Bittersweet Memories (Off-Limits)

Product Information

After living in the Netherlands for many years, Mr. Maura her husband was transferred to Singapore and then Hong Kong, where she currently makes her home. Her life is upended when she gets some devastating news while she was at work. It only gets worse when she goes home to discover her boyfriend had been a philandering scoundrel and that she has lost her home. The first half of the book was INCREDIBLE. I fell in love with Alanna and Silas during the chapters set in the past, and I honestly would have read an entire book with that storyline. However, when they had that fight towards the end of the chapters set in the past, it felt completely random and out of character for Silas. Even more, once we got into present time that's where things felt off. First of all, I was not expecting the amnesia plot and I wasn't that upset about it. I've never read a story where the character had gotten amnesia so I was intrigued and open-minded. I didn't so much mind the fact that she was with Silas's brother, because the girl's got amnesia, she doesn't know better. Plus, her mind went with someone the most similar to Silas. The part that felt extremely out of character though, was Silas being with another woman all while obsessively looking for his "soulmate". To me, it cheapened his passion for her and made it feel like he wasn't as into her and he kept stating. I know it's probably petty of me to think, but part of me hoped he'd stay celibate during their years apart, it would have made their relationship look much stronger to me, especially since he was again, searching for her this entire time.

Like many authors, Catharina Maura began writing when she was very little. In fact, aged just ten, she used to tell her friends and family that she wanted to grow up and become an author. Following the brutal murder of her parents when she was a child, she had come up with a vigilante platform she uses to help others that may find themselves in such circumstances. Following the brutal murder of her father and mother when she was a child, she set up a vigilante forum hoping to help others in such circumstances.Fast forward two years and Leia and Adrian meet again. Since she had been hurt, Leia has set boundaries in her relationship with Adrian who reluctantly agrees. When he sees Aria in action, he decides to give her a job and offers her a place to live in his penthouse in Silicon Valley. But Aria has a secret that a lot of people even those close to her do not know about. This was my first Catharina Maura book, or novella and she definitely knows how to pull you in from the very start!!

The characters meet at 13 (F) and 18 (M), right away he calls her "sweet girl". We then skip two years later (15 and 20 roughly), he calls her "my love", "darling", "sweet girl", "baby", "little girl", and at one point says "She's only sixteen, and she already looks like a vixen." -- blank stare. I don't think I need to go on (but I will). He's CONSTANTLY mentioning her curves, roaming his gaze over her, looking down at her lips, calling her beautiful, pressing her against him, holding her waist, caressing her thigh and cheek, etc. With very few choices, she decides to take up a job offer from her brother’s best friend. Grayson her brother’s best friend has had a traumatic past and Noah his best friend and his sister Aria are his only family.

Publication Order of The Tie That Binds Books

Catharina Maura’s “Until You” is a beautiful brother’s best friend romance novel. The lead is Aria a woman that for the longest time has been dreaming of living a normal life with a loving boyfriend, secure job, and loving boyfriend.

Nonetheless, the best way of getting hold of Catharina Maura is by subscribing to her newsletter where she provides information on new releases and bonus content for published works.

Customer reviews

When he saw Aria in action, he had no choice but to offer her a job and a place to live at his penthouse in Silicon Valley. But Aria has a dark secret. I've had this on my TBR for what's felt like forever. I was in the mood for something angsty and so I dove in. But this was not quite what I thought it would be from the blurb.

She is forever grateful for the privilege of living in the Netherlands as she had many more opportunities she does not think she would have had living in Suriname. She is at best an Indian but over the years, she has come to be related to people of Indo Surinaesse, Afro Surinmese, and Javanese.Professor Astor” by Catharina Maura is a story that combines several tropes that will have her readers shedding happy tears and also crying as it is beautifully written.