A Rae Rave Review - The Pull by Chelsie Shakespeare (Guest Post)

Evie Remington had always done what people expected of her. As a result, at twenty-six she finds herself the unhappy owner and manager of a Denver hotel. That is, until deep-rooted memories of a past life and the hidden knowledge of a promise she made in that other lifetime pulls her away from it all. Without knowing where it will lead, Evie sets out on a cross-country journey that will challenge what she believes about life, death, and love

The prologue, I think, is the cleverest one I’ve read for some time.  It immediately sets the scene for the entire novel and instantly drags you in. I was hooked from the very beginning of this story, even with struggling to read it in PDF format on my phone in tiny writing because my e-reader seems to have given up the ghost on me!

We are introduced to Bria and Jude, who have just been told that that Jude is dying and that they should say their goodbyes. From the moment the door shuts behind the doctor you feel like you know Bria, what she feels.  Her despair at the impending loss of the man she loves so much, her guilt at the pity she feels for herself at the thought of him not being there and the terror of carrying on living her life alone after he’s gone.  Upon returning to the bedroom, we meet Jude, who is accepting of his demise and tries to comfort his wife as best he can.  Through their conversation the reader discerns that they will meet again, that they are meant to be together as they have been before and will be again.  The rules this time will be slightly different, this time they must wait until they are twenty six before they can meet again.  We also learn that while Bria will not remember their past life together until she turns twenty six, Jude will remember everything.  Before they drift off to sleep in each other’s arms, they settle on a meeting place for their next life.  Bria awakes in her dead husbands arms.  Unwilling to live the rest of her life alone, knowing that the sooner her life ends, the sooner they will be together again, she makes the decision to end her life.

At this point I have to confess I cried. I haven’t felt this emotionally invested in a book so early on for such a long time.  So amazingly well written and such relatable characters, even at this point had me glued to my phone screen!

We meet Evie on the day of her twenty sixth birthday and realize very quickly that she is not at all happy in the life she is leading.  After her father died, she finds herself running his hotel.  Having given up her dreams of going away to college and the career she truly wanted to look after him after his first heart attack, she feels resentful and trapped in the situation, while also suffering from the guilt that goes along with those feelings. It finally becomes too much and after suffering a panic attack in her office Evie flees.  She gets in her car and drives in a direction that feels right and that night she dreams.  She dreams of the life that Bria and Jude had and knows it was her life too.

Over the course of the book, we meet both characters. We learn about their lives to date and how they search for the other halves of their souls. I felt so sorry for Easton, he’s known all these years about Bria, that he was meant to find her, doubted that he would ever find her and feels horribly guilty about the one girl he has slept with, because he feels like he cheated on his soul mate. The ending of the book may be abrupt to some, but I clapped my hands with glee as, to me, it was the perfect finishing point to this tale.

At times there is a distinct lack of reality in the writing, there are no money worries, and they both just take off to find their love.  If I hadn’t been so swept up on the story this may have gotten to me, as I’m usually a stickler for a bit of reality.

If you haven’t guessed by now I totally loved this book!  Maybe it’s a case of the right book at the right time, but something about it really hit the spot and I think it’s awesome!  Quite possibly one of my favourite books of the year!