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Review

“I would have waited for you no matter how long you took. A month, a year, an eternity. I would have waited.”

4.5 stars

Wow, this was such a fantastic read! A heart-wrenchingly intense story that had me captivated from the first chapter. I was absolutely spellbound and read it in one sitting, unable to put it down.

17 year old Jade has a great life. Sure, her Police Chief Dad is strict, but she is madly in love with her boyfriend of two years, Torrin, and the two of them are each other’s whole worlds. They may be young, but they know that they are it for each other, their love for each other is unapologetic and all-consuming, and they just know that they are going to be together forever. But everything changes for them in an instant when Jade is kidnapped. For ten years she is held hostage by a man who may not physically or sexually abuse her, but who breaks her all the same. And when she is finally rescued and returned to her life, that is when her biggest battle begins.

Her friends have gone on with their lives, she barely knows her grown up brother and sister, the media are hounding her, and her parents seem to be doing their best to move her on with her life when she feels stuck, confused, scared and alone. It’s Torrin who once again comes to her rescue. The boy is now a man, but he is still the same. He’s the one she’s dreamt of, the one person she has always been able to rely on, and he is there for her again, staying right by her side whenever she needs him.

“Find an emotional tether. Someone you trusted before and someone you can trust now. A person who can connect you to your past but can pilot you into the future. Someone who can pull you back from the ledge when you find it and from the dark when it finds you. Find that person, hold on tight, and don’t let go.”

But ten years is a long time. Things have changed, and Jade has been damaged in ways she is only just beginning to realise. It’s going to take a lot for her to reclaim her life again, and when she does, will she be able to have the man she loves by her side?

He’s the one I’d tie myself to, but I don’t feel like I have anything left to be bound with. How can he tether me when vapor has more substance than I do?

Whoa this is an intense book! Full of emotion, and absolutely captivating, Jade’s journey is so beautifully written! Her story is told entirely from her POV, and I feel like I know her intimately. She goes from being a confident young woman with the world at her feet to a shadow of her former self who is trying her best to fit back into her world but falling at all of the hurdles along the way. Her struggle is beautifully written, and I absolutely loved her as a character!

I feel like I fell asleep as a child and woke up as an adult. The whole world has moved on while I’m still clutching my blanket.

Maybe, one day … I’ll remember what it feels like to just live . . . instead of feeling like I’m practicing for life.

And then there is Torrin – the man who has waited for her, who never gave up on her, but who now seems so far out of her reach. OMG, the man is perfection! His loyalty and devotion to Jade through the period of her captivity and after is absolutely incredible! He is there for her in every way he can be, and his love for her absolutely shines in everything that he does.

“I’d sacrifice this life and every life I have coming for you.”

“I’ll never finish falling in love with you.”

As much as this story is Jade’s, it’s also hers and Torrin’s together, and they are incredible together!  Their connection is so, so beautiful and watching them interact, seeing them deal with everything that they have both been through, and the changes in their lives since their time together as teenagers, is sensational!  My heart pounded through pretty much every moment they had together.  It’s both heart-wrenchingly beautiful and achingly sad, and I felt EVERYTYHING along with them.

“It’s not over, and you know it.”
“No, I don’t.” I back around the side of the coffee table.
He matches my every step. I step back; he steps forward. I move away; he moves in.
“Yes, you do because you know it will never be over.”
… “Time, circumstance, tragedy— nothing can change that. You and me, there isn’t an over for us.”

“He still loves me, and I still love him, but I’m a fraction of what I used to be. That’s all I’ve got left to love back with, and it’s not enough. He deserves it all, and all I’ve got left are scraps.”

Oh, the feeeeels!

But it’s not all deep and dark. The kidnapping part of the story is really short, with the majority of the book coming after Jade has been rescued. And there are lots of light moments as she finds her way back to herself, and again Torrin is a huge part of that – not treating her like a fragile, breakable thing, but being the person that she fell in love with, and their sweet and teasing moments were so gorgeous.

“I think someone’s usually supposed to make coffee in the morning, but I don’t have coffee because I’m still a child who thinks it tastes like ass.”

“You’re checking me out, aren’t you?” He grins, and I swear he intentionally makes his stomach muscles tighten beneath the skin.
“I am not checking you out. I’m just examining. Making sure you don’t have any jellyfish or sharks hanging off of you.”
His smile spreads. “Whatever. You’re totally checking me out, but that’s okay because I’m totally checking you out.”

This is such a beautiful love story. The storyline is very unique, as is the way it all plays out, and I really enjoyed the unexpectedness of it all. I loved the characters and I thought their journey was so beautifully written, with lots of emotion and intensity, and in a way that had me sucked in from start to finish.

The book ends in a good place, but it did leave me feeling a bit conflicted.

I loved it! – 4.5 stars.