I was expecting a proposal on my birthday, and I got dumped instead.How could I have been so clueless?Grams knew exactly how to distract me.The gorgeous former Marine next door who’s been helping her with yard work clearly needs a little therapy. Who better to call than her newly single therapist granddaughter?She even fakes dementia to get me to visit, and now that I’m here she’s doing … that I’m here she’s doing everything in her power to throw us together.
Not that I’m complaining. Ryan is the sexiest man I’ve ever met–I mean the full package, from the chiseled jaw to the massive shoulders to the rippling abs. (And yes, his package is full, and he knows exactly how to deliver it.) He makes me want to get out of my head and follow my heart. He makes me want to take chances I never thought I’d take.
He also makes me want to take my clothes off. A lot.
But he’s moody and challenging–one minute he’s an open book, and the next he’s completely closed off. He holds me like he’ll never let go, but insists he wants to be alone.
Some wounds are so deep, only love can heal them.
How can I convince him to let me try?
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Only Love was a book, I was not prepared for. It touches on so many subjects, sensitive subjects, but Melanie Harlow made this book into so much more. The first word that pops into my mind, is wholesome. This author did an amazing job. Her writing style is so easy to follow, the flow was one that was set at the perfect pace. Every subject that was brought up, was NOT left undone. Only Love was so cathartic, at times my heart physically ached. Other times, I laughed out loud at the antics of some of the characters. The passion and the chemistry was also electrifying. This book simply put, was just amazing. I would not change one thing about it. This dual POV is one you do not want to miss.
Stella is a 33 year old therapist, who has a passion for people and books. She is simple kind of girl, that appreciates the small things in life. She is extremely close with her siblings, and her Gram. She dreams of the family life that others around her has found.
Ryan is a Marine that served in Iraq and Afghanistan. This wounded Marine has a tortured soul, with a gentle heart. He just wants to be alone and deal with things, the way he knows how. He learned a long time ago being vulnerable only gets you hurt.
When a meddling grandmother is determined that they belong together, she is willing to pull out all of the stops including, “magical pies.” But what happens when you can’t let go of your past, when it has the potential to destroy everything?
Only Love is beautiful interconnected standalone that you do not want to miss. A story about acceptance and unwavering support.
*I recommend this book
*Reviewed for Reviews From the Heart
If you’re into angst this one is for you no doubt. So good! I loved the storyline and how Grams got involved in bringing the two together. Sneaky thing. You’ll understand once you read it. Also thank you, Melanie for shining light on PTSD. It’s not often talked about and I know you do research before writing.
I have really enjoyed each installment in this series, but this one really resonated with me. I was not at all sure how much I would like Stella. What little you get to know of her, she just seemed cold and uninteresting, but maybe that was Buzz influencing my opinions. The loss of Buzz, as boring as he was, leaves Stella in a strange place and she is forced to really take a look at herself and figure out what she needs. With a large helping of interference from Grams (my favorite character ever), she finds her way to Ryan. For me, this was a story of finding out who you are and being honest and true to what makes you happy. Stella has settled for less than she deserves for a long time because her self image and confidence have been undermined for a long time and Ryan has shut himself off from all emotions in an effort to protect himself. Grams uses her super powers to bring these two lonely hearts together. My favorite line from this book is “You changed my life….but you did it by letting me be who I already was.” Wow.
Great Story! This is the third book in the One and Only Series. Ryan and Stella’s story is really sweet, and sexy. Their happy ending is perfect. I love them both. The secondary characters are also beautiful! Grams is so funny! I like Stella’s sisters, Emme and Maren, and their wonderful relationship. Rock Engle, and Felicity Munroe did an amazing narration. I received this free review copy audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily written this review.
Only love
Melanie Harlow
Reviews on good reads. Amazon. The book addicts
I knew this story was going to be buzzzz worthy !! I loved it !! Grams is my home girl!! Like I wanna be her friend. I wanna hang out with her at 5 o’clock.!! I’m so glad Stella got the story she deserved. I knew there was a diva deep down in there somewhere. And I’m so excited about 2019!!! I already can’t wait for that first book!!!
Audio review:
Only Love (One and Only) is a playful romantic read with hilarious shenanigans.
