Friday, November 17, 2017

Review: The Ones Who Got Away by Roni Loren


Publication Date: January 2nd 2018 by Sourcebooks Casablanca
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble 

About the book:

A fresh new contemporary romance from New York Times and USA Today bestseller Roni Loren that will rock your world.

Twelve years ago, tragedy struck the senior class of Long Acre High School. Only a small number of students survived, a group the media dubbed as The Ones Who Got Away.

Now, web designer Liv Arias, along with the rest of the survivors, have returned to the small Texas town to tell their stories for a documentary. Which means Liv seeing former star-athlete and old flame Finn Dorsey. A lot happened between them that night and Liv is ready to end their decade-long riff and move on. But when her attempt at closure turns into a steamy kiss, moving on proves much more difficult than either of them thought...

Liv's words cut off as Finn got closer. The man approaching was nothing like the boy she'd known. The bulky football muscles had streamlined into a harder, leaner package. The smooth face was now dusted with scruff, and the look in his deep green eyes held no trace of boyish innocence. A thousand things were in those eyes. A thousand things welled up in Liv.

My Thoughts:
Liv and Finn had a secret romance back in high school that was obliterated when a school shooting tears their lives apart. There’s more to their story than what was made public, a reality that hurt both Liv and Finn.  Twelve years later they are reunited with the other survivors, and the old raging chemistry they felt before is stirred up again, but can they get past the damage the shooting and their actions caused?

The setup here sounded amazing to me, and I’m a huge fan of Roni Loren’s work (her erotica), but somehow Liv and Finn’s romance and story didn’t really touch me.  I did enjoy the story overall, but I didn’t feel the yearning and connection that was supposedly there between them.  Also, I felt the issue keeping them apart in the long term, (Finn’s job situation) wasn’t as big of a deal as Finn was making of it.  I think when you fall in love with “the one” you find a way to make it work.  What about all the wives who live without their husbands while they’re off serving a tour in the military? They find a way, and I thought Finn could somehow adjust his duties, so they weren’t apart, so I was a bit frustrated when it took so long for him to clue in on the possibilities.

I haven’t read anything from Roni Loren I haven’t loved, so I think this might’ve been a fluke that I didn’t love it, or possibly my reading mood at the time.  I’m still a huge fan of her writing and I look forward to the next in this series, Rebecca’s story in The Ones You Can’t Forget. I felt bad for her!

3 Suns





Connect with Roni Loren:


2 comments:

  1. Such a great cover...too bad the story inside wasn't a little better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, the cover is pretty great, right? Although, the guy isn't at all how I picture the hero. :/

      Delete