In Due Time. B. Love. 2018. B. Love Publications. 147 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.]
In Due Time is an interesting story that intrigued me and kept me reading. But at the same time, I was frustrated the entire time because of its protagonist.
Mackenzie and her best friend, Rahim, have a weird non-love triangle thing going on, despite being best friends. Mackenzie dated — and was repeatedly hurt by — Rahim’s cousin Tony. Despite a decade passing, she’s still not over it, to the point where it cripples her ability to be involved with others in what most would consider healthy ways.
It doesn’t stop her from sleeping with Rahim, though. Instead, she becomes his best friend and while acknowledging her strong feelings for Rahim, she also clings to a sense of loyalty to Tony that won’t allow her to make a go with Rahim. At times, it was hard to get a sense of whether she actually wanted to get back with Tony or if she just couldn’t let go of the idea of him as her first love.
I generally found Mackenzie insufferable. Despite being almost thirty, her maturity and actions are more reflective of a very young adult. Her baggage and indecision made me really want to see her alone — it’s rare that I want a character in a romance to end up alone, but I genuinely felt that she needed to just stop trying to get her feelings/lust tied up with anyone until she reconciled her issues. Mackenzie also came off as unintentionally manipulative, which made her hard to relate to. Rahim more than made up for her, though. His character is almost always patient and handles her with kid gloves, almost to a fault. He is best described as giving Mackenzie multiple opportunities to prioritize him as a friend or a loer and she struggles to do either.
The writing style was repetitive which made it feel tedious to read at times, but this didn’t take away from the story. If anything, it felt representative of the feelings Mackenzie clearly struggled with — she is back and forth in her efforts to reconcile her feelings with the reality of her dating life. She needed growth, and the repetition captured her attempts to do so.
Overall, In Due Time was a good read. It kept me interested to see what happened next, for better or worse. And despite my mixed feelings about the characters, they provided a level of drama and tension that made me loath to put the book down. For that, I recommend it.
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