Told in multi-pov between Ryan, Stella, & Granny
Ryan’s hardships a former marine are unfolded in a way that we get to know him morer as time goes on and we get a better understanding of why he is the way he is. Stella is described as “plain jane”, vanilla, & lacks sexiness according to herself. I loved Stella’s inner monologue and her relationships with her sisters and grandmother. Grams is my absolute favourite character with her theatricality matchmaking skills. Charming, divine, hilarious, & sweet are just some of her best characteristics. Its was fun catching up with Stella’s sisters. A perfect epilogue to have everything go-round and draws this series to an end.
Narrators Felicity Munroe and Rock Engle personify the character’s with so much raw emotion and depth. Pace and tone was smoothly flowing through. Engle’s portrayed a perfect balance between Ryan’s conflicting emotions. Munroe’s protray of Stella’s transformation & growth as a character was exceptional. I absolutely loved granny’s voice and the way Munroe portrayed her characteristics.
Only Love is the third book in the One and Only series from Melanie Harlow.
The main character, Stella, is a somewhat uptight therapist who has her life planned out with her safe and predictable partner, Walter. Unfortunately, Walter has other plans.
Enter Ryan, an emotionally scarred former-Marine with PTSD, trying to start over and find a way to cope with civilian life. The two never would have met, had it not been for Stella’s Grams, who ended up being my favorite character. After Stella’s breakup with Walter, Grams plays matchmaker between Stella and Ryan, and often stole the show for me in most of the scenes she was in. Can’t say enough good things about her character!
What Stella intended to be a single encounter turns out to be an extended vacation in which she breaks through Ryan’s damaged psyche. Leaving each other to go back to their old lives turns out to be harder than they bargained for, and Ryan has to decide whether to let Stella go, or finally let her in.
Melanie Harlow is always successful at writing true to life character’s with real flaws and fears and weaving a story that endears them to you. Stella and Ryan’s story was no different. It was a beautiful romance, and I loved watching these characters develop. As a reader, I always appreciate how Melanie wraps her tales in such a way that satisfies my curiosity about what happens next for the characters. I totally related to Stella,and having been in a long term relationship with someone similar to Ryan, her description of the condition and symptoms was spot-on. And having my own meddling Grams in my life made her character so much more dear to me! Love, love, LOVED this book!
Definitely worth the read!
Be still my heart because it’s definitely trying to jump out of my chest and bury itself in the pages of this book right now. These characters.. the story… they were everything! The first two books were so so good but this book not only takes the cake but the whole dang bakery too. I couldn’t put it down, devoured it in one night. If you haven’t started this series yet, you need to pick it up today! Shoutout to Grams for being incredibly awesome.
I was so excited to get my hands on book #3 of the One and Only series. Only Love is the last story from the Devine sisters and Melanie Harlow finally gifts us Stella’s story, it is everything I expected and more. I felt as if my cup runneth over with all the feels of heartbreak, desire, and LOVE.
Stella Devine’s life is thrown off balance on her birthday, taking the advice of her sister she decides to shake things up and take a chance on life to not date the usual “safe” men. A visit to Grams house is the perfect remedy especially if it comes with a view of her grandmother’s neighbor who has been helping her Gram with the yard work. Stella may have to put her profession aside and not analyze him or she could scare him away before she even gets to truly know him. This gorgeous tough man is everything Stella has stayed away from but he may just be worth the risk of taking a chance on love.
Ryan is the epitome of what I love with Melanie Harlow’s men. He is tough, broken, a heart of gold and let’s not forget hot as freaking hell. Ryan has kept to himself until his neighbor’s granddaughter comes to visit, she is a vision he can’t get off his mind. His survival’s guilt is heartbreaking and had me on the verge of tears. He needs to realize he’s worthy of love and living life. Thanks to a meddling grandmother, a beautiful woman who listens and understands may be a couple footsteps away.
Two souls both deserving and broken and a wise grandmother makes for one sweet as pie romance. I hate that this is the last of the Devine sisters, I hope we get more from them and the men they love in a new 2019 spin-off series.
I will say that I love being able to read dual Pov’s especially when one character is going through a rough patch.
Melanie has made Ryan and Stella My new favourite couple.
I wish every book could have a meddling and such adorable Grams!
This book has both happy and sad tears, it broke my heart and yet healed it all at the same time!
