F.L. Jacob has created a compelling tale of a dancer caught in an abusive relationship who finds her soul mate and explores her sexuality. It mixes several elements familiar to erotic literature readers including light bondage, ménage, and other kink. There are not one but two evil villains to add to the mix.Caston's stepmother, Barbara is a great antagonist as is Sabrina's ex-boyfriend, Mark. I found myself wanting to know more about Barbara and her weirdness. I did have a little trouble with Sabrina's abusive relationship with Mark however. While the realism of such a relationship was portrayed well, the believability suffered. Law enforcement in most states will investigate and press charges in domestic violence cases without a victim filing a complaint. They only need probable cause that the violence occurred. Sabrina's injuries were severe enough for that to occur. Still, the drama of her being caught in such a situation plays out well and it's a joy to see Sabrina and Caston's HEA.Supporting characters are good but seem to only be on Caston's side of the story in HAVE I TOLD YOU. Once Sabrina moves in with Caston, her friends seem to disappear for most of the rest of the book. I'd love to read Terrence's story and more about Jon and Sara and their unusual relationship. Luckily, the loose ends of the friends’ stories are tied up in the end of book two.It’s a good story but I recommend reading HAVE I TOLD YOU before you read I WON’T GIVE UP ON YOU so you can get the whole story. I Won't Give Up On You is the second book in the Have I Told You Series and picks up straight from where we were left at the end of Have I Told You with Sabrina having been hurt and on her way to hospital. We follow the couple throughout the turmoil of dealing with her injuries and the aftermath of the shooting and the long lasting effect that the injuries have on Sabrina.Once again this book is loaded with twists and turns and the unexpected as the people responsible for the shooting come to light and Caston does his best to try and protect Sabrina from further threats. He is also thrown into turmoil as he learns of the truth behind the lies he has believed all his life. Both Sabrina and Caston are struggling with how their pasts have played out and how that is effecting their lives as adults.I am a bit of a loss as to what more to say about this book as it is a book of two halves the first half had so much going on that it was hard to keep up with all the characters and the side plots and I struggled to get into the story. Then the second half just felt rushed and rather than learn of events as they happened we heard of them in the main characters monologues as a way of tying up the story. And in all honestly the first half of the book was just way too much sex. Don't get me wrong I like sex in a book but it was every chapter and not just the main characters of the story but also a side character engaged in sex more than once in a chapter with different people, it just seemed like overkill for me!! Then again, the second half of the book nothing, none, no sex at all. I also struggled with the issue of bringing the world of D/s into a book with such a flimsy idea of what this kind of relationship involves, characters were flipping from Dominant to submissive at the drop of a hat and it just didn't seem relevant to the story at all, surely a character could have been coerced into helping someone commit a crime with a better back story than being told to drop to their knees by someone that they have never met, especially given that the character has previously been portrayed as aggressive and abusive.However, I actually enjoyed the last quarter of the book more than the rest of the book and was glad to see things work out for Sabrina and Caston with a cute epilogue at the end.Sadly once again there are a lot of editing issues in this book which I felt distracted me from reading and so I have marked down the book to reflect this and so just 3 stars for me as I am unable to award 3.5 stars.
What do You think about I Won't Give Up On You (2000)?
Loved it!!! can't wait for the next FL Jacob book !!!
—Ber
