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Review

“Love doesn’t understand time. It doesn’t care if people change. It just grows where it grows.”

Knox Parker you own me!

4.5 stars

I love, love, loved this book! A beautiful and highly emotional second-chance romance featuring a devastatingly tortured hero and a strong, instantly loveable heroine. Knox and Felicity’s story is beautifully written and had me completely enthralled from start to finish, sucked into a love story that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, with the fantastic characters and dynamics that I love so much about this series. A total win.

Knox and Felicity met as teenagers, they come from completely different worlds, but are both lonely and pretty much neglected by their families – 18 year old Knox lives poor and hard, while Felicity’s family are wealthy and all about appearances. Their families have an intense hatred of each other, and even though Knox and Felicity attend the same school, they have never really had much to do with each other. But an unexpected meeting in the woods between their houses sparks a summer romance which will change everything. They fall into youthfully enthusiastic, all-consuming love, and every moment of their slow fall and the blissful (but necessarily secretive) relationship that follows is gorgeous! Sweet and innocent, yet eagerly passionate, they share absolutely everything and plan for a future where they will be together without having to hide, until tragic circumstances tear the young lovers apart.

It’s six years later when Knox and Felicity unexpectedly see each other again. They both know that they’ve never moved on, and have suffered without each other in all of their years apart, but Knox has literally been through hell and is now a broken shadow of his former self, and it’s clear that their road back to each will not be an easy one.

“No matter what either of us want, I’m never going to be that innocent boy you fell in love with.” Shaking my head, I thumped my hands against my chest. “There’s nothing here for you any longer, City.”

Completely (and justifiably) shattered by all that he has been through, Knox is colder and angrier than he used to be. He feels incapable of love and doesn’t want to expose Felicity to everything that he has become. His journey is absolutely heartbreaking, and as we get up close and personal with everything that he has endured, and how that has changed him, I wanted to hug him so badly!

“There’s a violence inside me that isn’t getting better … You have no idea what I’ve been through, or what it’s turned me into. So can you just believe me when I say I’m not safe?”

Felicity has also had a hard time since their separation. She has changed her life completed, getting out from under the thumb of her family and living her life on her own terms. She has spent years waiting for Knox, and now that he is back in her life, she has no intention of letting him go. She recognises that he has changed, but she wants nothing more than to be there for him and help him find himself again and she bravely puts herself out there for him, sharing her feelings and holding nothing back, and I love that about her!

“We’ve never really been apart. From the moment you bumped into me in those woods, we’ve belonged to each other … I don’t care if we’ve grown up. We’re still Knox and City at the core, and we’ll always love each other. You know why?” I leaned in to whisper … “Because we don’t know how to stop.”

The story effortlessly moves between the past and the present in alternating chapters, and from the dual POV of Knox and Felicity, which I loved, and the emotion is off the freaking charts! There is so much they need to deal with, not least of which is Knox’s outright refusal to open up to Felicity, but neither of them can deny the underlying chemistry between them, and even though it’s a hard road for them, the reader just has to sit back and soak up every anticipation-laden moment just waiting for the inevitable to happen. And when it does, it’s totally worth every moment of angst and heartache to get there.

“I can’t do it,” he rasped, hissing out a great heaving breath from his lungs. “You were right. I can’t shut it off. I can’t stop loving you.”
“I know, baby. I know.” Cupping both my palms around his face, I wiped more tears off his cheeks with my thumbs.
He sobbed out his distress as he leaned down onto me fully and pressed his forehead to mine. “I missed you so much.”

“I don’t know who I am anymore. But I know I still love you. I always have, and I always will.”

WAAAAAAAAAAAAIL!!!!! So beautiful! *sniff*.

I love these characters, and I loved this story!! It fits really nicely into the rest of the series and the characters from the previous books all feature. As always I loved the opportunity to catch up with this gang, they truly are a family – a constantly teasing, shit-talking family that had me laughing out loud more than once – but they care deeply for each other and that comes through in this book over and over, and it was beautiful to see.

While technically this book could be read as a standalone, I think it would be best read as part of the ongoing series so that you know all of the characters and understand the dynamics between them – it just makes it a more enjoyable read. This one has a more emotional heaviness to it than other books in the series, and honestly some of it was really hard to read, but every awful moment works to build the story into something very special, and I absolutely loved it!

I’m so excited for Asher’s book up next.

4.5 stars