Then we had the third act conflict that happened at 57% of the book. A conflict caused by the main girl's depression and the ISSUE that the guy had with it because of his mom. After having LOVED this author’s past two novels, it pains me that I cannot say I loved this one as well. But I can say some other *stuff*, so here goes... I will say the story seemed to lose steam in the final chapters and the ending was off the rails (in my opinion). Still enjoyed it immensely and I think fans of this author will too! So why not a higher rating? I still felt there were some unanswered questions and the need to suspend some disbelief. I also felt the ending was a little rushed. But overall an enjoyable suspense/thriller/mystery. Finn has moved away from his cottage with Layla to a new home in Simonsbridge. After a long grieving period, Finn moved on to other relationships before falling for Ellen, whom he has just gotten engaged to. But Ellen isn’t just any woman, she’s Layla’s older sister. Ignoring the gossip from those who remember the story of Layla’s disappearance, Finn and Ellen have created a wonderful, happy life together.

So what really happened the night Layla disappeared? Could she really be alive after all of these years? When she's not teaching or writing, Kristen is reading, tripping over something, indulging in her messy love affair with popcorn, and annoying h Kristen Granata is a bestselling romance author known for writing inspirational, emotional stories with realistic characters who struggle through the darkest parts of life and come out stronger on the other side. But even though I enjoyed it there were things that I didn't like all that much. Mostly the pacing of the story that sometimes felt a little too rushed. Like the heroine was constantly having these events happen one after the other, like break ins, fight clubs, and family drama. It made it feel never ending and from one problem to the next there wasn't enough time always to really see the effects. And then there were the real life author references that honestly felt really weird. The heroine and hero reading together was really cute but bringing up an actual book by Kandi Steiner and even going into detail about it was just odd in my opinion. Mine. I will do everything in my power to protect her, to never let her feel an ounce of pain ever again. She’s mine, and I’m hers. Nothing will change that, and nothing will take her from me ─whatever may come.” I stab the air with my finger. “You could’ve done better. You could’ve tried harder. Anything! You could’ve done anything except for killing yourself. How could you even think of doing that?” My own cheeks are wet now as I toss the words at her like daggers. “Phoenix, I can’t be with someone like you.”Now, I get it, okay? Depression is different for everyone, and I understand that the author had gone through something similar.

Wow. This book has left me speechless. Heartwarming, beautiful, emotional, and spicy. I truly did not know how much I needed this book until I was reading it.” -ARC Reader The beginning of this book was good. Nothing special really. Just one of those romance books that you read really fast, enjoy most of the ride but it's nothing memorable enough to make it to your top list. There also seemed to be a lot of “telling” and not enough showing. I wanted to see more events unfold But, as I’ve said before, there are too many books in this category competing for readers attention, and many of them who did not have the benefit of a big publishing push could easily hold their own against this book. The psychological thriller category is too saturated, in my opinion, and Paris is going to have to really step it up a notch to stay relevant in this genre. This one is okay, but it failed to wow me. What sealed the nail for me, however, was when the FMC informed the MMC of her suicide attempt and he flipped out on her and blamed her for her depression. He belittled her, called her weak and selfish. He told her she hadn’t tried hard enough, and that he can’t “be with someone like her.”I could go on but I will just annoy the fans of this book and this author so I will just chalk it up to not enjoying the writing style. The ending was interesting but I was left thinking “really, this is the answer we get”, it just was not plausible. I’m willing to suspend belief for a while, particularly with thrillers, but this was just not worth the effort in the end. Honestly, that's ALL I COULD THINK when I was finished this book. Doll. Doll. Doll. Doll. Russian Doll. Dolls. DoLl. dOLL. doLl. RusSiAn dOlL. DOLLLLLLLLLLLLSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. When Finn’s girlfriend Layla vanishes one night he’s left devastated. Like being frozen in time, he’s been unable to move on for years. Part of the problem… he can’t quite remember all the circumstances behind her disappearance. I was captivated from the beginning of this one, I couldn’t put it down. It was a one sitting kind of read! I found myseld relating to each character in one way or another. The mentions of mental illness’s are described so perfectly as well, it’s a true picture of what it’s like to deal with mental health issues. There are three Queens in my Emotional Romance castle, sitting on their thrones side by side in all their power and glory: Colleen Hoover, Brittainy C. Cherry and Kristen Granata.