Life is full of choices- of chances- of moments.Chances we regret not taking. Choices we wish we could change.And then there are the moments that define us.Kam was my choice… look.
They were my moment…
Two brothers that both owned a part of me.
Two brothers that I loved in different ways for different reasons.
One brother shattered my heart.
The other put it back together.
Both changed me forever.
The Road to You is a standalone contemporary romance.
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A 5Star emotional roller coaster!
I received a copy of this book from the publisher/author to review.
Life is full of choices-of chances-of moments. Chances we regret not taking. Choices we wish we could change. And then there are the moments that define us. Kam was my choice…The one who stole my heart instantly. Kane was my chance…The one who se me ablaze with just one look. they were my moment….Two brothers that both owned a part of me. Two brothers that I loved in different ways for different reasons. One brother shattered my heart. The other put it back together. Both changed me forever.
This book is nothing short of amazing. I loved every second of it. This book is abou a whole lot of loss and w whole lot of living. I will go ahead and warn you that your going to need a big old box of kleenex to get through it. Elara has experiend so much loss in her lie. She lost her mother at a young age and her best friend Kam is the reason she got through that loss. Then she loses Kam and once again she is not sure how she is going to move on. Kane though is there to help her and neither expect to fall in love. This story is amazing and sad and just one that you do not want to miss.
The cover was gorgeous on the book. The story was so beautifully written. Love , loss , healing are just a few words to describe the feeling you feel when reading this book. My favorite part was in the epilogue it gave me goose bumps reading it.
The Road to You is beautifully written story filled with so much emotion. The story goes back and forth from past to present, still easy to follow. The characters were genuine and sweet. You will feel every emotion that the characters do. (Kleenex needed)
I love Melissa Toppen’s books. She always takes me on a roller-coaster (which is ironic since I actually hate roller coasters!
I loved how the book started with a scene from the past, with Kam and Elara. The auto really did a great job of showcasing the friendship, affection and love between Kam and Elara.
Even though I had all the faith in the world that the author would make me love this story, I was worried. With all the “flashbacks”/past scenes, I just couldn’t see how Elara was going to end up with Kane. Would it be believable!? Would there be chemistry!? Would it feel like he was just a replacement for Kam!?
I honestly shouldn’t have worried, because the author took her time. Setting up the friendship and eventual relationship between Kane and Elara. I loved seeing them slowly fall for each other as their friendship developed. But, like I said…roller-coaster…I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it did. I was practically reading with my eyes closed because I couldn’t watch as things blew up.
Things definitely blew up. I was expecting it, just not quite in the way it happened. But it had to happen so that there wouldn’t be any issue or confusion between the characters as to who was being chosen and why.
I have to say that I loved the way Kane loved Elara. I loved seeing him so into her and how much he wanted her.
This book definitely surprised me, in such a good way, and I definitely recommend it!
Have you ever read a book that rips your heart out and then puts it back together again? The Road to You just did that to my heart! This book is an ugly cry for me. In a good way, of course…
“… the road isn’t always smooth but life has a way of taking us exactly where we need to go.”
~ Melissa Toppen, The Road to You
When Elara Menton looses the love of her young life, she never expects a tragedy to lead her to the love of her forever life.
“Be my girlfriend, Elara. Let me love you the way I’ve dreamt of loving you for the last seven years.”
~ Melissa Toppen, The Road to You
This is a book that feel like you need to experience and “enjoy the journey”. I feel like giving you anything would ruin it for you. I am so sorry! (Oh, and you will be thanking me latter, I promise.)
This is my second Melissa Toppen book and this one is so, so good! I am a fan for life! If you have not read a book by Melissa, I suggest you stop what you are doing and pick up this book, or any of her books!! So worth the journey that she puts your heart through.
#KamdenJosephThaler #ButterBean #NothingICanSayWillBringKamBack #Zacharys #DodgersCap #Camera #BeStrongForHer #TakeCareOfMyGirl #ManarolaItaly #TaterTot #MissMenton #TheColorRed #Everything #BackstreetBoys #ManchesterOrchestra #Pasta #ACarbWhore #ElaraRose #ComeToChicago #IKilledYourBrother #ILoveYouToTheMoonBean #Kam&Kane #EnjoyTheJourney
This is by far the best book I’ve read from Melissa Toppen. The Road to You was an emotional gut-wrenching tale that will break your heart from the very first page but will leave you smiling in the end. This heartfelt story will captivate you and have you hooked. Its a story of friendship, healing, forgiveness and most of all love.
