Thirteen-year-old Vivienne LeBrun has a family she's adopted as her own. Vivi lost her brother and mother in an auto accident leaving her with a father tied to a bottle of whiskey. Her best friend Cat St. James and her affluent family have always loved Vivi. Cat and her brothers, Jackson and David, have always included Vivi like a sister. She has always had a deep love and yearning for David's attention, following him around like a lovesick puppy. The two of them have a profound connection and able to "feel" each other's emotions and moods. Spending vacations at their family's Block Island summer home in Connecticut has always been the highlight of Vivi's life.

It's been nearly a decade and her friends have lost their mother to cancer and David suddenly left for work in Hong Kong with no explanations. With a distance between his father and his siblings, David has a deeply embedded secret he has sworn to keep at the request of his mother prior to her death. Invited back by Cat to join the siblings at the Block Island home for a vacation, Vivi is nervous at seeing David after a long period of separation. The estranged David has finally returned and settled in New York as an attorney where Vivi also lives, teaching art to elementary school students and some photography on the side. David shows up with a girlfriend, devastating Vivi, even though she has always known that having her love returned by David isn't a possibility, only her biggest desire. Cat is a high profile model and Vivi is still the little rumpled friend.

The longer the small group are housed together, the more David and Vivi are thrown together and feelings that used to be are no longer the same. As she helps David work through his deep seated anger, Vivi also realizes what it is going to take to come to terms with her own misgivings of the past. Vivi doesn't lie to herself that she is in the same class as David, but that doesn't stop the yearning for something out of her reach. What will it take for David to realize what he has in Vivi?

I have not had the pleasure of reading any of Jamie Beck's works before, but WORTH THE WAIT definitely drew me in and made me a believer. A girl-turned- woman has spent her whole life loving someone out of her reach. WORTH THE WAIT is a poignant and heartwarming story of young love and redemption and will literally make your heart ache for this girl. Grab your Kleenexes because, believe me, you'll need them. Jamie Beck has a real talent for making the reader feel the sorrow, regret and yearning of this young character. I will definitely search for more novels by this author.

Book Summary

Thirteen years ago, Vivi LeBrun was sketching a rooster and eating Oreos when she first met—and fell for—her friend’s brother, David St. James. Since then, her love for David has only intensified thanks to years of friendship with his family, who rescued her from a lonely, tumultuous childhood. As she travels to Block Island to vacation with the St. James siblings, Vivi daydreams about reuniting with David, hoping he’ll finally see her as his soul mate.

After his mother’s death, David distanced himself from his siblings, determined to hide a devastating family secret. Now, he’s brought a new girlfriend along to his homecoming—one who’s pushing for a serious commitment. The last thing he needs on his growing list of problems is his budding attraction to Vivi.

With tensions running high, David’s behavior triggers a series of events that might cost him the love he’s always taken for granted and Vivi the only real family she’s ever known.