Truly

Truly
by Ruthie Knox
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Review:
I got the opportunity to read this story as a serial on Wattpad. A couple chapters were released each week for a couple months. At first I was rather irritated when I'd get the end of each section in a given week. I wanted to keep reading NOW. But then I sort of warmed up to it. This was a good book to read a little bit at a time and really savor some of the parts before moving on.

May is in a bad place: dumped her boyfriend, got mugged, can't get home. She generally does what is expected of her, but she's waking up to find that it's not really who she is. This is the story of her adventure to take control of, not so much her life but, her personality. She doesn't want to be the person who just floats along doing what would look best. Truth is, she has quite the aggressive personality inside her. She's just never let it out.

Ben is a huge chunk of the catalyst that pushes her to be who she really is. At first I really didn't like Ben. He's angry, he yells. He's got some nice in him, but he almost has to pep talk himself into actually being nice. But by the end of the book, he's stopped yelling. He seemed to get a handle on his temper and figure things out. I think this is one reason it was good to read in smaller chunks. For the first few weeks, I kept expecting that he would do some terrible stuff because of how angry he was. As he gradually changes, I was able to take that in more seamlessly instead of still expecting him to act like a jerk still.

Because the truth is, I think the story was specifically about May. Yes, Ben grew. But the important thing was May's determination and seeing her break out of her shell. You keep reading to see how May finally takes control of her life, not specifically to see the romance blossom. And she does a nice job figuring out how to grab life by the horns. From the clothes she wears, to the way she stands up for herself, to the decisions she makes about her life. It's all about her growth. I liked seeing all that. I liked how I could relate to it. I think just about anyone can relate to this book. I appreciated her struggle to find that part of herself on her own, but then also having to learn to own herself in other situations, like when she joins her family finally.

And none of that negates the fact that Ben had to grow too. He had a lot of trouble accepting himself and figuring out what direction to take his life. It's all left a little open ended for both Ben and May when the book closes, sort of like they made peace with themselves so now whatever else happens is just gravy.

On a side note, before this book was released, I kept hearing that it was “the naked beekeeper book”. Sadly, I didn't find any actual naked beekeeping happening in the book. Yes, Ben is a beekeeper who doesn't wear all the beekeeping gear, but alas, not actually naked that I could tell. Not that fully naked would be reasonable, but hearing about it ahead of time my curiosity was definitely peaked.

So overall, this was a good book. I liked it. It was well written, out of the ordinary, relatable and had lots of yummy food. It's a sexy romance that's more a journey for the heroine to open herself up to life and take what she wants rather than simply the process of finding a soul mate. Ben was intriguing and sexy, but May carries the book through her own process of coming out of her shell.