The One For You
By: Roni Loren
Series: The Ones Who Got Away, #4
Genre: Emotional Romance
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: Dec. 31st, 2019
Arc received for review from netgalley via the publisher
Blurb:
The highly-anticipated fourth book in Roni Loren’s unforgettable The Ones Who Got Away series.
She got a second chance at life.
Will she take a second chance at love?
Kincaid Breslin wasn’t supposed to survive that fateful night at Long Acre when so many died, including her boyfriend—but survive she did. She doesn’t know why she got that chance, but now she takes life by the horns and doesn’t let anybody stand in her way
Ashton Isaacs was her best friend when disaster struck all those years ago, but he chose to run as far away as he could. Now fate has brought him back to town, and Ash doesn’t know how to cope with his feelings for Kincaid and his grief over their lost friendship. For Ash has been carrying secrets, and he knows that once Kincaid learns the truth, he’ll lose any chance he might have had with the only woman he’s ever loved.
This series has been an emotional roller coaster full of rough rides, hard times, and ending in joyous delight. Every book touched my heart in its own special way, but I think Kincaid and Ashton’s story touched my heart just a little bit more.
Before I start this review I do want to warn you, there are a few extreme trigger warnings. Those warnings will be posted in the last paragraph of this review.
When I first started this series I was intrigued the most by Kincaid’s character. I loved her bubbly personality and her ability to bring joy to anyone in need. She’s always been eager to help others out. But what I was most interested in seeing was Kincaid’s ability to move on after tragedy. I was cheering on this girl’s happily ever after from the get go!!! Kincaid and Ashton are a match made in heaven! I loved ‘most of’ their high school moments and the chemistry that came across flawlessly. These two had my heart from the very beginning.
Kincaid is the popular girl, but if you look beneath the surface you’ll find underneath her shiny perfect exterior, is a typical girl who just wants to be loved. One who craves that infamous happily ever after. I loved Kincaid and her bubbly personality.
Ashton is the best friend of Kincaid, he’s also the boy who knows her inside and out. He knows her greatest fears and her dreams and wishes. If only Kincaid would see him for who he is, the boy that loves her truly, madly, and deeply. But bookish nerds don’t get the popular girl, even if they are best friends. Ashton stole my heart from the beginning! I loved the fact that roles reversed in this novel. In romance novels you typically have the hero as the popular one and the female as the bookish wallflower who pines for the popular man. But in The One For You, Ashton is the man who’d rather read and/or write over associating with people. He has his small group of friends and that’s all he needs. I loved the fact that he was the wallflower in this novel. It was the perfect change that I needed in my reading.
As with the other three books in the series, The One For You jumps from past to present. There are a few reflection periods that take us back in time to the moments leading up to that one tragic night. I’m not going to dive into details but I’ll just say the more I read those chapters/moments, the more my love for Ashton grew. He was the true hero of this story.
I knew going into this book, that this one was going to be a tear jerker and I wasn’t wrong. There were moments that were hard for me to read, those moments completely shattered my heart into a million tiny pieces. I felt the realism in those terror filled moments. I can’t believe I am saying this but those last terror filled moments is the main reason why I dropped a star. The detail was a little too much for me to handle. I liked the fact that the shooter was in the shadows, I didn’t need him and his actions to be in my head for the remainder of the story. For the rest of the story my mind kept wandering to one question and one small word.
Why? I had moments of pure rage and wanting to know why this man and his friend would walk into a school where people are celebrating and completely turn everyone’s world upside down…. If this were a real life situation these thoughts would make sense and my feelings would make sense, but this isn’t real life. This is fiction and fiction is something to be enjoyed.
Don’t get me wrong, I do understand that this moment was necessary to tell in Ashton and Kincaid’s story, this was a moment of truth where Ashton bared his soul and told Kincaid everything that he’s been holding in for ten years. The guilt finally needed to be let go in order for, not only Ashton, but also Kincaid to heal. The last puzzle piece of the story needed to be set in place. But Trevor’s spotlight was too bright in that one single moment. And this one single moment put everything else, in my mind, on the backburner. It was too real.
Overall, The One For You isn’t a novel for everyone. I highly recommend you go into this one with your eyes wide open, expecting the worst possible outcome you can possibly think of to take place in a situation such as this one, and then times it by ten. Aside from that moment, I really loved this story. I loved the best friends to lovers vibe. I loved the chemistry between all of the characters and the premise of what this series is about; Finding a way and a place in the world after a tragedy. Roni Loren wrote one hell of a series! A series I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
Ashton and Kincaid’s story brought so many tears to my eyes. Tears of joy, tears from laughing, tears of sadness, and tears of anger. My heart hasn’t been put through this much in a long time. Thank you Roni Loren for writing such a beautiful series and showing us that there is life after tragedy and it is possible for a heart to mend after such a great loss. Ashton and Kincaid will go down in history as being one of my favorite bookish couples.
CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNING BELOW!
If you find content such as school shootings, spousal abuse, and/or neglect extremely triggering I would highly recommend you to skip on this book and skip on this series. I usually don’t like to sway people away from reading a book, especially a series I deeply loved, however, I feel my responsibility as a reviewer is to protect the one who is reading this review’s mental health. As a person who has never been involved in a horrific act of violence such as a school shooting, I myself found the last ‘high school’ chapter to be triggering, so I can’t even imagine what reading this book would be like for those that have been through material such as that written in this book.
Just be careful If you plan on reading this. If you are extremely sensitive to the material I listed above, please be cautious when reading that last ‘high school’ prom chapter! My heart feels so damn heavy just thinking about that moment.
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Amazon: https://amzn.to/2YvWu4s
Amazon Universal: http://viewbook.at/TheOneForYou
Peace Love and Happy Reading,
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Great review!
Thank you!