This is the story of Elara and the two men she loved, both of whom were so alike yet so very different.
Elara and Kane’s chemistry was instantaneous and intense and I loved watching them get to know each other and fall in love.
Told in dual POV, we are given snippets of both the past and the present which helps you fully connect and relate to the characters.
This page-turner will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading it. I loved the story. It was a phenomenal read and I would highly recommend it.
The road to you was a road of heartbreak, grief and healing that puts your heart through the ringer, but also can lead you down a beautiful road.
A road Elana never planned on.
A road she never saw coming, but it will change Elana’s road to love.
Beautiful story. It flowed so easily that I read it in one sitting!
The Road to You by Melissa Toppen is a beautiful, emotional novel about a couple’s journey to healing, learning to live, and learning to love again. Just a warning…have the tissues handy, you will need them!
Since El was 15-years-old, her heart has belonged to Kam. He lived next door to her aunt whom she visited every summer in North Carolina. As the years pass, their friendship grows and so does their hidden love for one another. When it looks like things might work out for them romantically, tragedy strikes. El has no idea how she will be able to live in a world without Kam. She is devastated, and she is drawn to Kam’s older brother, Kane. He is the only one whom she thinks will understand the depth of her loss.
El has only met him one time before years earlier, and he confused her. Her never took his eyes off of her then, and at the funeral, he is staring at her in the same way. She has no idea what it means. As the two get to know each other and share their grief with one another, they become closer and feelings develop. However, it is true feelings for one another, or is it because it makes them feel closer to Kam?
A trip to Italy will change everything for them. El was always fearless, whereas Kam was more cautious. That was one of the things that Kam loved about her. Since the accident, she has lost that. Kane is determined to help her rediscover that part of herself. I loved that about him. Their relationship does progress pretty quickly, but knowing their history and their time together, it makes sense. Toppen didn’t diminish El and Kam’s history. In fact, she wrote flashbacks throughout the novel that captured their love. She doesn’t make it seem that she loved one brother more than the other. In fact, El is confused about her feelings even though she knows she loves Kane with everything she has. But, she hasn’t really let Kam go, and she feels a responsibility for his death. Kane knows this, and he realizes she has to deal with it.
“I want all of you. The ups and downs. The accomplishments and failures. The good and the bad. I want it all.”
He doesn’t want the person she only wants him to see, the one where her smile isn’t real, the one that is overwrought with guilt and pain.
My heart broke for El. I shed so many tears for her because she had suffered more losses than just Kam, and she couldn’t give her heart completely to anyone. She was so afraid if she did find happiness with Kane, fate would step in and take him away from her.
“Things happen. People get sick. People get hurt. People die. Nothing is guaranteed. All you can do is love with your whole heart while God gives you the ability to do so.”
As I wrote earlier, this was an incredibly emotional read! You can’t read this book and not feel something. There are very few books that have taken a character who is no longer living and make them a central character in it, but Toppen was able to do this beautifully in this one. If you are looking for a book to devour you heart and soul, look no further than this one!
***Read and Reviewed for Devilishly Delicious Book Reviews***
Wow! What a love story! I find my fondness for Melissa Toppen’s writing growing with every book.
The Road to You takes place after a tragic loss.
Kamden was a perfect brother, friend and son. Only to be taken too quickly in life, before he had the chance to to see how much he was truly loved and adored.
Elara was his best friend but secretly loved him all their life. She is stuck in a sort of purgatory of feelings she was never able to voice and questions about those feelings that will never be answered.
Kane is the distant (smoking hot) older brother, who is also stuck. Trying to deal with his younger brothers death while he is full of guilt and regret for not being around when he should have been.
On a last minute decision to take a break, the two decide to try to recover together,yet end up falling for one another. Their journey is not light as they have many obstacles to overcome. It’s easy to stay in your bubble after all. Outside of reality when you don’t have to face how your life has truly changed.
I felt heartbroken for them but couldn’t stop myself from wanting them to be together without all the weight of the past.
