Hello Stranger by Jade West

 

BOOK: Hello Stranger

AUTHOR: Jade West

TYPE: Standalone

GENRE: Contemporary Romance

POV: First Person - Dual

PAGE COUNT: 346 (Kindle Edition)

PUBLICATION DATE: July 12, 2020

DATE READ: Oct 28, 2020

*(Subject to change)*

4.33

Chloe Sutton - 22

Logan Hall - 41

You will need tissues. Your eyes will be a mess. You will have a lump the size of an elephant in your throat. You won't escape without bawling. And you WILL carry this amazing tale close to your heart.

Hello, stranger…

When your eyes land on a complete stranger on the train, and the world around you stops.
When the stranger says hello, and your heart stops, too.
When the universe answers your prayers and he’s there, next day, on the train. A man so powerful - brooding with darkness and secrets.
I knew there was going to be more. I wanted more.

When the stranger is reading one of your favourite novels, and you’re reading one of his.
When you’re in such a flutter that you drop your treasured bookmark, and the stranger returns it next day.
When you think the universe can’t be any kinder, but it truly delivers the jackpot of all jackpots and two opposite worlds collide, as though it was meant to be.

Only it could never be so easy, could it?

Goodbye stranger…
Hello, Dr Hall.

When fate turns to love,
And love turns to pain,
Hope is the saviour,
To live through the rain.

Contains scenes of palliative care – may be emotionally triggering for some readers.
Please proceed with caution.

*SPOILER ALERT WARNING*

Every moment truly is magical, just so long as your eyes aren’t blind to the wonders.

Oh God. Where do I even start? I'm currently staring at the screen trying to figure out what to write about this incredible book. 'Hello Stranger' by Jade West was simply heart-wrenching. No other words for it. I did not expect this from Jade West. I've known her to write dirty, erotic, suspenseful romance but this tale, this heart-wrenching, beautiful tale was on a whole other level. I loved every excruciating second, every excruciating moment of this journey. Very rarely does a book affect me so tremendously. I can count on my fingers the number of book which have made me cry ugly tears. I was bawling my eyes out but trying to keep quiet cause I didn't want my mum to find me like that. Because she just wouldn't understand why I was crying over a damn book.

All hellos ultimately have their goodbyes. And all goodbyes hurt so much harder if the love they are founded on is so damn strong. Still, all hellos with people you love are worth it. They are all worth their weight in gold.

From the very beginning, I found myself falling in love with Chloe. I fell in love with her books. I fell in love with her nervous jitters. I loved how she wanted to help others during their worst times. How she always radiated light even in the face of adversity. How she viewed the world through eyes full of hope. Her never-ending compassion and selflessness. Her tenderness for all her patients. I fell in love with her kindness, the pure goodness of her heart, her smile and her positivity. I loved her compulsion to read and just keep reading. How she wasn't able to put a book down. I loved her thoughtfulness even at such a young age. That's how, I fell in love with Chloe Sutton.

I could have stayed alongside her for a lifetime, but lifetimes are fleeting things.

Since the first time I met her, I found myself falling in love with Jackie Hall. I fell in love with her strength and her wisdom. I fell in love with her will to live and be free. I fell in love with her sparkling eyes and her everlasting smile. Her never-ending love for her child. How she remained strong and full of life even till the end. I fell in love with her cursing and her bucket list. Her desire to dip her toes in the ocean and climb a mountain. Her acceptance and words of wisdom for Chloe. That's how, I fell in love with Jackie Hall.

Knowing Jackie Hall was an honour I’d never forget. I just wished I had longer alongside her.

And Logan. Logan broke my heart. He broke my heart with his love for classics. How he cared for each and every one of his patients. His calmness while facing death and suffering on a daily basis. His all-powerful love of his mother. His extreme tenderness and care for her. How he fell in love with a jittering rabbit. Even his pessimism and fatalist views. My heart hurt for what he went through at such a young age. All the things he kept locked up inside. How he isolated himself from every one in his life. Logan broke my heart and it's still broken after reading that epilogue.

