First off, thank you a million times over to A. Wilding Wells, for the ARC copy of this story. I couldn't wait to get my paws on this beauty!

Oh my goodness, this book! What an emotional journey! I'm used to people having secrets and skeletons in the closet, but Sloane and Hawke really had to battle for a decade (or more, technically) to maintain a relationship that would have torn most couples apart.

Hawke and Sloane have been together since they were tykes. That's just the way it was from the time they were ten and seven. At fifteen, Sloane's life changed, and unexpectedly, she leaves the man she thought she'd be with forever.

While she went to Hell and back, Hawke was trying to lose himself in a career. It's when they finally come together a decade later at a family wedding, that the time they were apart seems like it never existed. While they both wish to immerse themselves in one another, too much time has gone by, and enough for a thousand lifetimes have happened to each of them. They know they can't just pick up where they left off, but instead, trudge through everything that caused them to lose one another in the first place.

Aside from work interrupting my reading schedule, I devoured this book. Sloane and Hawke tortured me with their ups and downs. Hawke tried so hard to be patient, while also desiring an explanation as to why she left him when they were both so young and perfect together. I understood Sloane's trepidation to tell Hawke what had happened, but at the same time, he threw his heart down on the line from the moment she was beside him again. Yes, a lot of time had gone by, however, she had to have known down to her bones how much she could trust him with her past.

These two destroyed me, but, shocker, I found it absolutely worth it.... I'm simply a glutton for punishment.

Congratulations, Wells, for destroying and then repairing my heart with such a tragically beautiful story!