Reviewer: Tracy The One You Can't Forget by Roni Loren
Series: The Ones Who Got Away #2
Also in this series: The Ones Who Got Away , The Ones Who Got Away, The One You Fight For (The Ones Who Got Away, #3), The One for You
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: June 5, 2018
Format: eARC
Point-of-View: Third
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 416
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Series Rating:
Most days Rebecca Lindt feels like an imposter...The world admires her as a survivor. But that impression would crumble if people knew her secret. She didn't deserve to be the one who got away. But nothing can change the past, so she's thrown herself into her work. She can't dwell if she never slows down.
Wes Garrett is trying to get back on his feet after losing his dream restaurant, his money, and half his damn mind in a vicious divorce. But when he intervenes in a mugging and saves Rebecca―the attorney who helped his ex ruin him―his simple life gets complicated.
Their attraction is inconvenient and neither wants more than a fling. But when Rebecca's secret is put at risk, both discover they could lose everything, including what they never realized they needed: each other
She laughed and kissed him. This morning she'd melted down. But somehow this man had her laughing and turned on only a few hours later. Everything inside her felt buoyed.
She felt...light.
She'd forgotten what that felt like.
Rebecca is a successful divorce lawyer. She’s also one of the survivors of a mass high school shooting – one she blames herself for. She keeps her guilt and secret to herself, however. The only person who knows is her father. When Rebecca is mugged one night on her way home from work she freezes when the attacker puts a gun to her head. Luckily she’s saved by a stray dog and a man who happened to be passing by.
The man, Wes Garrett, is someone that she’s incredibly attracted to, until she finds out his name and realizes that she fought against him in court when she represented his ex-wife in their divorce. She knows his story and wants nothing to do with him. Except…when she gets to know him and his story, and the truth about his ex-wife and the lies she told, Rebecca can’t help but admire him.
Wes is just getting by in life. He teaches cooking at an after-school program but that wasn’t always his life. He was opening a restaurant and the world was in the palm of his hand – until his ex-wife took it all away from him. Yes, he’s bitter but he manages to hide that bitterness from Rebecca. He sees in her someone that is kind, giving and someone he wants to emulate. The more time he spends with her the harder he starts to fall, but Rebecca doesn’t plan on ever getting into a serious relationship and Wes is no different, or is he?
I’ve loved every Roni Loren book that I’ve read, and this was no different. She has a way with characters that makes me want to get to know them better. They’re three dimensional and very real – I love that. In this story Wes and Rebecca lived imperfect lives and each had some serious issues. Working through those issues together changed both of them for the better and made this romance that much more intense.
I loved both Wes and Rebecca even though they were flawed. I felt so badly for Rebecca that she’d carried the guilt of the shooting with her all those years. She didn’t do anything worse than be a teenager – the shooting wasn’t her fault at all. Wes had to deal with his anger toward the world and see that while his life might not look how he wanted it to look, it still looked good.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read the next story in the series.
Rating: 4 out of 5
I enjoyed the first book in this series and am looking forward to reading this one, too. Thanks for the review, Tracy.