** Now a USA Today bestselling book! From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katy Regnery comes a unique story about the sins of the father…and the burdens of the son.My name is Cassidy Porter…My father, Paul Isaac Porter, was convicted twenty years ago for the brutal murder of a dozen innocent girls.Though I was only eight-years-old at the time, I am aware – every day of my life … the time, I am aware – every day of my life – that I am his child, his only son.
To protect the world from the poison in my veins, I live a quiet life, off the grid, away from humanity.
I promised myself, and my mother, not to infect innocent lives with the darkness that swirls within me, waiting to make itself known.
It’s a promise I would have kept…if Brynn Cadogan hadn’t stumbled into my life.
Now I exist between heaven and hell: falling for a woman who wants to love me, while all along reminding myself that I must remain…
Unloved.
NOTE: This book is intended for readers 18+ due to strong language, reference to violence and sexual content.**
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Unloved: a Love Story by Katy Regnery was heartbreaking, beautiful, and a surprising story. Brynn and Cassidy’s journey was not your typical love story. It’s about two people with tragic past who meet in the most unbelievable way. They fight sickness and health to get to know together and prove that no one is unloveable. I’m not going to tell you more about this book because the blurb (alone) should have you wanting to read it and you need to experience their story for yourself.
Katy’s writing will make you feel everything Brynn and Cassidy go through; the pain of loss, the laughs they share and falling in love for the first time. I don’t think there was anything about this character that I didn’t like. I think Cassidy way of living made him stronger and I loved that Brynn didn’t give up on Cassidy.
I will recommend this book to anyone who loves to read.
Favorite Quotes:
Her eyes are the same green as ivy leaves after a rainfall. Deep and alive. Bright and unforgettable. The sort of green that heralds spring and promises rebirth. Glorious, vibrant… I wish I was the sun so I could shine down on her, so I could examine every peak and valley of her face until I have it memorized and can recall it at any lonesome moment: the sad, beautiful, green-eyed girl from the forest.
I am not screaming for my past or my present. I am screaming for my future. I am screaming because I know I want it and someone is taking it away from me.
If I had ever met him before, I wouldn’t have forgotten him. Why? Because his eyes are unforgettable, otherworldly. Surrounded by long, thick lashes that curl up at the ends, his left eye is green and his right eye is blue.
You are . . . the greatest . . . treasure . . . of my entire life.
My Review:
Ms. Regnery’s emotive and heart-rending storyline turned me inside out and then it wrecked me. My heart was squeezed, battered, and bruised, but as always with Ms. Regnery’s captivating tales, it concluded with a satisfying HEA, but not without some major plot twists and gut-wrenching events. I adored these compelling and endearing characters and was engaged and intrigued by their poignant and transformative story from beginning to end. Ms. Regnery’s superb and descriptive writing has a cinematic quality that was well-crafted and thoughtfully and vividly detailed with no annoying loose threads to pluck at my brain later.
audio book review
I can’t express my love for this book enough. I loved it so much as soon as I was done listening I bought a signed paperback copy from the author. This is the perfect story of romance, shame, guilt, grief, and overcoming it all. This is a book about healing, about choosing your own happiness, about not letting the mistakes of others take over you. This is a book that needs to be read. I’ll give you just a small summary because this story needs to be experienced. This story is about Brynn, a woman grieving the gruesome death of her fiance two years ago, and Cassidy, the son with the burden of having a serial killer as father. Brynn climbs her ex fiances favorite mountain as a way to say good bye and almost loses her life. Cassidy saves her and takes her back to his home in the secluded woods to care for her. They form a strong bond. Brynn starts to fall for Cassidy but Cassidy tries to stop love at all costs. He feels since he is the son of his evil father then he needs to keep away from the world so he doesn’t hurt anyone. Then truths come out and they are shocking. This book blew me away! I can’t suggest it enough. GO READ THIS BOOK! You’ll thank me once it is attached to your heart. And if you can listen to the audio version also. These narrators do a great job of bringing this story to life.
I read almost everything this amazing woman has written. If you look on my bookshelves, you’ll see most of them proudly displayed. From strong families on a lane, fairy tales for the modern heart to a shifter who made my soul sigh, I have fallen head over heels for everything.
But then she gave me this and I am without a doubt still so stunned, so in love with the world created in the pages of this story. So brokenhearted and moved for a man who deserved so much of everything and was given so little. The world is cruel and so thoughtless. One evil man’s act will change the course of his son’s life in ways that surely his son never dreamed of. What nightmares may come for a young boy forced to live a solitary life and suffer for the sins of his father.
