Warning: This book contains Domestic Violence
Synopsis from Goodreads
Tyler Bruce – hell raiser and bad boy – tells his story in his own words.
Alternating between past and present, Just Don’t Mention It is narrated from Tyler’s perspective. We see his life as a twelve-year-old boy suffering physical abuse at the hands of his dad. We see him as the daredevil seventeen-year-old we first met in Did I Mention I Love You?, the stepbrother who falls head over heels for Eden.
In these parallel timelines we finally understand the enigmatic Tyler’s complex story and his innermost thoughts – on his dad, his mom, on Tiffani and Eden – all the things Eden wasn’t witness to. And, crucially, the reader gains heartbreaking insight into why Tyler becomes the self-obsessed, angry and unhappy guy we encounter in DIMILY.
This utterly addictive rollercoaster of a novel gives voice to one of the most adored characters in Estelle Maskame’s extraordinary international bestseller, Did I Mention I Love You?
Review
I didn’t realise what I was getting into when I got myself in the blog tour for Just Don’t Mention It by Estelle Maskame. First, the book is massive! Like big-enough-to-kill-someone-with-it kind of massive. Secondly, I have never read any of the DIMILY Series books.
Seriously Ana?
Tsst Tsst… and you call yourself a book blogger hun?
Well, I’m trying okay, but there is just too many books and not enough money to buy them all! It’s a cruel world out there!
The book arrived just in time for my holiday to Portugal. Thinking this would be the perfect summer book, I took it with me. I’ve previously heard that the DIMILY series it’s quite a delightful and fun summer read, so I thought this will be the same. Nope. Unless you want to cry into your cocktails by the pool!
Just Don’t Mention It goes quite deep, deep into Tyler’s suffering and abuse at his Dad’s hands. The story goes back and forwards, between Tyler being 12 years old, to 5 years later when he meets Eden. It’s set in California mostly during the summer, which tricks you to feel warm inside and the romance blossoming between Tyler and Eden makes you feel all giddy too. However, every time it goes to a flashback of Tyler being abused by his Dad, it’s like I’m being punched in the heart! Can we just wrap him in bubble wrap and keep him safe?
Even though I haven’t read the DIMILY series I thought I could actually be of help in this blog tour. Mostly, because I wanted to check for myself if you could really get into the story by starting with Tyler’s perspective instead of Eden’s. Also, I love Ink Road Publishers too much to refuse being part of their amazing blog tours. They have provided me with some of the best reads of 2018 (also their book mail is perfection!), and after hearing how the series is loved by everyone I just had to read it.
What I’m trying to say here is, that once again Ink Road provided me with another fabulous read and you definitely can start the series from Just Don’t Mention It. However, I believe that part of the mystery in DIMILY is Eden breaking Tyler’s barriers. The whole good girl falls in love with bad boy story line, will be amiss if you start reading the series from JDMI. Instead, you get broken boy is misunderstood by everyone until good girl sees him for who he is, which is still pretty awesome.
Estelle’s writing is so beautifully descriptive and the story flows so effortlessly between past and present. I’m pretty curious to read the rest of the series now, and see a different side of the story. You definitely don’t need to be a fan of the DIMILY series to pick up Just Don’t Mention It, but you will definitely be picking up the rest of the series once you finish this one!
Whenever you arrive to this story – either from Tyler’s side or Eden’s side – you will leave loving them both.
Rating: ★★★★✬
Just Don’t Mention It by Estelle Maskame is out now in paperback and is available Amazon(affiliated link).
Thanks Ink Road for sending me a paperback copy of Just Don’t Mention It in exchange for my honest review.
*FangirlSince1988 xxx
Fangirl Since 1988 