“Absolutely unputdownable! Roni Loren is a new favorite.” —COLLEEN HOOVER, #1 New York Times bestseller for The One You Can’t ForgetHow hard would you fight for the one you love? Taryn Landry was there that awful night fourteen years ago when Long Acre changed from the name of a town to the title of a national tragedy. Everyone knows she lost her younger sister. No one knows it was her fault. … knows she lost her younger sister. No one knows it was her fault. Since then, psychology professor Taryn has dedicated her life’s work to preventing something like that from ever happening again. Falling in love was never part of the plan…
Shaw Miller has spent more than a decade dealing with the fallout of his brother’s horrific actions. After losing everything—his chance at Olympic gold, his family, almost his sanity—he’s changed his name, his look, and he’s finally starting a new life. As long as he keeps a low profile and his identity secret, everything will be okay, right?
When the world and everyone you know defines you by one catastrophic tragedy…
How do you find your happy ending?
The Ones Who Got Away Series:
The Ones Who Got Away (Book 1)
The One You Can’t Forget (Book 2)
The One You Fight For (Book 3)
Readers are Raving About about The Ones Who Got Away series:
“This is a romance readers are unlikely to forget.”—Booklist STARRED Review
“Phenomenal. Gets my highest recommendation!”—LORELEI JAMES, New York Times bestselling author
“Richly layered and full of emotion… Unforgettable.”—KRISTEN CALLIHAN, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author
“A crackling, heartfelt love story.”—Entertainment Weekly
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I really enjoyed this one! This is the third book in the series that focuses on the lives of a group of individuals that survived a school shooting. This one also brings in family members of the shooter and demonstrates the impact the shooting had on them. It’s incredible food for thought and I think the author handles the very difficult topic with great care. In this book we get to know Taryn. She may have survived the shooting but her sister was not as fortunate. She’s devoted to whole life to understanding the underlying reasons that caused the shooting to happen and develop a program that will hopefully help prevent another occurrence in the future. When she starts to fall for the brother of the shooter (before she knew who he really was) Taryn finds she has some hard decisions to make.
This is a great story of forgiveness, hope and perseverance and definitely a book I recommend.
My Review:
Wow! Huge, massive kudos to Roni Loren for taking this series and spinning it on its head with this hero. Wow…talk about changing point of view.
The premise of this series is that the characters are a group of survivors who survived a mass shooting at their senior prom. The stories are them ten years later and how that trauma in their lives has affected them.
In this book, we meet Taryn, who has devoted her entire life to making sure that this doesn’t happen in another school after her sister was killed that night. She’s a psychologist who has spent her life studying school shooters and pinpointing the things and warning signs that could have prevented their actions. Her goal is to make sure kids have the support they need before they become murderers.
Shaw has lived a very different life from Taryn. His brother was the killer and he was condemned for the same, the press saying that it was just a matter of time before it was revealed that he was just as unhinged as his brother. This guy had been an Olympic level gymnast and lost everything…his brother, his family, his privacy, his ability to live. The media flambeed him and he’s given up ever having a normal life again…to the point that he believes that he is just one action away from being as dangerous as his brother.
My heart shattered for what Shaw has gone through.
And that’s an amazing thing about what Roni Loren has done with this book. Unfortunately, school shootings are an every day thing on the news now…and no one considers what that does to the family of the shooter. Devastating.
And beyond that is the overall theme of what Taryn is doing and the little bits that come out in the end about love and connection and how we all need that…these kids who are at risk most of all. It’s a sobering thought that something so tragic could be prevented by a single action of empathy and love. Definitely food for thought.
Needless to say…it was an INCREDIBLE book to end out an incredible series. I loved it!!!
I received a complimentary copy of this book in return for an honest and voluntary review.
The One You Fight For is great. I love the way the author infuses lightness into heavy themes. She also has a knack for creating chemistry between the main characters that leaps off the page becoming a living, breathing entity. I love the way she does banter it seems so effortless. I thoroughly enjoyed this book Thorpe that Kincaid is getting a story because in really looking forward to reading it. I love this series and highly recommend it to contemporary romance that doesn’t shy away from difficult themes.
ARC provided by publisher through NetGalley
This series keeps getting better and better. Two families, one tragedy, with different consequences and outcome. Yet, Taryn and Shaw unite in their pain, loss and feelings. They also burn up the sheets!