Cassidy Porter had me from the moment he arrived on the pages as an eight year old boy. Proud and strong, he loved his mother and respected her wishes and that of his grandfather. As he grew he kept to the shadows. Nothing could prepare him for the beautiful lost soul he found in Brynn. On the mountain to grieve and move on, Brynn encounters the amazing Cassidy when he saves her. Cassidy knows that he cannot have her but Brynn cannot be without the man who heals her heart. Now she must find a way to heal Cassidy’s soul.
It has taken me months to write this review. It has been hard finding just the right words for Cassidy and Brynn. I’ll say that Unloved is beautiful in its darkness. It left me sobbing and swooning. This story demonstrates so amazingly the power of forgiveness and love and how that love can change the course and destiny of not only one person’s life, but the lives of those that person touches. Truthfully, Cassidy touched something so pure and so good in this reader. He is unforgettable, a passionate character, so sexy. Yes, let’s not forget that the man is gorgeous. Still it’s his pure soul. He’s such a good man and so completely worthy of the love he found with Brynn.
One of my favorites of 2017! So incredibly well done, Katy!
Enjoyed it one of my favorite authors.
Excellent. I couldn’t put it down. Well written.
Good writing and dialogue. Unusual storyline. Surprise and wonderful ending
Loved it!
6 amazing Stars! On my Top Ten List
Words, words, WORDS!!! I’m trying to find them, to describe how I feel, after reading Unloved. First of all, Ms. Regnery’s prose is masterful, her words are so beautiful and they kept me frantically turning the pages late into the night. It was an emotional read for me, especially after the tragic event that was in the news recently. I closed my Kindle several times to get a handle on them. It struck a chord so deep in me like no other story has in a while. Days later, I still get weepy thinking of Cassidy and Brynn and my heart still aches for both of them. Each has lived their own tragedy that’s put an indelible stain on their soul and heart. Read the blurb, please, it foreshadows Cassidy’s life and it’s his legacy just as the title is, too.
This is an incredible love story. I loved it so much I wish I could sit with you, holding your hands, and tell you about it with as much detail as possible, almost word for word, but I’d rather you read and experience it yourselves. I don’t want to give too much away; in fact you’d do yourself a favor if you went in blind, not knowing too much about it. I can see it as a movie when I close my eyes at night, I dream of it, in HD. There are so many quotes I highlighted while reading but this is the only one I’m including:
“I love her.
I will love her until the sky falls.
Until the sun and the moon fail to rise.
Until Katahdin crumbles.
I will love her forever.”
This review is short; my shortest ever, just know you need to experience Unloved.
The best book I recall reading in a very long time.
Cassidy is the son of a serial killer.
Growing up in a world told he is damaged goods, tarnished and should never unleash his tainted seed upon anyone. Cassidy does as he is told and lives remotely, away from the rest of the world promising never to unleash his tarnished self upon the world. Your heart will break for the boy all within the first chapter, yet you also wonder could it be for the best, he is after all the son of a serial killer. How is this a love story?
Your emotions will run the gammet and I promise you will love this book!
ALL THE STARS! I can’t believe I waited this long to read this book. It has been on my kindle for years and I am going to shout from the rooftops at how good it was to everyone now. I hope people read it and don’t make the same mistake as I did. This book reminded me of another book by Mia Sheridan that I also loved. They were totally different books, with different plots, but they were similar. I am just in awe of this story and this boy/man. We all know I love a good guy, well this one takes the cake. All of the cake. To say I adored this book is an understatement.
Loved the hero!
Great narration on the audio by 2 of my favorite narrators. Very original storyline; complelling; couldn’t quit listening!
The blurb caught my attention but I was hooked from the first page. This was such a beautiful story born from tragedies suffered by both the hero and the heroine. I cried for Brynn and I cried even more for Cassidy, then I cried for both of them. With words beautifully and hauntingly written, this story didn’t just tug at my desensitized heart. My heart was broken for the main characters and even a few side characters. This is a spoiler free review, so I won’t tell you if Regnery put my shattered heart back together. I will say that even though it is only the early days of January, I know for certain that Unloved is going to be one of my top five reads of 2020.
*This wasn’t an ugly cry for me but I shed many tears throughout the book and I wouldn’t change a thing.
See my review in French here
UNLOVED is my first book from Katy Regnery.
