Review: "Love Her or Lose Her" by Tessa Bailey (Hot and Hammered #2) ★★★★★

Review: Love Her or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey

A slowburn romance? By Tessa Bailey? I am quite shooketh! Not only that, it is a sweet slowburn second-chance romance, serving as a reminder that love should be a two-sided effort.

Most people didn’t find their soulmates during their lifetime. She’d found Dominic twice.

PLOT SUMMARY
Married couple, 27-year-olds Rosie and Dominic Vega, have been together since high school. They used to be thick as thieves; now their spark has faded – so much so that they barely speak to each other despite living together. The only thing keeping them together is sex which lacks love, only lust. Rosie has enough and leaves Dominic, causing them both to wonder where they went wrong.

Dominic was brought up to be unemotional, not show insecurity as it is a weakness, and only knows how to show love through acts of service and providing security. He feels inadequate and unworthy otherwise.
Rosie shows and desires love through words of affirmation, which has fallen short in their marriage since he returned from the Marines in Afghanistan a few years ago. Her confidence has gone, as has her dream to open a restaurant. Instead, she works a job she hates married to a man who doesn’t feel like a husband. Without any encouragement from him, she feels alone.

Dominic wants her back, desperately so. He will even sit through therapy with the high hippie therapist Armie she may have chosen to spite him. 4 therapy sessions, for Team Vega. Requiring vulnerability, trust, and teamwork (and restraint as their chemistry resurfaces), things seem to be looking up. But when Rosie finds out Dominic’s huge secret, everything changes. Will love conquer all this time or will he lose his wife again?

OVERALL OPINIONS
Will I ever read a series of books in order? Perhaps not, but I was drawn to this one. It was interesting to have this from the point of view of a struggling married couple because usually romance novels focus on the coming together, potentially ending in marriage, of a couple. Maybe even a high school romance (like what Rosie and Dominic were). Half of marriages end in divorce these days, so this is a topic lots of people can relate to. [Of course, never stay and fight for someone unworthy of your efforts.]

I really liked the way this story was done. Both Rosie and Dominic have their flaws, therefore very realistic: Dominic believes being a provider is the best way to show his love which to her is not what she would like, Rosie realises it is not just him that was not listening to needs, she has also been neglecting his own love language by not doing deeds for him. Couples have this problem a lot, at least in my own experience, and I love these two actively communicate and try to better themselves for each other and give each other what they need. Communication is so important.

The way they take it upon themselves to try and speak the other’s love language is beautiful. Dominic writes her a letter with words of encouragement and memories from the past, details only he knows which makes her feel important, also tries to encourage her in person giving her the missing necessary support; Rosie make him a nice meal and washes his truck, doing small but important acts of service.

I love it when they reveal things about the other, like when Dominic admits that Rosie sometimes asked for him in her sleep and he would hold her hand or kiss her shoulder. BLESS! Team Vega all the way, baby!

Dominic bought their dream home behind her back a year ago, when they were not communicating. He never works up the courage to tell her about it, fearing losing her again. At one point I thought the whole house thing would not come up, considering I was 3/4s through the book, and I was like huh that’s odd thought it would’ve come up by now – but of course it would. It is such an important element to the story, a metaphor for their marriage: he had a house but it wasn’t a home.

My favourite thing has to be the contrast in the description of their marriage at the start vs the end of the book. At the start “everything between them was dark”, at the end they “shine together”, the light of their lives are back.

<< Positives >>
🠚 The slowburn was so good, made everything so much more sensual and made me root so hard for them in the end. I wish Tessa would do this more often!
🠚 Raises awareness of love languages. I am sure most are aware of them, but they are so important.
🠚 The humour is so good. As is the word choices, take “perfume purgatory” for example – a very good use of alliteration.
🠚 I love that the silly hipster therapist is actually amazing – I hope they gave him 5 stars for what he did. There was a method to his madness.
🠚 Loved the friends around them that helped get them back together in their own ways. Also, Wes and Bethany’s banter was soo funny! “Texas called, Wes. It wants its rodeo clown back.” “Oz called. They're missing a witch.” – I was cryinggg. Georgette and Travis are the sweetest, I definitely should have checked out their story first but I will do so soon.

<< Negatives >>
🠚 Only thing I think would make it even better is if there had been more moments shared about her late parents and the subject of grief. There were some lovely memories she brings up but I wouldn’t have minded a flashback, a bit like the flashback when he asked her out in high school.

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ Rosie꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ I love that Rosie is a very grounded person, tries to make do with a situation, and when dissatisfied in life she breaks free and does what is best for her. That is a commendable trait. Marriage not working? Leave. Job not working? Leave. Neither of them are easy to do. “You couldn’t put a prince on self-respect, and she desperately needed to take some back.” – as she should!
🠚 Above all else, she is a lovely person and I am glad she did not hold back at getting what she wants. She has The Just Us League where women encourage her to pursue her dreams, she becomes a natural leader, and eventually gets that restaurant to do her late parents (particularly her mother) proud.
-ˋˏ ꒰ Dominic꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ See, I am much more like Rosie and prefer words but I understand a lot of men are not good with that. I am now a sucker for men who do acts of service. I was in awe when we discover he brought her coat over to her friend’s house, and paid the security guy to make sure she is safe when leaving work.
🠚 The fact he sells the dream house he bought so he can buy her dream, her restaurant – that was so romantic! In my notes, I literally wrote MARRY THAT MAN, AGAIN! I had no idea they were going to actually do it.

FAV QUOTES
• “What happened to us? We used to love so hard. We used to be a team.”
• If there was anything in this world worth fighting for, it was his wife.
• God, she and Dominic had entertained big dreams. A forever home to grow old in, a family, lucrative careers. Her biggest dream had always been Dominic though.
• “How dare you show up looking this good. Saying things like that.”
• Looking at her through a sea of strangers, the years of their lives were right between them, rushing like a river.
• “You’re the most incredible woman I’ve ever seen. So beautiful you make me ache. And you’ve got a heart to match. You’re patient and loyal and dedicated and kind. A man who never worried about doing enough to earn you? That man would be an idiot.”
• She looked up into Dominic’s eyes and saw her husband again.
• Do not enter. Ravishment by husband in progress.
• “No one is ever going to turn me on and piss me off at the same time or make me feel protected. Or alive. You’re the only one who’ll ever do that.”
• “I’d had my head down so long, I forgot to look up and see you needed something else. The restaurant, yeah. But me, too. You needed me.”
• Her husband hadn’t been ignoring her all those years. She’d been his center of gravity, just like always. To a fault.
• They were old love, committed love, and fresh, insatiable love all rolled into one.
• “We don’t love each other the easy way, Dominic, but our hearts are in the right place every single time.” The lights caught the sheen in her eyes.
• Her husband needed actions to feel her love, and she would never stop finding new ways to show him, the same way he did for her with words. They would continue to grow a little more each day until they reached forever.
• “You shine,” Dominic said gruffly. “So bright.” | Rosie twined their fingers together. | “We shine together.”