“WARNING: Don’t open unless you’re prepared to ugly cry, but also ready to read a story of hope and new love, a love that was there all along but patient enough to wait. This is a book about grief, about loss, but also about fresh starts and new beginnings. The ride is sad, a tumultuous twist of feelings that gets ugly at times … but the ending is a happy one.”

So, yeah. This warning is what pulled me in, because I LOVE books with all the feels. However, I can tell I’m in the minority here in my review. I didn’t feel all the feels, in fact I just kind of didn’t feel much of anything. I SO wanted to feel the heartache, grief and utter despair that was promised and written about, but I just didn’t get that with Embry and Phoenix’s characters.

Did they go through something tragic at a young age? Absolutely. Were they unprepared and unequipped to handle the fallout? Of course. I just didn’t feel the heartache that they were going through.

I enjoyed Phoenix’s character for the most part. His creole/French verbiage was distracting and internally I just skipped over those little sayings that were thrown in. I felt that out of the two he matured the most. Did he still have demons he needed to fight? Again, absolutely. He had many areas of loss in the timeframe of a year, while still stuck in the town he grew up in. I loved that he became such good friends with Embry’s dad and mom, allowing an outlet to get over some of the grief together.

Phoenix is a big old teddy bear and has loved Embry, not so quietly, that Codrick even knew and encouraged them to kiss in front of him. It felt like the author almost wanted to touch upon a taboo topic of a triad relationship, but it was never fully developed in writing. It was slightly weird. I’m not against taboo relationships, I enjoy them, but either write it as one or don’t mention these little scenarios that were just thrown out.

“You know I want you to be happy—whatever that means.”

There was one underlying storyline on Phoenix’s behalf that just didn’t fit in. It was almost like it was filler for the main characters to do something. It just left me slightly confused and unsure how it all fit in.

Embry. What to say about Embry. I wanted to like her and feel for her, but I just couldn’t. Post-accident she is portrayed as a tough, emotionless creature that hasn’t shed a tear since the incident happened. When she is asked to return home for a family crisis, she almost reminds me of a bratty, juvenile child. Yes, I know she is nineteen, but she doesn’t act like one. I don’t know, I just didn’t really like her character.

I LOVED the development of Phoenix and Embry’s relationship. The love that is shown through Phoenix is swoon-worthy. Embry does go through a lot to get to the realization that, maybe she had the wrong soulmate or the possibility that there could be more than one.

“I’m feeling something for Phoenix Benoit that I … shouldn’t feel. Two things, actually. One is primal and feral and wild … and the other is deep and painful and sensual.”