One of you, one of me… gentle touch and stormy gray eyes were the only thing that could calm the swirling and turbulent thoughts and emotions within me.
But in the blink of an eye, the safe harbor my best friend provided was ripped from my life without warning or reason. His unexplained disappearance set sail to a lonely and hopeless journey. Now, I am no more willing to let the memory of my best friend go than I am ready to give up the search for him, as hopeless as it may seem to those around me.
And then a client asks me to locate a stolen treasure box. Clues have me heading from the city of Atlanta to a small, picturesque town in South Carolina called Reedsport. There, I hope to find the missing box; what I never expected was to find something else that I’d been missing for far too long. Could I have finally found a beacon of hope that would lead Riley Tanager back to me?
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The angst is high as is the concerning codependency issues both in Riley and Beckett’s past as well as their present. As they figure things out together, this very slow-burn romance gives them a lot of room to be open, honest, and happy, but that’s not always how life works. So many things unsaid between them about their past and present that it makes the story seem much longer than it really is. Despite taking a long time to get to the point of everything, this was a good story that I felt invested in most of the way through. I truly wanted to see them make it through to the other side.
Alternating POV’s as well as including numerous flashbacks gives us a very complete story that felt appropriate. Sometimes having a ton of flashbacks detracts from the story and what’s going on with what we feel are the relevant moments of the timeline, but these are well done. There’s so much in their past that if we started there this would have had to be split into multiple books. Or it was left out only to be brought up in small explanations or brief mentions and remembrances we’d be completely lost as to why they stayed apart, what they needed to grieve, and how they became who they were now. I appreciated how the back-story was written.
But the codependency bothered me. They even acknowledge it later in the story and while I agree that the choice for their future shouldn’t have been taken out of their hands, it was only through the passing of time and growing up that they were in a better place to have the relationship we hoped they would. Both Beckett and Riley have a lot of inner turmoil that should have been addressed separately. Being one another’s catalyst for that change would have been apropos and I didn’t think there was enough of that. Instead we see them fall apart and hold back and tiptoe around big issues.
This honestly wasn’t the healthiest of relationships. At times their interactions felt like high schoolers and not grown men. Then when you added all the extra drama from family, jealousy, unclear relationship expectations, and unsatisfactory trauma coping, it becomes incredibly heavy. There’s honestly just too much near the end. And I’ll also mention that virtually no child talks the way Beckett’s niece does. Way too enlightened and her interpretation of complex concepts was too advanced for her age.
As we finally get to the end of the story I was pretty disappointed in the conclusion of the family heirloom case. Connecting it to Beckett’s affection for pirates felt forced. Getting him to Reedsport I can understand, but dragging it out to pop up for a moment or two to remove him from Reedsport a time or few and then concluding the case with cheesiness just wasn’t the way to go.
The setting was quaint and felt like home. This was probably the best part of the story, creating a haven for them and a community where they both fit as the individuals they became as well as as a couple. Even though the road to their happy ending was long and fraught with all kinds of drama and trauma, they did get there and I was glad they made it.
This book was so beautiful! It’s both a best friends to lovers and a second chance. Riley and Beckett become best friends as kids when they spend 5 years with the same foster family. Just when they both start realizing that their feelings for each other run deeper than friiendship, they’re separated by external circumstances and cannot find each other for the next ten years, though they both look for the other and cannot get over the loss.
The chance reunion gives them both hope to restore their lost friendship and more, though Riley is wary of putting his heart on the libe, at least in the beginning.
I loved how every chapter started with a glimpse in the lives of Ry and Beck as kids, in no particular order, and then went on to tell their current story.
I can’t wait to read more from this author!
This was a terrific story of reconnecting and finding love with a best friend. Beckett and Riley met in foster care, where a strong and loving bond developed between them. When they were separated, each began a grieving process that never really ended. This grief affected the other relationships in their lives and kept them in a holding pattern that only changed once they found their way back to each other.
I loved these men, and I enjoyed seeing both their childhood bond and the way their feelings evolved as adults. I hope that a future book might have them searching for the foster mother who made them feel loved in the midst of a hard situation. I liked Beckett’s friend Jake, who stuck around even when Beckett didn’t always treat him well, and I’m excited about reading his story.
