Blurb:
A childhood crush who moved away. An adult love that shattered her world. Twenty-seven year old Mackenzie Tillson hasn’t been living for quite some time, rather, just existing. Life is passing her by and even with the love of her friends and family she can’t quite seem to snap out of the disconnected bubble she has created around her. Moving day by day as a shell of a person who once knew what it meant to live.
Until one day, the boy who first had her heart comes back. With a vengeance…Drew Dean has been apart from the girl he loved all of those years ago for far too long and now that fate has provided them with a second chance, he will make it clear to her that she is, and always has been the one for him. But what Drew discovers in the process, is Mackenzie may just end up being completely unreachable.
Is it possible to get through to someone who has no intentions of ever letting anyone in again? Can a person find their way through the darkness and emptiness they’ve created? For Mackenzie, trudging along in life alone is where she feels she deserves to be. But will she find it in her to fight and break the barrier of the internal distorted view she has of herself? Or will she let everyone and everything slip away?
As Mackenzie tries to piece together the remnants of her shattered existence, she inadvertently discovers life, love and loss are one in the same. A hopeful journey to be taken with an ending to fill the emptiness she’s carried for too long.
*This book contains adult situations and some explicit language.*
My review
I hadn’t even finished reading the prologue and I already had a feeling that I’d simply love the story. And I wasn’t wrong! But it isn’t just the love story of Mackenzie & Drew that pulled me in – it is the author’s writing that captivated me. Her way with words is quite beautiful. And the poems throughout the book…! Well, each and every one of them are perfect, honest, and (to me) raw because they aren’t just words – you can feel exactly what Mackenzie’s feeling at that exact point of time. I’d recommend reading this book to anyone based on the poems alone.
But, naturally, the story in itself is also very enjoyable – if you’re a fan of a Friends-To-Lovers story, you needn’t look any further, read this book.
Drew is a great character: loving, funny, and (of course) gorgeous. Mackenzie is sweet, caring, but a bit naive perhaps. Some may say that they don’t understand her staying with Wesley for so long, but I just want to say that ending an unhealthy relationship isn’t always easy, no matter how far the abuse has gone.
Another thing I find worth mentioning: the secondary characters are just as great as the h/H and really compliment the story without making them the focus by mistake. Hopefully, we’ll get to know them even better in future books.
Already at about 20% into the story, I was starting to get seriously pissed off at Wes even though I didn’t know all the details yet. Though I could guess….and I was right when the big reveal finally happened – what a douchebag! (As Americans seem to call guys like him.)
The whole of Mackenzie’s journey to discover and reclaim her own self-worth really spoke to my heart and it was very well executed – not too fast, not too slow.
Which brings me to a matter very important to me: the pace of the book – it isn’t rushed at all, nor is it dragged out. It gives you a proper chance getting to know the characters. That’s a major plus for me.
Always worth mentioning: the dual POV’s! Although it’s almost become a trend within the indie community, I can’t say that it a disappointment to me. I admit it,I love it! I enjoy getting into the hero’s mind, I really do. I suppose I’m like most women: we are so curious as to what makes men the way they are – even if we don’t understand their actions/reactions most of the time! 😉 And let’s face it: even when we want to give them a real smack on their heads! Which, by the way, was what I wanted to do when I learned about Drew’s big secret! NOT a very clever move, hiding that from Mackenzie. But understandable to a certain extent…
As you can tell from my review, I very much enjoyed the book, and the author’s left me very curious now about Jax’s story! I’m very much looking forward to reading it!
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You can buy the book from iBooks as well.
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