Author: Garrett Leigh
Series: Forgiven, #1
Imprint: Carina Press
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Romantic Leads: Male/Female
On-Sale: January 25, 2021
Format: eBook
Price: $4.99 US
ISBN: 9780369700100
High school sweethearts Mia and Luke get a second chance at love in this brand-new contemporary romance from award-winning author Garrett Leigh.
When Mia Amour returns to England to open a florist shop, all she wants to do is put her lousy ex behind her and never look back. But getting a fresh start is easier said than done when her first love, the boy who once broke her teenage heart, strolls back into her life. He’s every bit as sexy as she remembers, and the urge to melt back into his arms almost makes her forget how devastated she was when he took off without a word. Almost.
Left with no choice, Luke Daley did what he had to do, leaving town to earn enough money to save his broken family, though it just about broke him, too. But now he’s back, running his uncle’s business and trying desperately to forget about Mia, the girl he left behind all those years ago. When he runs into her in town, the shock of seeing her again brings an intense rush of emotions: love, guilt…and an overwhelming urge to find out if it’s still as amazing between them as it used to be.
It doesn’t take either of them long to give in to desire and discover the fiery passion they once shared burns hotter than ever. With each new touch, each moment of forgiveness, old hurts heal and the future they’d hoped for ten years ago becomes possible again. But their fragile connection is tested by a threat neither of them saw coming—a threat that could end their second chance before it even gets started.
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Excerpt
Mia Amour. Her name had haunted me so much my bunkmate had once found me sleep-scrawling it on our cabin wall. He thought it had meant something—that I was writing a message from another dimension in a language he didn’t understand—but the reality had been far more simple: even on the other side of the world, I couldn’t get her out of my head.
Somehow, though, over time, I’d forgotten what her eyes did to me. How they could root me to the spot with a single glance and empty my mind of anything but her. Mia. I counted my heartbeats as they thundered in my ears. One, two, three, four. And then she tore her stormy blue gaze away from mine and walked out of the chip shop.
I reached for the empty space she left behind, and my faculties slowly returned to me as her footsteps echoed in my shell-shocked brain. As drawn to her as I’d always been, I drifted after her, but when I got outside, she was gone.
A thousand emotions warred in my gut, but the age-old frustration was so familiar I felt sick. Fucking Mia Amour. Deep down, I’d always hated her as much as I’d loved her, because there was no one else on earth who could make my heart pound like she did, my palms sweat, and my fingers tremble.
Cursing, I hauled myself back into the van. Gus followed a moment later, an open bag of chips in each hand. “Where’d you get to? It was your turn to buy tea.”
I tossed him a crumpled-up fiver. “Why didn’t you tell me your sister was in town?”
“Oh fuck.” Gus held out a bag of chips, then set it on the dashboard when I made no move to claim it. “Are we really doing this?”
I gave him a flat look.
He sighed. “Fuck’s sake. Why would I tell you? You two aren’t exactly friends, and you haven’t been a couple since I was fourteen and nicking Mayfair Lights from her school bag.”
Shit, had it been that long? Why was it that just a glimpse of her face could set me back a decade? The weight in my chest increased and I started the van, gunning the rickety diesel engine with a roar. “Either way, a fucking heads-up would’ve been nice.”
“But why, though?” Gus pointed a chip at me. “You want her number so you can catch up on old times?”
I wondered if he’d actually give it to me. Then pictured myself calling Mia and her reaction to hearing my voice for the first time in ten long years.
A legit shudder passed through me. I was done torturing myself for putting my family first, for giving up my entire life to keep a roof over my mum’s head, but that didn’t make the obvious anger in Mia’s eyes easier to bear. Her temper had fascinated seventeen-year-old me—sometimes I’d wound her up on purpose, just to revel in her flushed skin and sharp tongue—but I didn’t have the stones to take it now. My Mia angst tolerance was at an all-time complacent low.
“Luke?”
I spared Gus another glare. “What?”
“Can I eat your chips?”
What I thought about Forgiven
Mia Amour returns to her home town about to sign divorce papers on a marriage no one knows about. She's trying to put her life back together after running to Paris to get over her heartache and family situation years ago. But she's back now and doesn't know at first that the young man who broke her heart years ago is back in town and that her brother Gus is working for him.
Luke Daley ran away too. He left for the Navy without even a good bye to the girl he loved. He's got a bit of a communication issue, being one of those silent types who doesn't have an easy time of connecting to his own feelings.
But as soon as Mia and Luke get in each other's orbit, the sparks start flying.
This second chance romance brings it on a number of levels that I really like in Garrett Leigh's work. She knows how to show those emotions -- the ones on the surface as well as the deeper feelings that people keep hidden, and Luke and Mia have buckets of both. It's clear they need to be together -- it just takes a while for Mia to truly forgive Luke for running all those years ago. And Luke needs time to understand just what Mia needs from him.
In between figuring out their own issues, petty vandalism strikes Mia's new flower shop and a car is seen stalking them all to some potentially disastrous results. There is also a very intriguing subplot regarding Luke's brother Billy and Mia's brother Gus. I really can't wait to dig into their story which is the second book in this series.
Mia and Luke's story is unique in that these two really want their second chance but it takes a while for them to get out of their own way. Their propensity to want to argue throws some roadblocks in their way and there was quite a few times that I just wanted to throw my ereader because they were so close to making progress on their second chance.
As a US reader, I love the language in this story and feel like I'm transported to another place when reading it. I absolutely adore this about Garrett Leigh's stories and the best part of anything I've read from her in the past. There's a certain charm to her writing that pulls me in and gets me invested in the story quickly. I know I'm in for an emotional ride when I read a Garrett Leigh book, and Forgiven did not disappoint.
Forgiven is an emotional second chance love story between two people with lots of baggage to unload before they can move on, even though they have plenty of sparks in the bedroom. I enjoyed this story of love re-ignited, especially because both of the characters needed each other. There's plenty of family drama, too to add spice to the story.
An ARC was provided by the publisher. This is my honest review.
About Garrett Leigh
Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer and book designer.
Garrett's debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards.
When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible, all the while shouting at her menagerie of children and animals and attempting to tame her unruly and wonderful FOX.
Garrett is also an award winning cover artist, taking the silver medal at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in 2016. She designs for various publishing houses and independent authors at blackjazzdesign.com, and co-owns the specialist stock site moonstockphotography.com with photographer Dan Burgess.
Connect with Garrett Leigh
Website:
http://www.garrettleigh.com/
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5893561.Garrett_Leigh
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/garrettleighauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Garrett_Leigh
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garrett_leigh/
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