Review: Can’t Always Get What You Want – Chelsey Krause

Posted 12 June, 2015 by Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms in Reviews / 18 Comments

*I received a free copy of Can't Always Get What You Want from Loveswept via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *

Review: Can’t Always Get What You Want – Chelsey KrauseCan't Always Get What You Want by Chelsey Krause
Published by Loveswept on 13 January 2015
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 312
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
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4 Stars

Sophie Richards has been looking forward to a much-needed girls’ night out: a Rolling Stones tribute-band concert, a few drinks, a distraction from her grueling nursing shifts in acute care. But when her best friend bails, Sophie gets stuck with a blind date.

Although Brett Nicholson may be the hottest carpenter alive, and Sophie may technically be single, she isn’t exactly on the market. Six years ago she found The One. He was everything Sophie dreamed a man could be—and then she lost him. In an instant, her whole life changed, and she forgot all about happily ever after.

But as she gets to know Brett, Sophie starts to wonder about the future for the first time. With a broken heart still clouding her mind, jumping into a new relationship feels impossible. When she’s in his arms, walking away feels even harder. Now Sophie faces an impossible choice: living in the past or choosing love in the here and now.

Can’t Always Get What you Want is a slow-paced, kind of sad romance in which Sophie needs to let go of the past so that she can get on with the rest of her life.

My Can’t Always Get What You Want review:

Can’t Always Get What You Want was tingled with sadness and want, because Sophie wasn’t ready to let the past completely go, even when meeting Brett and finding a man that was as close to her dream as possible. They were both single, and they had so much in common their story could have been quite straight-forward, if it wasn’t for the fact that Sophie had never truly let herself grieve Aaron, and so, five years later, she still felt like she was cheating on him by letting Brett into her heart.

My feelings were all over the spectre of feelings with Can’t Always Get What You Want. I was sad with Sophie, not even really wanting to imagine how hard it must have been for her when Aaron got sick. I was horrified with her because of her job, and one of her superiors in particular. I was elated with her when she started seeing Brett, and disappointed along with her when things didn’t work out as easily as they could have. The relationships, both in the present and the past were shown to me in such a way it was very easy to get Sophie, even if she frustrated me at times.

Because the story dealt so much with grief and letting go, as well as the fact that it is possible to find a new love after having lost the one person she thought she’d spend the rest of her life with, Sophie really touched my heart. Can’t Always Get What You Want alternated between the present, Sophie’s friends, work and Brett entering her life. The first person point of view and present tense worked very well because I was able to fully understand the sense of loss and devastation Sophie felt, and how she also thought she was betraying Aaron with Brett.

If you are looking for a story that is deep, a little sad, but also filled with a lot of hope and love, Can’t Always Get What You Want should make it to your list of books to get to soon.

Some of my favorite Can’t Always Get What You Want quotes:

Samira and I jump onto the couch and sit with our legs tucked under us. Clutching pillows to our chests, she watches as I hesitantly dial his cell number. I feel like we’re prank-calling someone.

The next twenty minutes, he prattles on, peppering his speech with words like “semantics,” “morphology,” and “syntax.” He is so smart. Note to self: what is “syntax” anyway? Sounds like some horrid thing invented by accountants.

My mind is finally starting to settle. What happened in the ER was just a fluke. I’ll just move on and go back to not thinking about Aaron. I have had five years of practice, after all. How hard could it be? You can only fall that hard once, right?

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.

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18 responses to “Review: Can’t Always Get What You Want – Chelsey Krause

  1. This sounds like something I would like. I love books with an emotional pull, but there is a fine line between a character who I want to pull their shiz together, and one who I can sympathize with as they are grieving. This sounds like you were all in with feelings for Sophie, which is great. Thank you for your review. I hadn’t seen this one before.

    Suzi Q, The Book Dame recently posted: Kindle Kandy No. 5
  2. I need something a little more cheerful these days, but I’m glad the characters got so much to you, the book must really be well written to manage that 🙂

    Red Iza recently posted: Hottie of the week
  3. Sounds like an emotional read, but it’s nice sometiems when a book can let you experience such a wide range of emotions. Being able to understand why a character acts a certain way is pretty important for me in a book and it makes me easier to not let the frustrations influence my overal enjoyment too much when I understand why a character acts a certain way. I like the sound of the hopefull tone, although the plot with losing her first love sounds really hard and not sure if I would enjoy reading about that. Great review lexie!

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