Roni Loren pulls the emotions out of the deepest parts of your heart and you can’t help but feel the characters’ joys, losses and everything in between. The survivors really rally around each other and provide immeasurable support.
Very enjoyable.
Some would say these two are an unlikely pair. But no one else can really know the pain they’ve all experienced, and how it affects the rest of your lives. This is Taryn’s story.
I read book one and was incredibly moved and emotional throughout. I haven’t read book two yet but I wasn’t lost, and I can go back and read it. Taryn is living her life for her sister and her parents, full of survivor guilt and a drive to make a difference. Shaw has spent his life in a prison of his own making, and I’m not sure who is worse off. Two lonely people drawn together like magnets? When you find your person, your spot of light in the world, hold on with both hands and screw everyone else. It’s not their life, it’s not their heart! Once again, Roni has brought me to tears and made me feel so much. These characters deserve the happiest of ever afters.
**I voluntarily read an early copy of this title courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher**
When I started “The Ones Who Got Away” series, Roni Loren was a new-to-me author and I was so happy to have found her. That feeling has continued through the second book and now into the third.
Tragedy struck Long Acre over a decade ago and while Taryn Landry survived when gunmen opened fire during the prom, her sister Nia, and many others did not. Following the shooting, Taryn made the decision to dedicate her life to making sure that things like this never happen again. Taryn became a psychology professor and along with making the decision to follow this passion, she also unknowingly put every other part of her life on hold, including her love life.
Shaw Miller was a guy who had everything going for him. He was training for the Olympics in hopes of making the team was the unthinkable happened – his brother opened fire at a high school prom. His brothers actions not only ended his hopes of representing his country, but really his life as he knew it was over. Shaw was in many ways guilty by association. Because they were brothers, people automatically thought Shaw was going to do something as horrible as his brother had. Because of this, Shaw changed his name and his looks and did everything he could to distance himself from who he used to be.
When Taryn and Shaw meet at a karaoke bar, it’s obvious the attraction is there, but they part ways that night expecting never to see one another again. The universe sees it differently and they are pulled back together again, although neither one has any idea of the part the other played in the Long Acre Shooting. When everything is revealed will these two be able to deal with it and move on together or will it tear them apart?
Roni Loren had a very difficult job with the topics in this story and I thought she handled them so carefully and wonderfully. Both Taryn and Shaw harbored a tremendous amount of guilt and they both had very difficult decisions to make when the chips were down. They had both been through so much and the way that Roni Loren went about each of them working through their own issues was so well done.
This is one of those books that is going to stay with me for some time. I didn’t want to put the book down because I was so anxious to see how it all played out. This was a wonderful addition to this already fantastic series!
Roni Loren weaves a masterpiece in the latest addition to The Ones Who Got Away series with the latest book, The One You Fight For. I admit that I am new to Loren’s work and therefore did not know about this series. I read this book (the third) in the series first, and was able to understand the events detailed in previous books. This book is more amazing than I can relay. I don’t know that I have ever been more emotionally invested in a book before.
The One You Fight For centers around Taryn and Shaw. Both are living lives built around a single incident in their past. This tragedy has driven both, but in different ways. Taryn has dedicate herself to the study of Psychology and ways to prevent school shootings. Shaw, on the other hand, has abandoned his Olympic dreams to live a life of solitude. Both suffer from guilt stemming from the shooting – one as the sibling of a victim and the other as the sibling of the school shooter.
Taryn and Shaw meet at a bar one night. There is an instant attraction but Shaw disappears before anything can happen. Their romance is a journey for Taryn and Shaw as individuals and as a couple. It is painful and sweet. It is clear that Taryn and Shaw care for one another but Taryn struggles with admitting the relationship to her parents and friends. Shaw, does not believe that he deserves a love like he has with Taryn and so he tries to protect her. If there was one book couple that I knew deserved a HEA, it’s Taryn and Shaw. Although they survived the actual shooting, their lives after the shooting were significantly impacted by the events of that one day.
Roni Loren’s writing is emotional and thought provoking. The book is so masterfully crafted that you can’t help but feel empathy for both characters. Loren is able to have the reader look at the lasting impacts of school shootings, but from different perspectives. This book was a journey of the heart for me.
