Long Time Coming (Arabesque) [Mass Market Paperback]

Tessa Whitfield, an A-list wedding planner, loves what she does. Since she is not ready for that magnanimous step, she is cruising along, helping to make other people happy. Her latest client is putting her to the test, she wants a formal wedding on New Year's Eve, a mere six weeks away, and Tessa has yet to meet the prospective bride. However, the bride has talked her brother into meeting with Tessa to put plans into motion.

Former NYPD officer, Micah Sanborn, now an assistant district attorney, loves his sister enough to suffer through the meeting; especially since he will never be in the situation for himself. His problem is not a spoiled relationship; he has had plenty good ones. His problem goes back into his youth, when he was abandoned by his biological mother. Micah has never said and does not want to hear again those three painful words, 'I love you'.

Minutes into their meeting, New York City experiences a black out and Micah has to spend the night at Tessa's home/business. This is probably the first platonic night Micah has ever spent with a woman, and it proves to be the most potent. Micah is captivated! Tessa, who has vowed to never mix work with pleasure, feels herself loosing the battle. Micah is behind door number one, with the kind of passion Tessa has only fantasized about. But is she up for the climb needed to reach Micah's heart?

LONG TIME COMING is a sensual romance about overcoming family and fear, and embracing love and a completeness he has never experienced. Ms. Alers again gives readers a mature story, embraceable characters and an excellent supporting cast. I enjoyed her descriptions of food, decor and attire; the family support and the main characters stance on life and love were more pluses. I loved even more how they were able to climb from the pits they unknowingly created. This is a classy, huggable read.

Reviewed by aNN
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers

I hate to be in the minority but I didn't really care for this book. I've looked forward to reading it ever since I read the reviews on here, however it bored me nearly to tears. I didn't find their relationship to be as wondrous as they must have found it or as believable as they did. I didn't sense any spark in their relationship and I don't remember any details about either one of their lives or personalities other than him being abandoned by his mother (which we're told several times) or her getting involved with the wrong guy. While these were important to know since it gives the reader insight as to why they feel the way they feel about love, I don't remember them learning anything quirky or anything even remotely natural for people to learn about each other. They supposedly talked on the phone a whole lot, but we never get to know anything said in their conversations. It was more of the author telling us why they feel this way and what happened between them, and less of her showing us what happened while it was happening. An example being that in one part of the book we are told he bought her breakfast in bed the next morning, but I feel that we would have gotten a better glimpse into their affection for each other had we had gotten to experience their first breakfast together along with them. Also, I didn't like the transitions in this book. I was confused at times because in one paragraph they would be going to bed at his house, but in the next paragraph she would be home alone and we'd just have to assume that they'd gotten up, did their morning rituals, he'd driven her home, etc. We should have gotten to experience these sometime awkward moments between a new couple together. Too much focus was put on small details of their careers. We didn't need to hear about his cases, other than the one that causes him to be mildly injured, and we didn't need to know about every single event she was planning to the very last detail. Also, his family is very multicultural but we're never told what race/culture all of these people come from. I only remember sometimes being told only their hair color. It was hard for me to draw any images of what some characters looked like at all. I'll most likely try and read the other two books in the series just because I want to find out what happens with Tessa's sister and cousin, I just hope they aren't as boring as this one. Also wanted to add that maybe you'll like this book since so many others did. It wasn't the worst book ever written, it just wasn't as believable or as easy to follow as I would have liked it to be.

this book is an ok read! it took forever for me to get into it!! finally around chapter 5 was when i got into it. it turned out ok! it'll do!!!