The Road to You is their heartfelt, emotional journey towards eachother, which is exactly where you will want them to be.
F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C!
This book captured my heart and I was enraptured by it from beginning to end.
The writing was spot on and easy to follow. The characters were likable and well developed.
A single event changed the lives of Kam’s best friend Elara and his brother Kane. Three people connected bound unconditionally by their connection to Kam.
This story, like in real life, shows us how nothing prepares you for those moments that change you forever. And when those moments happen sometimes you have to take a sharp detour before you move forward.
This is a passionate and deeply emotional of love and healing. What happens to Kam, Kane and Elara you’ll have to read and find out.
I’m a firm believer that things happen for a reason even if we don’t understand it, and this read proves that point.
Can’t say more without giving away spoilers, except it’s a must read!
4.5stars!
I totally recommend this book to those of you that can handle emotion. I absolutely loved it and each time I picked it up to continue reading, I was transported into their world and felt their love, guilt, grief, and happiness as though it were my own.
Reading about Elara’s journey of searching for self-forgiveness, dealing with her immense grief, and releasing herself from the clutches of guilt, had me in tears right from the start. This book now holds the record for bringing me to tears the quickest. Yes there were tears, a lot of them, but it only goes to show how amazing the writing was, how Melissa drew me in, made her characters real, and brought me into their world.
Right from the cryptic yet revealing blurb, the reader becomes aware that they are in for some angst in this one so I really hope I’m being vague and spoiler-free. I also hope I’m enticing you to read The Road To You, which has easily received 5 stars from me and taken a spot on my favorites list for 2018.
You can expect to be exposed to angst surrounding the devastating events the characters must endure and try to survive. It was a very emotional journey for me, one that brought me face to face with my past and opened old, unhealed wounds. Even though that was painful and had me in tears, the message Melissa brought was beautiful and cathartic. I’m so happy I’ve read this book. It helped me deal with my own grief, guilt, and memories of my own sibling who left this earth much young. I understand how Kane feels, how he knows his life today would not be what it is had terrible things not happened. How can we ever pick one over the other.
This book will certainly effect people differently. I was hit hard, to the center of my being. It left me somewhat numb, almost in a fog of reflection, recalling parts of the story in my head and I easily had tears welling in my eyes again. I guess I just really felt the pain and the loss deeply. Ultimately, this story made me smile, the love outweighing the heartache, but it was a rough road. Life is a road, full of twists, curves, and turns. None of us know what tomorrow will bring and Melissa reminded me to live life today.
4.5 Stars!
First off I have to say I love the characters names: Elara, Kamden & Kane ~ Butter Bean & Tater Tot.
This was a well-written very emotional story of healing, I could not turn the pages fast enough (except when I was wiping the tears from my eyes). Elara and Kane needed each other’s friendship to heal from the untimely death of her best friend and his brother, Kam. The support they had from their families throughout this time was nothing less than amazing.
Heartbreak is a hard thing to get over and Elara definitely had her share throughout the story, but her healing is what was most satisfying. Kane had some hard choices to make along with his own heartbreak but he did what was right for Elara, with her best interests in mind.
Epilogue was perfect!!!
I know it’s early in 2018, but this is going to be a tough one to beat for me this year! I cannot recommend this book enough.
The Road to You is an excellent read. It is a deep emotional story. Beautifully written, with a storyline that is so engaging you will not want to stop reading. The Characters are complex and as their story unfolds your emotions go on a rollercoaster ride. A powerful story of love, loss, pain, grief, guilt and second chances. A amazing book that is perfect for readers that enjoy high emotional content and a story driven romance. I’m posting a voluntary, honest review after reading an advance copy.
What intrigued me to read this story was the blurb. It sounded like a great story, the only thing I was afraid was that it was a love triangle. I don’t do well with those. I was wrong it wasn’t a love triangle. This 4 star story was heartbreaking but heartwarming also.
Elara suffered an heartbreak from one brother and was mended by the other. That’s all I say about this story.
Beautifully written with a great storyline. This story goes back and forth in time so it’s like reading 2 stories in one. It was paced just right and flowed well. There were some heartbreaking moments that had me chocked up with emotions. But with an HEA like this one I was left smiling.
Standalone told in a dual POV with an HEA. I recommend this story