You should purchase The One You Fight For as soon as it is released….just make sure you have tissues on hand. I laughed, I cried because I was happy, and then cried because I was sad and then just cried some more at the HEA. This book is an amazing love story with characters that face emotionally raw realities. Don’t miss out on the book of 2019!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I will also be buying all of the books in this series. Roni Loren can count me as a new fan!
THE ONE YOU FIGHT FOR is the third instalment in Roni Loren’s contemporary, adult THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY erotic, romance series focusing on the survivors of a mass shooting the night of their senior prom-Finn Dorsey, Olivia Arias, Rebecca Lindt, Taryn Landry and Kincaid Breslin. This is thirty-one year old psychology professor Dr. Taryn Landry, and trainer Shaw Miller’s story line. THE ONE YOU FIGHT FOR can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary but I recommend reading the series in order, or at the very least book one, for backstory and cohesion as the details about what happened are revealed in THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY.
Told from dual third person perspectives (Taryn and Shaw) THE ONE YOU FIGHT FOR follows the building relationship between thirty-one year old psychology professor Taryn Landry, and personal trainer Shaw Miller. Fourteen years earlier Shaw’s brother destroyed the town of Long Acre when he and a friend killed a number of students at the senior prom. Fast forward to present day wherein Shaw, now known as Lucas, returns to Long Acre to help a friend open a new gym, a return that comes with too many memories of the past. Enter Taryn Landry, a woman he doesn’t recognize but the woman that calls to his heart. What ensues is the building relationship between Taryn and Shaw, and the potential fall-out as the media take aim, and Taryn’s family is unable to forgive or forget.
Taryn Landry is a survivor. Not only did she survive the shooting at her senior prom but our heroine struggles with survivors remorse in the aftermath of what happened, and her sister’s murder on the very same day. Meeting personal trainer ‘Lucas Shaw’ gave Taryn a hope for the future, a hope that would be destroyed when the truth was revealed. Shaw Miller never wanted to return to his hometown of Long Acre, a town that would never forgive him for sins of the past. As the brother to a mass shooter, Shaw would always be connected to the destruction of so many lives.
The relationship between Taryn and Shaw is one of immediate attraction but our couple lied to one another from the start; neither one revealed their true identity, and in the ensuing aftermath Taryn and Shaw kept secret the truth from the people they loved. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and intense, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
All of the series leading characters return as secondary and supporting characters including Liv and Finn (The Ones Who Got Away #1), Rebecca and Wes (the One you Cant Forget #2 ) and Kincaid Breslin. We re introduced Taryn’s parents, and Shaw’s best friend and business partner Rivers.
The world building continues to look at the impact of a mass shooting on a small town in rural America. As the rest of the country (and world) continue on with their lives, the survivors and families struggle in the wake of unbearable grief and moving forward. As our heroine pushes for changes, the bureaucracy continues to bury its’ proverbial head in the sand, while the family members of those who kill are vilified and destroyed at the hands of everyone else.
THE ONE YOU FIGHT FOR is an emotional and heart breaking story of love and hate, forgiveness and acceptance, mental illness and the ongoing struggle for those left behind to deal with the loss and grief The premise is sensitive and thought-provoking ; the characters are spirited, sassy and real; the romance is seductive and breathtaking. THE ONE YOU FIGHT FOR is a captivating and encouraging story of survival and loss.
This series is not for the faint of heart. The stories are very current in this day and age when mass shootings are occurring frequently and affecting our youth and society. This time the author gives us a different point of view. That of a sister of one of the victims and the other the brother of the shooter.
Taryn Landry feels responsible for her sister’s death. As an adult, she is now a psychology professor. Shaw Miller has isolated himself from the world, changed his name and still feels guilty for the sins of his brother.
By chance these two meet , clueless of the connection they have. But the attraction is there. Will this new relationship survive when the truth comes out?
This is another heartbreaking , gut wrenching story, but also heartwarming. One in which at times you’ll want to give these two a hug and tell them things will work out.
Once again, this author shines in her craft.
I was entrusted a copy of this book by Netgalley. The opinions expressed are solely my own.
WOW! This broke my heart into pieces. Taryn is faced with an impossible choice in the middle of what feels like the insurmountable task of finishing her research and getting her program in schools. And Shaw! Punishing and isolating himself for a crime that he didn’t commit. His guilt was like a living, breathing thing. Knowing the whole situation was going to go horribly wrong made the relationship so bittersweet. Taryn and Shaw’s story will really run you through so many emotions. But it is so worth it!!
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