I really admire Jared and Aly's relationship, and I am a sucker for childhood romance/first loves reconnecting and falling in love. I also admired how Jared is so protective of her, and how he's the typical bad boy with a dark past that she thinks she can change. The intimate scenes were sweet, and it was beautiful to see how he opened up to her, and she allowed him to really feel somethig again. This story line seems like it would be typical and cliche at first, but there's something about these characters in particular that sparked my interest and I couldn't put this book down. I also really loved the chapters from their past because it gave us more to Jared and Aly's story and gives us sweet little snippets of different things they experienced growing up together. I also really loved how A.L. Jackson showed both Aly and Jared's perspectives and alternated it every chapter.

I wasn't going to give this book 5 stars until I read the last 3 chapters. The ending was shocking, intense, unexpected, and totally worth reading the entire book for. My mouth actually dropped open when I was reading one of the final scenes and something I did not expect happened. I could not be more excited for the sequel with that amazing ending!

The only problem I had with this book, is sometimes it felt a little repetitive. Jared would constantly say "I don't get to have this. I am not worthy. I ruin everything I touch" and different things like that and it honestly got annoying to me after so many times. I get that he's very self destructive and he has so much self pity, but chapter after chapter sometimes it felt like he was repeating the same things over and over and I got frustrated with that.

Other than that, this was a beautiful, touching story and it is now one of my favorites. I would recommend it to anyone who loves a good love story.