Color Me Yours, Diana T. Scott

Another win in the series. There's very little that we get about Paige and Miles in books one and two except some periphery details because they're involved in the group and live in the same house. What we get in this story is more heartbreak than we thought we'd get from this shy couple and way more silent communication and affection. Those things suit this couple to a T and I'm glad for a completely different dynamic in the third book.

Paige is struggling to find herself. She knows that at one time she was happy, she was content, she knew what she needed and wanted. Years later she can't find that woman. Making a quick decision she finds herself home in Chicago at the hospital where her future finds her. The decision seems impulsive, especially when you try seeing it from her ex's angle, but what you also see is a desperate need for self-rediscovery. What she doesn't realize is that her true self isn't actually missing, she just found a set of blinders in the time she spent conforming to someone else's version of a perfect mate.

Miles doesn't have those blinders and sees her in all her quiet, quirky glory. He's captivated and inexorably drawn to all that she is unaware that she projects. We get small snippets of his thoughts and adoration until the end when all hell breaks loose. In book one I was glad when I finally got Sebastian's heart on paper because the wait was so worth it. In Color Me Yours, though, I can see how so much that is supposed to be a strained secret would be exposed if we got more from him throughout but the payoff wasn't nearly as satisfying. It provided adequate insight to his groveling and struggle with his past, that's for sure, but I can't help feeling that while I come to intimately know Paige I still don't know Miles as well as I want to. What I know is good as well as frustrating, and that bitter-sweetness carves a special place for Miles in me. I want to smack him and hug him in equal measure.

His past and Paige finally accepting him in her present clash in a way I was absolutely not expecting. The drama that surrounded them in the shadows was much bigger than I could have imagined and I was so very glad to have come to know Ava and Emily so I knew that Paige would be supported and loved while she dealt with that huge blow. I was also glad to know that she had a friend in Jules even though we know very little of her. It all really comes down to Paige and how we want to be the ones to hold and hug her but since she's just a person on paper we get to have a small sense of relief that she's got more paper friends to give her what we would give her ourselves. Fanciful, yes, but no less real than how I feel for her.

What we see of Ellie is painful and tender. We would have loved her if she were her own character with her own book. In her role here, though, we love her but that love is tinged with a sense of pain and regret. Much the same as what Paige feels when they meet. Miles' reaction to that meeting is frustrating, disappointing, and misunderstood. When his thoughts are revealed later I'm even more frustrated with him but I also ache along with him too. We finally see what drew him to Paige and also kept him at arms length. He was misguided and a martyr but not any less worthy of our affection as an audience. I was really glad that he came to his senses. Watching him find Paige and their reunion filled me with a sense of relief. Like, "Ah, finally!" With everything finally out in the open, with their hearts absolutely bear and vulnerable, I could breathe and slow down knowing that things would work out.

The book is no less touching than the previous two but I did find that the characters' struggles were slightly more frustrating than the others. I read faster not because I couldn't wait to finish, but because I was needing a happier resolution and not sure what kind of a resolution I would get. It was a near thing that the ending would have been more bitter than sweet and that feeling lasted right until the very end. Overall, though, I was so very pleased with the opportunity I had to read the book. It was a solid read, romantic, painful, frustrating, and yet full of so many types of relief that I couldn't stop until I finished the book. Well worth the loss of sleep.

*Enjoy the entire series, Half of Me