This was my first book by this author, but I really enjoyed the characters and the way the story flowed. I look forward to more from her, starting with book two of this series.
I’ll admit to crying over plot points in stories and certain things fictional characters get into, but I can’t ever recall an entire book being so emotionally compelling for me. Honestly, it pulled at my heart strings the further into the story I read. It invokes so many memories of people I’ve often wondered if I’d connect with again (including my first love). Back To You drained me emotionally, but in a good way, and I’m sitting here still trying to process my feelings. If I could give this book 10 stars, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Please note that I did receive an ARC of this book, and the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Second chance romances are my absolute catnip, and Back to You gives me what I needed. What’s even better about Back to You is that neither party has done anything wrong. I don’t have to struggle with the part of me that screams not to take someone back after they’ve screwed you over once. The two main characters didn’t have any kind of agency when they were separated, so there isn’t anything to forgive.
And they’re grown-ups now. They have feelings about their situation, like anyone would. They acknowledge their feelings and responsibilities, like grown-ups should, and then they move on. You know, like grown-ups should. A lot of the time we enjoy characters in fiction we’d never let into our homes or onto our property in real life. These guys? I can see sitting down with them at a bar, or around the firepit.
They remind me of people I know, and only in good ways.
The only issues I had were the motives of the people behind the actions spurring the drama. The person who caused the characters’ separation has his own motives, which never make sense at all. Not even a little bit. It causes the separation that spurs the main character’s downward spiral, which is important, but it winds up feeling like something he does just to drive self-destructive behavior in someone he hasn’t met. And then there’s the case that causes them to reunite, which is likewise underdeveloped.
Of course, real-life crime isn’t always well planned. That part didn’t chafe as badly.
Something that struck me as particularly wonderful about this book was the portrayal of foster care. All too often, foster care is portrayed as something horrific. It can be horrific, don’t get me wrong, but it can also be lifesaving. In Back to You, the main characters met in foster care, and their foster parents are warm and loving people who take excellent care of these two boys. It isn’t something I see often in fiction, and I’m beyond thrilled to see foster care treated with sensitivity and tact.
If you like second chance romance, buy this book. Buy this book if you only tolerate second chance romance. These two guys will warm your soul in ways you didn’t know you needed.
4.5 stars
Heat Level: 3.5
An epic and emotional second-chance romance!!
This is a wonderful and powerful debut story by Kim. She is able to inject so much emotion into her writing and so much detail I could feel the world she’s created forming as I read. So many emotions and a such a dynamic journey to find your first love again after ten years apart!
The story follows PI Beckett as has stumbles across his childhood best friend and love of his life, artist Riley, (now going by Preston) while on a case. Each character tried to find each other and feelings never lessened over the ten years they were apart. The story is an emotional rollercoaster of betrayal, time lost, learning to love and trust again and how two people who are meant to be together they will find their way back to each other!!
The story follows PI Beckett as has stumbles across his childhood best friend and love of his life, artist Riley, (now going by Preston) while on a case. Each character tried to find each other and feelings never lessened over the ten years they were apart. The story is an emotional rollercoaster of betrayal, time lost, learning to love and trust again and how two people who are meant to be together they will find their way back to each other!!
A wonderful romantic read with a cute as ever happily ever after that will give you all the feels! I can’t wait for Jake’s story and look forward to many more incredible journeys to love by Kim Breyon!!
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Back To You is book number one in the Against All Odds series by Kim Breyon. This is Beckett Sanders and Riley Tanager’s story.
Beckett and Riley met as kids when they ended up in the same foster home. These two developed a special friendship but circumstances forced them to lose contact with each other. It’s been ten years and Beckett still cannot forget his best friend Riley and he hasn’t given up looking for him.
This is a slow burn romance where the characters has endured so much. I loved Beckett and Riley’s characters and that I could feel their emotions. There were times that my heart just hurt for them. This was a friend’s to lovers romance that was emotional and heartwarming with intense chemistry.
I look forward to the next book in this series which focuses on Jake and we still get more of Beckett and Riley.
FYI, contains mature content. This is a M/M gay romance. Kindle Unlimited subscriber