Okay so I have to be honest. It took me forever to get through this book. It's not that it's a bad book. It's a great book. It's good to see things from his point of view. It's just that bouncing back and forth made the book go slower than it needed to. It just kind of drove me insane. To the point that my mind would be focused on one part of the story and then all of a sudden jump to another part and switching gears for me lately has been kind of hard. As I mentioned before in other reviews I switched at my medicines so I'm kind of what's the word I could use, slug brained. Ms fog. Anyway I finally got to the story, the last chapter broke my damn heart. And I remember this part in the original books about when Eden was sitting on his lap basically breaking his heart. I remember that feeling.

On a side note again reading about what happened with his father was really hard for me. It had triggering all over it. Just replace the dad with a mother instead. And that was my life. And I even told my husband reading it I was sick to my stomach a few times because I would have flashbacks of what went down with my own experiences. So the writer did a great job in writing the story. But like I said it was kind of laggy and kind of drove me insane. But the message was delivered very well. So that's why I didn't subtract any stars or anything like that. Great story, and I would totally recommend it to everyone. Just ask my friend janelle. I recommended it to her and she seems to like it just fine. ( )

Twelve year old Tyler Bruce is routinely beaten up by this father on the pretext of poorly done homework. Seventeen year old Tyler has turned into a tough boy whose outlets for the physical and emotional hurt he has suffered is to drink heavily, take drugs, act out his rage and have sex with his girlfriend for whom he has no feelings. In the five year period covered by the story, his mother discovers Tyler’s abuse, has divorced his father and has a new live-in boyfriend, Dave. When Dave’s daughter by a previous marriage, Eden, comes to stay with them for the summer, things begin to change for Tyler. Eden stands up to Tyler, something few of his friends do. She is also cute, which does not hurt. For once, he begins to care about someone other than himself, and occasionally his mother. Additionally, Eden has feelings for Tyler. The question is whether this is enough to reverse Tyler’s self-destructive ways and is it OK for step siblings to fall in love.

Just Don’t Mention It, a stand-alone companion novel to the Did I Mention I Love You trilogy, is a plodding, over long by half novel. Told in Tyler’s first person with alternating chapters of Five Years Ago and Present Day, the build up to the finale is anticlimactic. No characters elicit any sympathy from readers, especially Tyler, who truly has no redeeming qualities. Only fans of the trilogy characters, Tyler and Eden, might be drawn to this book, and even then it's a tough sell. I'd avoid it. ( )