Why are men so stubborn? I loved this book. I thought Ryan and Stella were great together. They balanced each other out. I love see catching up with old characters.
An awesome, beautiful read.
It’s a book 3 in the one and only series but can be read as a standalone (lately I’ve been reading so many books out of order).
This book had me captivated from the very first page.
Stella is a practical, sensible, uptight woman. She is unsure of herself and feels complex(not jealousy, there bond is quite perfect) from her sisters. She doesn’t believe she’ll ever find love.
But enter an old, sweet, sneaky and matchmaker Grandma and all that changes very soon enough.
Ryan Woods is an ex Marines trying to get used to life as a civilian but it’s difficult after seeing and doing things at the war zone. He is not much of a talker and keeps to himself. Though he regularly cleans the gardens for Stella’s grandma.
And as I said Grandmas are always the matchmakers. She introduced Ryan and Stella and did everything to turn their relationship to HEA.
I enjoyed each and every part of the book and the shenanigans that Grams got up to .
f you’ve been paying attention to my reviews at all (even just a tiny bit), you know that I’m a HUGE Melanie Harlow fan. She’s one of a very select list of authors that I 1-click without question. She manages to deliver just the right balance of angst, laughs, feels, and scalding-hot sexy times. Angels sing when one of her new releases pop up on my Kindle. Not even kidding. So, not surprisingly, Only Love was a huge hit with me.
There’s nothing that didn’t work for me in this one. You’ve got a reserved-but-relatable therapist heroine (Stella) and a tortured, brooding ex-military hero (Ryan) who is practically a recluse. (y’all know I LOVE a sexy recluse hero) He’s troubled, but he’s not in any way a jerk or an alphahole. He helps the heroine’s grandma with her household chores, for God’s sake. He’s practically perfect in every way!
It was also nice to follow-up with Stella’s sisters, Maren and Emme, both of whom have books in this series. (Only Him and Only You, respectively) But if you haven’t read Maren and Emme’s books, don’t worry about it. Only Love stands alone nicely. (Although why wouldn’t you want to read Maren and Emme’s books?? They’re delightful!
And at the risk of sounding totally superficial…how pretty are these covers, huh? Melanie Harlow could cover her books in brown paper sacks and I’d still buy them, but these covers pretty much sell themselves. #Winning…And not in a Charlie Sheen weird way.
So, long story short, this was a beautiful, engaging, sexy, fun read that I can’t recommend highly enough. Don’t you want to hear the choir of angels singing to you when you open your Kindle? Then go 1-click this one! Happy reading.
And feel free to stop by the Romance Rehab blog for more rants, raves, and other fun romance-y stuff: http://www.romancerehab.com/
Only Love is a rip your heart out perfection kinda read! Swoon!!!
Yes, it has all the feels, plus all the sexy mouth-watering bits you need in a great romance novel. Hands down worth every penny and so worth getting lost in the Melanie Harlow World!!!
First of all, let me just say that I love this series and I think Ryan and Stella are my favorite couple.
My heart broke for Ryan and everything that he was dealing with. Unless you know someone personally who has served in the military and deals with PTSD, you truly have no idea what they face daily. I so loved how Stella loved him, but didn’t smother him with her being a therapist. She knew just when to push and when to let him have his space, but when he would shut down, my heart would break for him.
Grams – I loved that old meddling woman too. Some of the tactics that she would come up with would have you laughing out loud and I loved how Ryan teamed up with her at the end for Stella’s Birthday. I thought their ending was just perfect for them.
This has been the series that made me a completely a Melanie Harlow’s fan. Each story is unique and even though they’re connected, each has something that stands out.
I have to admit that this couple was my least favorite, but I couldn’t help to love the grandma’s pov. She was hilarious.
It’s time to start reading her previous releases.
Only Love was the very satisfying conclusion to the One and Only triad. Ryan is a tortured hero (my favorite kind!) who has tried to remain alone and unfeeling to cope with his military past. Stella is looking for all the feelings. Ryan put up a good fight, throwing up walls when Stella got to close. In the end, he was no match for Stella, Grams and the magic pie!
5 Healing Each Other Stars!
We finally get Stella’s story and I’m so glad she was the last book in this series because this book is filled with so many emotions, some heartache and a little angst. Which is all okay because I knew her story wouldn’t be an easy-peasy one given what we’ve gotten to know about her in Only You and Only Him.
