CAPTIVATION by Nicola Moriarty

Captivation by Nicola Moriarty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

NetGalley free read

The story opens six months after Juliette's husband, Danny, has passed. She's just starting to think it's time to get out of the house and get her life moving forward when she start smelling Danny's cologne and dreaming of his kisses start to feel more real. As time goes on, these occurrences start to increase with more frequency and definition to them. She starts feeling his touch, hearing his voice.

At the same time, her penchant for baking when she's stressed or needs to think things through increases. She starts leaving wrapped midnight gifts of her baking endeavor at the front door of her neighbors. At the same time, she notices a man watching each time she's on her balcony, from his the balcony across the court from her. But its usually late at night, and although he seems familiar in a way, its usually late at night and she doesn't stay long enough to figure it out.

Danny's presence becomes more real to the point that she can see him. But they soon realize that if she spends any time away from the apartment, or away from thinking of him and spending time with him, that is strength to be with her diminishes. Soon, Juliette is not eating, sleeping, leaving her place or even answering the phone or door. Danny becomes increasingly concerned about her health. At the same time, her mother shows up and barges in, concerned for her daughter. Her presence in the apartment diminishes Danny's spirit until he's almost gone, causing Juliette to kick her mother out of her place.

Juliette comes to the realization that she needs to end her life in order to be with Danny and keep outside forces from keeping them apart. Danny realizes he's been selfish and that she has a full life yet to live. He convinces her to change her mind and saves her from jumping from her balcony. As she heals, Juliette begins to loose the memory of what happened while she was hold up in her apartment, thinking of it as a mental breakdown, and live again. Until a year later she has a chance encounter with the man who watched her from the balcony asks her about the man she was with and it all comes back to her.

At first this was a very slow going for me as a read. Its tough to read something when the person has isolated themselves and most of what's happening is description or internal dialogue. But the one thing that go me was when Danny was trying to save her from killing herself. I cried for her dispare and her grief. I felt how hard it was for him to let her go and for him to convince her it was time for her to let him go and live her life and try to find another love. That is the reason I've given it the rating I have.

I was sincerely bored at the beginning, but once it was about her desperation to keep him with her and his desperation to let her go, it was heart wrenching. If the author could just have made the beginning more interesting, she would have had a all out hit in this story.

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