Loss, Pain, Healing & Hope: It’s a Riveting but Raw Romance

Well written, great characters!

This English romance is touching and really well written. The pacing is great and the characters – the most important part of a romance – are richly developed. Told in the first person, the story revolves around four close friends – Eve (narrator), Suzie, Ed, and Justin – who are interconnected in multiple ways. We see their weaknesses, their strengths, and their growth through time. At the heart of the story is Eve’s decade’s long crush on Ed, who becomes engaged to someone else (a narcissistic drama queen), and that’s when things get tricky …

[Spoiler alert] The night of the engagement, Suzie dies suddenly as a result of an accident, and the other friends find themselves drawn even closer together in their agony. The pain of loss is palpable. But then the narrator, Eve, discovers that Suzie previously slept with Ed, despite knowing how Eve felt about Ed. Eve is crushed – why would her friend betray her like that?

Enter Suzie’s estranged brother – Finlay – whom everyone knows as public enemy number one. He’s arrogant, self-centered, and “poison” – or so they’ve all been led to believe. But things aren’t always what they seem and there’s a dark family secret. Eve takes a chance in getting to know Finlay, and through him she comes to see how Ed has been leading her on all these years to satisfy his own ego.

And then things unravel fast. Ed’s relationship crumbles and the marriage is called off, as he declares his undying love for Eve. But it’s too late. Eve knows he does truly love her and she’s not willing to be second. It’s Finlay who understands her – and she understands him. The love that’s grown up between them is real and nothing – not even living on two different continents – is going to stop them.