Thirteen-year-old Vivienne LeBrun has a family she's
adopted as her own.
Vivi lost her brother and mother in an auto accident
leaving her with a
father tied to a bottle of whiskey. Her best friend Cat
St. James and her
affluent family have always loved Vivi. Cat and her
brothers, Jackson and
David, have always included Vivi like a sister. She has
always had a deep
love and yearning for David's attention, following him
around like a
lovesick puppy. The two of them have a profound
connection and able to
"feel" each other's emotions and moods. Spending
vacations at their
family's Block Island summer home in Connecticut has
always been the
highlight of Vivi's life.
It's been nearly a decade and her friends have lost their
mother to cancer
and David suddenly left for work in Hong Kong with no
explanations.
With a distance between his father and his siblings, David
has a deeply
embedded secret he has sworn to keep at the request of his
mother prior
to her death. Invited back by Cat to join the siblings
at the Block Island
home for a vacation, Vivi is nervous at seeing David after
a long period of
separation. The estranged David has finally returned and
settled in New
York as an attorney where Vivi also lives, teaching art to
elementary
school students and some photography on the side. David
shows up with
a girlfriend, devastating Vivi, even though she has always
known that
having her love returned by David isn't a possibility,
only her biggest
desire. Cat is a high profile model and Vivi is still the
little rumpled friend.
The longer the small group are housed together, the more
David and Vivi
are thrown together and feelings that used to be are no
longer the same.
As she helps David work through his deep seated anger,
Vivi also realizes
what it is going to take to come to terms with her own
misgivings of the
past. Vivi doesn't lie to herself that she is in the same
class as David, but
that doesn't stop the yearning for something out of her
reach. What will it
take for David to realize what he has in Vivi?
I have not had the pleasure of reading any of Jamie Beck's
works before,
but WORTH THE WAIT definitely drew me in and made me a
believer. A girl-turned-
woman has spent her whole life loving someone out of her
reach. WORTH THE WAIT is
a poignant and heartwarming story of young love and
redemption and will
literally make your heart ache for this girl. Grab your
Kleenexes because,
believe me, you'll need them. Jamie Beck has a real
talent for making the reader
feel the sorrow, regret and yearning of this young
character. I will
definitely search for more novels by this author.
Thirteen years ago, Vivi LeBrun was sketching a rooster
and
eating Oreos when she first met—and fell for—her friend’s
brother, David St. James. Since then, her love for David
has
only intensified thanks to years of friendship with his
family, who rescued her from a lonely, tumultuous
childhood.
As she travels to Block Island to vacation with the St.
James siblings, Vivi daydreams about reuniting with David,
hoping he’ll finally see her as his soul mate.
After his mother’s death, David distanced himself from his
siblings, determined to hide a devastating family secret.
Now, he’s brought a new girlfriend along to his
homecoming—one who’s pushing for a serious commitment. The
last thing he needs on his growing list of problems is his
budding attraction to Vivi.
With tensions running high, David’s behavior triggers a
series of events that might cost him the love he’s always
taken for granted and Vivi the only real family she’s ever
known.