Worth Fighting For by Charity West
Publisher: Coastal Escape Publishing
Release Day: October 17, 2016
Lily Rhodes has been in love with her brother’s best friend, Jake, since he became her hero when she was three years old. She followed him and her brother, Riley, everywhere, hoping that one day he might actually notice her.
Jake and Riley both went to Afghanistan, but during an attack, Jake is wounded and returns home, thinking that he is not worthy of Lily or anyone.
As I read Worth Fighting For I felt like I was on a roller coaster ride. The beginning read a lot like a beginning writer’s novel with a lot of description and unnecessary detail. And, when I say unnecessary detail I am talking about describing in detail how someone cleans up after dinner when it is not pertinent to the action of the novel whatsoever. Then there were two bits of dramatic action that coincided and then things picked up and I felt like the beginning was probably an accident. And then there was the third bit of “dramatic action” and I felt like I was reading someone’s first novel, rather than someone who has been published several times before.
I am, admittedly, more used to plot driven novels in action, mysteries, or thrillers, but Worth Fighting For seems to be just that. Neither Lily nor Jake change, but they are told by others or each other how they should respond to a given situation.
This isn’t a bad novel, by any means, but there are inconsistencies and definitely a tendency toward melodrama.When you have three people hospitalized in the course of a short novel and it’s not part of a contagion or it’s not a thriller or paranormal, the novel may be leaning too heavily on melodrama.
I liked the concept of the novel, or I wouldn’t have chosen to read or review it. I guess I just wish that parts of it had been more thoughtfully conceived and that a little more passion seemed to exist within Jake and Lily. Even if you have a purity vow, I’m pretty certain that you would like to kiss the hell out of a guy you’ve been crushing on for fourteen years.
I was given an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
From Amazon: Worth Fighting For
rating: 
(3 out of 5 butterflies)