We loved each other. Call it fate or destiny or coincidence, or two people having more in common than they could ever know possible, mixed with things on total opposite sides of the scales, like weird magnets that couldn’t stay apart… it didn’t make any difference whatsoever. We loved each other. And that wasn’t going anywhere. Ever.

That epilogue completely destroyed me. But even though it ended sadly, it was the perfect ending to what was one of the most selfless tales of love I've ever read. The story is so raw and real. It's about real life and how there aren't always happily ever after's. I know life isn't always wine & roses, but still, the reality of this story broke my heart. It's utterly unforgettable.

 I wish I could give this book all the stars in the world. But it still wouldn't be enough.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS FOR THOSE BRAVE SOULS WHO WISH TO TEAR THEIR HEARTS OUT OF THEIR CHESTS.

• ❝The glass is always half full in my world, even when there’s no water left to drink. After all, you still have the glass there ready for some more…❞

• ❝Reading time was the only time I ever truly allowed myself. The only time I slipped out of my own world into someone else’s and left the heaviness of mine behind. My only escape.❞

• ❝“That’s the curse of the most powerful stories, isn’t it?” he said. “They never let you go.”❞

• ❝My heart was beating happy. My soul was alive. The words were my everything.❞

• ❝This was it. This was always it. Disorganisation, and lateness, and not getting to sleep on time. I’d been like this since a tiny girl, battling my parents constantly over reading past bedtime, and I’d never stopped.❞

• ❝“Hello,” I said. I said hello to the stranger. My heart was racing, and my breaths were fast to match, but I said it. I said hello to the stranger. My heart flew to the sky when the stranger smiled. “Hello,” he said right back.❞

• ❝Something beyond words, that you feel so deep it goes right through you. Like that tingly lurch you get in romance novels when they finally touch, or when one of them first tells the other that they love them. Only this was real life. This was real now.❞

• ❝“Give yourself up to me,” I said. “Feel whatever you feel, just let yourself feel it.”❞

• ❝The streets were empty and familiar, but the journey was alien in the most beautiful of ways with her at my side. Her eyes were soaking in everything. Every nook and cranny, door and window. Every turn in the road. Mine were all on her.❞

• ❝I needed him. I needed him like I needed breath. Because he was life. Touching him was life to me.❞

• ❝Her cries had been so raw and so true. Her eyes filled with such genuine hurt for others’ pain. She had so much of that hurt coming, so many days ahead on the ward. The last thing I should do was add more.❞

• ❝But my heart craved more. For the first time in years, I needed more. I needed that girl.❞

• ❝The moment is now, Chloe. It’s always now. Not about reliving the past or dreaming up the future, it’s in the here and now. Enjoy as many of those moments as you can, because they never come twice, my love.❞

• ❝“You look around you and see so clearly that people stress too much. Almost everyone has a big pile of crap they churn over day after day. It’s normal. Only it doesn’t have to be."❞

• ❝Don’t ever justify what makes you, you, or how good you are.❞

• ❝The moment is now. It’s always now. Not about reliving the past or dreaming up the future, it’s in the here and now. Enjoy as many of those moments as you can, because they never come twice, my love.❞

• ❝“One tiny second of joy is worth a lifetime without it,” I said. “I want every single second with you I can get. Every single second, of every single day.”❞

• ❝Every moment truly is magical, just so long as your eyes aren’t blind to the wonders.❞

• ❝It was a wonderful feeling, being a man loving a woman who’d taught me to love so much.❞

• ❝All hellos ultimately have their goodbyes. And all goodbyes hurt so much harder if the love they are founded on is so damn strong. Still, all hellos with people you love are worth it. They are all worth their weight in gold.❞

Just highlight the whole damn book!

Jade has increasingly little to say about herself as time goes on, other than the fact she is an author, but she’s plenty happy with this. Living in imaginary realities and having a legitimate excuse for it is really all she’s ever wanted.

Jade is as dirty as you’d expect from her novels, and talking smut makes her smile.

She lives in the Herefordshire countryside with a couple of hounds and a guy who’s able to cope with her inherent weirdness.

She has a red living room, decorated with far more zebra print than most people could bear, and fights a constant battle with her addiction to Coca-Cola.

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