Review: The Truth About Air and Water

Title: The Truth About Air and Water (Truth in Lies #2)
Author: Katherine Owen
Genres: New Adult, Contemporary Romance, Sports
Publication Date: August 25, 2014
Publisher: The Writing Works Group
Purchase Links: 
    

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” -Ernest Hemingway ~ A Farewell To Arms 

They share an epic love but one moment changes everything. A life together that seemed certain is shattered. One learns you never love the same way twice; the other learns what it means to come home. You only think you know how this love story goes, but do you really know how an epic love can end? 

“There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice.” 

-F. Scott Fitzgerald 

She is living color, and I’ve been in a black-and-white world for far too long without her. 

Powerful stuff. It surrounds me. I’ve felt it since I first arrived. The forcefield of her. The magnetism of her. The power she wields over me. I’m alive again because of her, like a dying plant that finally gets some water. I’ve got it bad for this girl. 

Reality dawns. 

The light comes through the darkness and shines on me. 

She’s my water. 

-Lincoln Presley 

The truth is I breathe with him. He is my air. Raison d’etre. 

-Tally Landon 

Katherine Owen did it again. Even though I was prepared to have my heart broken, it still did not lessen the impact. Owen is definitely good at breaking hearts and slowly putting the pieces back together. I think if this was written by some other author, I may have DNF’ed or given a lower rating. The writing is just surreal and amazingly expresses the characters’ feelings and all the drama that is going on, and its poetic way of speech just captivates me. Everything lures me in. Even though I feel tired with everything that has been going on, I don’t stop. I greedily continue reading. Yet again, The Truth About Air and Water was a rollercoaster ride. I was angry. I was confused. I was sad. I was happy.

Maybe the reason you don’t know what’s going on with me today is, again, because you’re hardly ever here.

However, this time around, I had a hard time connecting with both Tally and Linc. I became irritated with the both of them — of how self-centered Linc could be, and how dramatic and selfish Tally could be. Even though I could not fault them for that as their response towards what is happening to them, and may be a reflex self-defense action, but it was an annoying push and pull between the two of them.

But what if I’m not ready precisely because the thing is I haven’t been moving on? The thing about moving on is you need to take some sort of action. You actually need to move on to move on.

There were times when I cheered for Tally, especially when it seems like she had grown to be more mature, but it ends there. There was no follow-through, and she was back to being confused. A lot of people were there to support her, but she wasn’t doing anything to help herself. She still puts the blame on others. I think I expected more from her, especially after all the things that she had gone through.

Beautiful things are like that, extraordinary one minute, gone the next.

Maybe all it ever was… was a metaphor. A metaphor of us.

It was obvious that Linc and Tally would end up together, but I had a tiny hope that they wouldn’t. I just wished that Tally could see for herself because she really deserves so much more than Linc has to offer. She already sacrificed so much, and yet she receives nothing in return. I was happy to see Tally trying to move on, and although this was a second chance romance between the two of them, it hurts to see her unable to do so. The ending, while beautifully written and definitely captivating, feels like it left me hanging. It does not feel like an HEA between the two of them, because these two should not be together. Over the five years that they were together, they experienced a lot of dramas than any regular person would have in their lifetime. Sadly, I don’t think anything’s been fixed between the two of them. They talk it out, fight for something, but then nothing happens. At the end of the day, I still see Linc as someone who would be prioritizing baseball over anything else, and Tally as the insecure and dramatic one.

It’s hard to maintain the balance to keep the fire going. You have to fan the flames without putting it out with too much water. But too little water will burn the fire right up. Too much fire. Too much destruction. We’re out of control.

Because of this, I am having second thoughts on whether I will read the last installment to the series or not. While the writing is absolutely beautiful, and the characters very dynamic, I think I might just want to end this second chance story of love and loss with this book. I am afraid that I might come to dislike the last book, even though I love these first two books so much, especially since their relationship has become toxic for me. Nevertheless, The Truth About Air and Water is a must-read, but prepare to have your heart trampled all over with this bittersweet, tragic but epic love story. 

      

Dark. Edgy. Contemporary. Romantic.

Were we describing me? Or my fiction? Sorry. I drink too much...coffee, not enough water. 

I swear too much for God and my mother, and I slip these into my fiction. Sorry. 

I'm impatient, a perfectionist, a wordsmith, a dreamer, which ends up being good and bad. I'm always writing, just ask my family. 

I've written six novels in as many years: Seeing Julia, Not To Us, When I See You, as well as the Truth In Lies series (new adult fiction) including This Much Is True, The Truth About Air & Water and Tell Me Something True (latest release).

If you love angsty, unpredictable love stories, I'm yours. ♥