Blog Tour Review: Thrive by Aly Martinez

I’ve come to expect emotional, angsty reads from Aly Martinez.  THRIVE was no exception to that.  This time she spins a love triangle and what happens if you choose the wrong guy.

Love triangles are always tricky for me (my guy never gets chosen) so I went into this thinking “my guy has been screwed, so let’s see how this turns out.”  Turns out if the guy left behind is Jeremy, he was destroyed and then managed to turn his life around and build the foundation he so desperately wanted with Mira seventeen years earlier.  It was a hard road, in which a broken Jeremy had to figure out a direction he was going (and coincidentally beating up the wrong guy at the right time) and understand he can make his own destiny.  He worked hard for what he had and wanted to provide everything he ever wanted to his girls.  He didn’t end up with the girl, but he ended up with a much better life for everything he went through.

Mira chose wrong.  She knew it and she lived with it, but at the time it was the only decision she could make because she didn’t put faith in Jeremy and his feelings.  He may not have said the words, but he had proven it to her time and again.  She was too beaten down by guilt, what was happening at home and Kurt to understand what she had.  She may have lost everything because of her choice and ultimately Kurt, but she knew who to reach out to when the life she left behind when she left Kurt returned with a vengeance.

Jeremy and Mira broke your heart.  There was such heartbreak and hate between the two of them but beyond that you saw the love that Jeremy tried fighting and Mira was too afraid to believe.  I wanted these two to figure it out.  For Jeremy to let go of the hate he felt towards Mira and just love her.  For Mira to trust herself and what she felt for Jeremy.

A solid read by an author that knows how to tear you apart emotionally but give you a satisfying ending that makes it all worth while.