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Review: Awaken (#3, Spiral of Bliss) by Nina Lane

My Thoughts

The perfect conclusion to an unforgettable series full of heartbreak
and hope, passion and intimacy and most of all love.
Liv and Dean are undeniably one of my favorite all-time couples!

Related Posts: 2014 Favorites, Teacher Romances, My review of Arouse (#1, Spiral of Bliss), My review of Allure (#2), 2013 Favorites;
Arouse (#1): Amazon | B&N
Allure (#2): Amazon | B&N
Awaken (#3): Amazon

Synopsis

“I love that you love me, professor.”
“I love loving you, beauty.”

Since their intense, passionate beginning, Professor Dean West and his wife Olivia have fought dark secrets and betrayal in order to save their marriage. Now reeling in the aftermath of a personal tragedy, Liv and Dean are driven further apart by a vindictive threat to Dean’s career.

Struggling to stand on her own for the first time in years, Liv is determined to defend her husband and prove herself. Then an unexpected letter dredges up old insecurities and endangers Liv’s newfound independence. As Dean fights for his professional life, he is forced to confront his worst fear when he discovers that he can’t protect his beloved wife from her own painful past.

My Review

“You and me, professor.”
“You and me, beauty.”

I have loved this series. Loved. It has taken me on a journey fraught with heartbreak and sadness, misunderstandings and secrets, and through it all… hope. A hope that this deep, consuming, ardent and sensual love between Dean and Liv will in the end overcome the very real problems that have plagued their marriage and troubled their hearts. Their story has always felt intimate and real to me, each book chronicling a different obstacle in their love story. This time, Liv and Dean struggle to unlock the secret to saving their marriage and closing the chasm that has inevitably formed after the loss they’ve suffered and the troubles they’ve been battling.

“Even from thousands of miles away I can feel my husband… I feel him in the word, a powerful, unyielding presence who will forever be my shelter of safety and warmth.”

We begin this last installment with Dean and Liv separated by thousands of miles. Dean has gone to lead the excavation project in Italy while Liv remains in Mirror Lake, each trying to pick up and fit back together the pieces of everything that has broken in their marriage. Liv is determined to be independent, she has relied on her husband for far too long. Dean, in his infinite love for Liv has cushioned every fall, protected her at every turn. But she needs to feel that she can do things on her own and give herself the time and space to find her passion in life beyond the safety of their marriage.

“I desperately wanted to find a way to prove myself to myself. To be self-reliant and find my own path. I know I can do it.”

Dean, on the other hand, is still reeling at how far his troubles with Maggie Hamilton have gone. With his career at stake and his marriage fragile, he is losing control… the one thing he’s always been able to grasp onto as a way to navigate his life. He misses Liv and his inclination is to be at her side, always. But she needs this time away from him, and he needs this physical separation to process everything that’s happened without hastily reacting at everything that continues to occur.

“I know my husband. He likes plans and schedules. He needs to be in control. He’s accustomed to getting what he wants. The avalanche of recent events — our separation last fall, the miscarriage, and now the threat to his career — hit us both with unimagined and heartwrenching force.”

Despite their troubles, it’s so clear how much they love each other. Together, they are a fire ablaze. There is so much desire and sensuality in their relationship… they can never get enough of the other.

“My husband doesn’t just love me. He knows how to love me. He knows what I need and when I need it, sometimes even better than I do. He knows how to unfold all the tight, rough parts of me and smooth them out with one glide of his hand. He knows how to prove that he — and only he — understands every crevice of my soul. He knows how to remind me that I am forever safe within his heart.”

When they are together, their love is whole. Perfect. Untroubled and unbound. But the reality is that they must learn to work through the external forces that threaten their happily ever after. Liv must overcome her insecurities, her past, while Dean must temper his constant need for control and realize he must sometimes let things happen naturally with a faith that things will work out in the end. This is the only way they can truly find the kind of happiness that will endure time and circumstance… the only way to awaken their hearts to what makes them truly work as a couple.

“Somehow, always, everything is okay when it’s just the two of us alone together. It’s when we have to deal with the rest of the world that everything gets f*cked up.”

I absolutely loved the way it concluded. It was perfection. I love these characters and it’s bittersweet to see it come to an end. Nina Lane has done an amazing job with the series. It’s well written and thoughtful, real and heartfelt, beautiful and powerful. I also love the fact that perhaps one of the messages I take with me is that one can love each other deeply, with every breath and every ounce of their being, but it takes work and communication to really make forever happen. In reality, there is no perfection, just an understanding and acceptance of the person you love. There are times of turbulence. Times of passion. Times of joy and sadness. And when all those times, all those moments spiral together and are tempered by a boundless kind of love, it’s then, that one can truly find that elusive happily ever after.

“My husband and I will always be two people living one life of perfect imperfection. We’ll always live here, in the place of Liv and Dean, where problems are solved and locks are opened. A place of infinite love, persistence, tenderness, passion, acceptance and forgiveness. A place where wishes are granted, dreams come true, and stories have happy endings — not because of fate or magic, but because we love each other so hard and so well.”

About Nina

USA Today bestselling author Nina Lane writes hot, sexy romances and spicy erotica. Originally from California, she loves traveling and thinks St. Petersburg, Russia is a city everyone should visit at least once. Nina also spent many years in graduate school studying art history and library sciences.

Although she would go back for another degree if she could because she’s that much of a bookworm, she now lives the happy life of a full-time writer. Nina’s novel The Erotic Dark hit #1 on Amazon’s Erotica Bestseller list, and Allure is a USA Today Bestseller.

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