90 Days by T.E. Ridener

Blurb: While her sister and future brother-in-law prepare for their wedding day, which is set to happen in three months, 24-year-old Laney McIntosh is barely holding her life together by a thread.
She’s been forced to fake a smile for months for the sake of her family, but she isn’t so sure she can do it anymore. There are secrets she has kept and they will threaten to shatter the picture-perfect status they’ve finally achieved since her sister’s return.
Through the ever-growing darkness in her mind there is one beacon of light that shines brighter than the rest: Benji, one of her sister’s best friends.
Benji Palmer is a transgender man and he has his share of demons, but what he feels for Laney has only been growing stronger since the moment he met her. Despite his own struggles he wants nothing more than to make Laney happy and he’s determined to heal her heart.
A lot of things can happen in 90 days.
Good things.
Bad things.
Crazy things.
Beautiful things.
Will Laney and Benji finally get the happily-ever-after they’ve always wanted?

4 Stars

This one I actually liked better than the first one. Its a book with a transgender lead and and also has a lead that suffers from a mental illness which is on my challenge’s from both Book Riot and Just Another Girl and Her Books.  So I was able to kill two birds with one stone there.

It was good, nay, great.  It was totally worth it, I would highly recommend that you read it.  It deals with a lot of current social issues. However, the storyline itself took a left turn about half-way through the book.  Whereas the first part of the book focused on Benji and Laney’s relationship.  The second part was more about outside forces exerting pressure on them.  Does that make sense?

Benji had some insecurity as a transgender male.  He was trying to find happiness and acceptance in his life from others and himself.   Laney dealt with her depression and was trying to overcome her paranoira with regards to that.  Her feelings parallel Benji’s in that they both want acceptance and they both have insecurities with themselves.  That part was written beautifully.  Laney didn’t want people to treat her differently because of her struggle.  She showed a lot of bravery throughout the book.  As someone who loves a family member with depression, I can see her bravery for not keeping it all inside.

But then it kind of took this like weird turn where it became about outing Lydia because Jebs ex was fucking psycho. It came out of nowhere and surprised me.  Laney and Benji got caught in the crossfire of that so I can see where that is relevant but at the same time the storyline forked and it didn’t make sense to me. It really didn’t have anything directly to do with Laney and Benji’s relationhship.  I get that they are family and friends, I do. But the beginning and the ending didn’t flow between the first half and second.

I really felt that took away from Benji and Laney’s story because, IMO, without the added plot of Lydia’s problem, their’s would have been good enough.

I think I undertstand why the author did  because the book was very internal, there wasn’t a lot of external conflict. I suspect the author put that internal conflict in the book to make it not so introspective. But I’m a huge fan of introspective, internal books so that was a negative for me.

I wanted to give this book 5 stars for bringing those social issues more current in reading and because I could really connect with each character so intimately.  The plot just took a real weird turn for me so I can’t.  4 stars is still good though so I don’t feel that bad.