As the book opens, Stella thinks she’s getting engaged to her bore of a boyfriend Walter and the surprise is on her when he breaks up with her…and while I’m happy he did this, the way he did it just proves why they shouldn’t be together. While Stella thinks she doesn’t need that little bit of butterflies in her stomach for it to be love, I think secretly she wanted that to be driving her towards the man who’s her forever.
When she decides to go visit her Grams who, by the way, if I didn’t know better, is a classic example of my Bubbe, because she’s determined that the nice young man that lives next to her is perfect for her beautiful granddaughter! On and Ryan has no idea what he’s getting into when he’s helping Grams because he can’t see her ulterior motives.
Ryan is a man that is damaged and somewhat broken thanks to some PTSD and what he finds when he comes home to the woman that was supposed to be his forever. Spoiler…she’s not!!! So he starts over and moves to northern Michigan to live a quiet and solitary life because he doesn’t feel like he’s worthy of love. But Stella is the woman that changes everything!
These two grabbed at my heart so much. I could feel the pull between them upon their first meeting because based on what her Grams said, she wasn’t expecting Ryan to be who he was….
“I don’t know what I was expecting, possibly a skinny teenager with acne and a shaggy haircut, but definitely not six-feet-four inches of solid muscle and a stubbled jaw. Boy? This is a man in every sense of the word. I could practically smell the testosterone coming off him. And he was gorgeous. Short dark hair, light brown eyes, and wide shoulders. His chest seemed massive. His hands huge.”
They both couldn’t seem to help themselves from thinking about each other if they didn’t want to consciously admit it. But when there’s a matchmaker on the loose, they almost have no choice to be in each other’s space on a daily basis. One of the things I loved so much about Stella in this book is that she let Ryan be who he is without trying to change him. She let him express himself and his doubts, fears, anger and she didn’t judge.
For his part Ryan made Stella feel more beautiful than she’s ever felt and that right there is when I knew they were destined for each other. And oh the sexy times!! Talk about HOT!! Once they got horizontal, in a manner of speaking, nothing held these two back.
What’s really the beautiful thing about this story is how they healed each other. Allowing them to find love I don’t think either of them felt they deserved or would find. Ms. Harlow has written an amazing story that touched me in ways that will stay with me forever!
I am cracking up that I just tagged Only Love with the label “meddlesome grandma”! Gram was such a great character- and when I hit that first chapter from her POV mixed in with Ryan and Stella’s I literally laughed out loud! So fun! What a great combo these two characters were- broody Ryan and intuitive Stella had such great chemistry. I have loved all three books in the series, but I think Only You is my favorite- and that epilogue! Such a pretty HEA bow for everyone!
I received a copy and voluntarily left a review and all opinions are my own.
From the moment I started Melanie Harlow’s One and Only series, I was drawn to Stella and couldn’t wait for Melanie to write her story. I just knew that I was going to love this heroine who was so practical yet completely delusional about love. It wasn’t long and Melanie had me fascinated and enraptured by “Only Love” and giddy with excitement over the three different points of view that she gives her readers in this story. Stella and Ryan’s story is funny, heart warming, and yet still scorching in all the ways that every romance reader wants.
Stella Devine is a therapist who needs a lot of time on the proverbial “therapist couch” if you ask me. She is so concerned with comfort and safety in a relationship that she almost misses out on the passion and fire that should consume every love. That is until a meddling yet adorable relative leads her right into Ryan’s arms. I loved experiencing every tasty morsel of her enlightenment to love and all that it entails and couldn’t wait for the next moment these two would collide in all consuming desire.
Ryan is a broken shell of a man who needs to experience something besides the war that is going on inside of him. I found it a little hard to get to know this sullen, silent hero, but I am sure that is what Melanie intended when she wrote him. But once I got to know more about him and the demons that were chasing him, I knew that he was the one to give Stella the love and devotion that she deserves.
Melanie Harlow delivers a delicious love story about tearing down the walls that surround our hearts and letting love in…oh and did I mention pie? I highly recommend “Only Love” for a heart warming romance filled with family traditions and heat both in and out of the kitchen. I adore the Devine sisters and have loved getting to know each one and I can’t wait to read what Melanie writes for her readers in the future.