Stephanie Parent, Reader and Writer

Faith Sullivan always has the ability to rip my heart out with her books, and Take Me Now is no different. This is one of those books where it feels like I can’t say too much about the plot without spoiling it, but I will say that I loved the heroine, Ivy, from the moment she walked into a theater screening Casablanca and confessed her love for classic movies. Classic films are mentioned quite a few times throughout the book, even playing a role in the plot (Ivy is reporting on a film festival as part of her internship), and Ivy mentions The Maltese Falcon as one of her favorites. I loved this motif because the book itself, with its sometimes dramatic plot, secrets kept, and a complex web of deception and manipulation on the part of a few characters, was a bit reminiscent of one of those classic noir movies.At the same time, the two main characters in Take Me Now, Ivy and Eric, felt entirely realistic and down-to-earth. Ivy is a college student more concerned with getting the credits she needs to complete her major than with romance or partying. She gets stuck in the internship from hell with a Devil-Wears-Prada worthy boss, but since she absolutely needs those internship credits, she has to put up with it. Even her college advisor is unsympathetic, and as someone who dealt with a lot of stress in college myself, I was really sympathetic to this. As for Eric, he has an incredibly tragic backstory, and he broke my heart and almost had me crying only 25% into the book. Like Faith’s other heroes, Eric is a real-life, believable, good guy who struggles and makes mistakes, but who will ultimately do anything for the woman he loves.As in some of her other books, Faith drops a bomb at the end of Take Me Now that will have you dying for the sequel. This book, however, does end with hope and a bit of closure. Still, the book’s ominous prologue makes me think Ivy and Eric’s struggles aren’t over yet… I guess I’ll just have to wait for the next book to find out!