HOW NOT TO LET GO by Emily Foster is book two in the
Belhaven Series. Emily Foster is the pen name for
Emily Nagoski, a PhD sex educator who wrote COME AS YOU ARE,
a unbelievably good sex ed book. I discovered COME AS YOU
ARE from a very popular romance blog that does podcasts and
fell in love with Nagoski's work (please do check out her
website www.TheDirtyNormal.com.) In COME AS YOU ARE, Nagoski
talks about how she thinks so many romance books get sex
wrong. So she decided to write her own romance book with a
sex-positive message and correct science. How could I not
check that out?! Book one is HOW NOT TO FALL, and it is
AMAZING. You will absolutely need to read book one
before starting HOW NOT TO LET GO. Go and buy them both
now, right now, and then come right back. Believe
me, you'll be ecstatic that you did.
HOW NOT TO FALL, book one, is in my top favorite reads of
2016. It is extremely intelligent, witty, nerdy, and
oh-my-god over-the-top sexy. I gobbled it up and panted for
seconds. HOW NOT TO LET GO, book two, is similarly brilliant
and nerdy, but the sex is more restrained. In book two, our
heroine, Annabelle Coffey, is romantically separate from Dr.
Charles Douglas for much of the book. Annie is a med
student who worked under Charles when she was a pre-med and
he was the postdoctoral fellow in her lab. She feels they
have A Thing (a romantic thing) and he agrees that
they can
explore it once she graduates and she is no longer under his
aegis in the lab (hooray for responsible adulting!) And
wow, do they have A Thing. Their fling just about
melted my
e-reader in book one. But Charles has A LOT of baggage from
childhood traumas and a totally screwed up family. So they
separate as Annie goes off to med school.
Now enter book two, where Annie and Charles reconnect as
friends. They are best friends, and
have the most powerful interactions as they continue to grow
even closer. Charles resists them becoming a formal couple
again, though. For reasons. Believable reasons, actually,
as compared to the overblown reasons that lots of romances
tout, and I adore seeing them work through these reasons
together and solve their problems in an eventually healthy
manner. This is a very positive relationship overall, both
in terms of mental issues and in terms of sex, which is so
fabulous to see modeled.
While HOW NOT TO LET GO does not back the same sexual wallop
that HOW NOT TO FALL does, it is still a mesmerizing story.
There is unbelievable angst, and I cried so many cathartic
tears as I moved through the story. I read this in at a
time I needed something hopeful in my life, and I reached
for this ARC knowing it would be a powerful and positive
book that would leave me wrung out but happy. Foster
totally delivers in HOW NOT TO FALL, with a heart-wrenching
split in soulmates that is overcome by perseverance and the
belief in the healing power of love. What a fantastic
message for all of us!
Once upon a time, med student Annie Coffey set out to have a
purely physical fling with Charles Douglas, a gorgeous
British doctor in her lab. It didn’t quite work out that
way. Instead, secrets—and desires—were bared, hearts were
broken, and Annie knew she had to leave this complicated,
compelling man who remains convinced he can never give her
what she needs.
Walking away is one thing. Staying away is another. Annie
and Charles reunite at a London conference, rekindling a
friendship they struggle to protect from their intense
physical connection. Little by little, Annie gets a glimpse
into Charles’s dark past and his wealthy, dysfunctional
family. Soon, she’s discovering what it means to have
someone claim her, body and soul. And she’s learning that
once in a lifetime you find a love that can make you do
anything…except let go.
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