "playfully" threatening to spank her. Not only because she is still very evidently traumatized from being physically abused by her ex but also because he does so without even consulting with her if that is something she would enjoy.

There's also the fact that everyone around the FMC, mainly her best friend and Garret, keep pressuring her into "getting over" her fear of men. And the author does not portray it as a toxic behavior these characters have that they should beg forgiveness for. Instead, it's one of the FMCs internal conflicts that she must fix in order to get her happily ever after. It's disgusting how abuse is portrayed as something a person has to easily move on from.

Evidently, this book is not a recommendation from me. Its only redeeming quality was the exploration of the FMC as a single mother and I believe that can be found elsewhere without going through the torture of watching a victim of abuse find her "happily ever after" with another toxic man.