I’ve heard wonderful things about her stories, so I was really happy to receive this ARC.
This book is amazing, one of my Best Reads so far this year, and it won’t be the last I’ll read from this author.
It has it all: drama, angst, great characters that will stay with you long after closing the book, lot of tenderness and passion, and a perfect pace.
The story is told from a double POV, which I love, and I have to say that some scenes are hard to read, but I really appreciate when a story seems realistic, and Cassidy’s background is quite dark, therefore, I believe it fits.
So, you’d ask me “why 4 stars (which is a great rating), and not 5 stars?”
I’ll explain it: yes, this book is amazing, like I said at the beginning of my review, BUT (yes, there is a “but”), it would have been perfect (to me) with a different ending.
I would have preferred HOPE instead of FATALITY.
So, keep in mind that UNLOVED is absolutely wonderful, you will fall for Cass, for his heart and his soul, that’s for sure.
So go, grab this book, read it and after that, we can discuss the ending, every reader has their own opinion but the only true here is that Kate Regnery knows how to write heartbreaking and sizzling love stories, and I can’t wait to read her next book!
***ARC kindly provided by author via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review***
Visit my French blog: https://isalacroqueusedelivres.wordpress.com
I devoured Unloved. Cassidy and Brynn were such ‘real’ characters that I couldn’t help falling in love with them and their story. I identify with characters whose lives haven’t been perfect. And for these two life hasn’t been roses and sunshine. They certainly earned their happily-ever-after!
Life’s Greatest Treasure
I was pleasantly surprised that I actually won a copy of this book in a Goodreads’ giveaway. My thanks to the author. I had not read any of Katy Regnery’s work before. The book cover and title make a compelling presentation and I found myself opening the book and I was in until the conclusion. Of course, silly me, behind the times as usual…this book was published back in 2017 so many of you have had the delightful experience of reading this story.
It is a story filled with horror and grit, stymied emotions, and…facing painful truths. Despite all of this, it is a wonder-filled honest-to-goodness “love story”. It had me rapt throughout and I devoured the book. Now that is some entertainment borne out of solid writing skills!
At the heart of the story is our heroine, Brynn who is languishing in grief two years after her fiancé was killed suddenly in a mass shooting. She is on a quest to say goodbye to her departed love by leaving the last little piece of him she has on his favorite mountain to climb, Katahdin in Maine. It is here she collides with Cassidy.
Cassidy had the misfortune to be the son of a psychopathic serial killer. He is a good boy and grows to be a good, smart, resourceful man. His mother brought him as a child to an isolated “homestead” where he lived in isolation with his mother and grandfather until they passed. They both drummed into his head that because he was the son of someone with psychopathy, Cassidy may experience the same madness himself sooner or later. They made him promise that he would stay away from society, live quietly in isolation and never have children.
From the first he beheld her countenance; Cassidy was enchanted by Brynn. He rescued her from a sadistic attack, carried her down from the mountain, stitched, dressed and tended to her extensive wounds. Brynn needed to heal before she could be moved again. She finds herself completely dependant on and in total isolation with Cassidy.
Cassidy is written to really melt your heart and steam up your reading glasses. The unfolding of this conflicted man who resigned himself to being “unloved”; and the dance of attraction and love between Brynn and Cassidy is beautifully written. The eroticism is a benediction to the impossible love they have for each other which cannot be denied.
Every good love story or fairytale has an element of improbability. I thoroughly enjoyed the resolution of Cassidy’s impossible situation. I could not read fast enough at the end and could not would not put the book down.
I encourage all lovers of romantic literature to read this gorgeously written book. It speaks to healing, trust, a pure heart, first times and life’s greatest treasure, love.
Quotes:
“Anyone with half a brain loves romance novels, and the rest are lying.”
“Suddenly, I have this existential notion that there can’t be a me without a Cassidy. This thought isn’t romantic or poetic. It just . . . is. But it’s solid and real, and I don’t mentally recoil from it. In fact, I lean into it . . .”
“You are, and will forever be, my life’s greatest treasure, and I will still be loving you on the day I die, Brynn Cadogan.”
Ohhh I think this is added to one of my favorite Katy regnery books shelf. I LOVED how the story unfolded and the twist at the end. Narration was great.
I was so taken by this book. I really enjoyed this love story. It was full of excitement and even murder. I loved how the author let me feel the main characters passion and fears. I want to read more from this author. This book won’t disappoint! I will remember this story.
A lovely, very appealing, sensitive hero!