THE ONE YOU FIGHT FOR was another solid read in the The Ones Who Got Away series and I find that I’m still invested in these characters and their shared story. I’ve done a little bit of rounding up to 4 stars and I’ll explain why towards the end of this review.

What I’m enjoying about the stories in this series is that each pair of main characters is different from previous ones, their shared story is also unique so I don’t feel that I’m reading the same thing again and again. In this book, Taryn comes to the fore, the professor, researcher and lead champion for change and prevention of school shootings. She’s a serious but compelling character and yet I quickly wanted her to find a life, some me-time and a guy. Shaw is every kind of easy and every kind of hidden complication that Taryn does and doesn’t need. The chemistry was palpable and the power cut was something else.

I was cheering for these two and I loved their easy fall into companionship but I had some moments of difficulty with the convenience of the wrap up of the story. I felt that Shaw’s whip-lash emotions and change of mind was a little quick and unrealistic. Just a little more time was needed over this element. However, I did enjoy the story overall and I am waiting for the next book and character with some anticipation.

I voluntarily read an early copy of this book.

Reviewed for Jo&IsaLoveBooks Blog.

I've heard a lot about the series The Ones Who Got Away and so was eager to read this latest installment about the survivors of a high school shooting. These books take place well into adulthood of a group of survivors and I thought this a unique plot for a romance series that allowed a more in depth and sensitive approach than what we would normally see in contemporary romance. In The One You Fight For the two main characters are intimately linked even before their romantic relationship began. Taryn not only survived the shooting, she also lost her sister that night. And it was by the hands of Shaw's brother.

While I thought the matters surrounding the repercussions of the shooting were handled well, I can't say I particularly liked any of the characters. They all grated on my nerves and I didn't understand the supposed pull between Taryn and Shaw. I just didn't see it and the physical chemistry was also seriously lacking. I struggled with every romantic scene they had.

I do commend Roni Loren for tackling a tough issue in a romance book and doing it without romanticizing it or using it as a ploy. That alone deserves a star.

This series keeps getting better and better. Two families, one tragedy, with different consequences and outcome. Yet, Taryn and Shaw unite in their pain, loss and feelings. They also burn up the sheets!

Roni Loren pulls the emotions out of the deepest parts of your heart and you can’t help but feel the characters’ joys, losses and everything in between. The survivors really rally around each other and provide immeasurable support.

Very enjoyable.

*ARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

The One You Fight For is book 3 in the series, and may just be my favorite so far. Taryn & Shaw's story was unique and so enjoyable, even though it's centered around a heavy subject. I will admit it took me just a little bit to get into the story, but once I was pulled into it I couldn't put it down. The epilogue wrapped things up and tied up loose ends, but I almost wished we got a glimpse into their lives further down the road than what the author have us. I love this circle of friends and look forward to reading Kincaid's story. I also wouldn't mind a Rivers story some day, just sayin'!

Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Another great novel by Roni Loren. This author has uncanny ability to write emotionally charged characters with incredible chemistry and depth. This time around she writes a story about a women on a mission to put policies in place at schools to prevent mass shootings. Her sister was killed when she was in high school by a classmate. Our heroine meets Luke at a bar and they built a lovely romance that grows with mutual attraction and trust. It does become a bit complicated once he finds out who she is and what it would mean to his carefully crafted life. But love wins in the end and they learn to heal and put the past behind them. Great story.

Roni Loren's series about a group of school shooting survivors is sensitively and intelligently written and confronts the emotions and complications involved in forming a relationship for these women. But it is never schmaltzy or melodramatic. It also has some interesting commentary on the issue of guns in the US. The characters are individual and well-drawn and the chemistry between the protaganist and the male hero is excellent. Highly recommend.

**I voluntarily read an early copy of this title courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher**

When I started "The Ones Who Got Away" series, Roni Loren was a new-to-me author and I was so happy to have found her. That feeling has continued through the second book and now into the third.

Tragedy struck Long Acre over a decade ago and while Taryn Landry survived when gunmen opened fire during the prom, her sister Nia, and many others did not. Following the shooting, Taryn made the decision to dedicate her life to making sure that things like this never happen again. Taryn became a psychology professor and along with making the decision to follow this passion, she also unknowingly put every other part of her life on hold, including her love life.

Shaw Miller was a guy who had everything going for him. He was training for the Olympics in hopes of making the team was the unthinkable happened - his brother opened fire at a high school prom. His brothers actions not only ended his hopes of representing his country, but really his life as he knew it was over. Shaw was in many ways guilty by association. Because they were brothers, people automatically thought Shaw was going to do something as horrible as his brother had. Because of this, Shaw changed his name and his looks and did everything he could to distance himself from who he used to be.

When Taryn and Shaw meet at a karaoke bar, it's obvious the attraction is there, but they part ways that night expecting never to see one another again. The universe sees it differently and they are pulled back together again, although neither one has any idea of the part the other played in the Long Acre Shooting. When everything is revealed will these two be able to deal with it and move on together or will it tear them apart?

Roni Loren had a very difficult job with the topics in this story and I thought she handled them so carefully and wonderfully. Both Taryn and Shaw harbored a tremendous amount of guilt and they both had very difficult decisions to make when the chips were down. They had both been through so much and the way that Roni Loren went about each of them working through their own issues was so well done.

This is one of those books that is going to stay with me for some time. I didn't want to put the book down because I was so anxious to see how it all played out. This was a wonderful addition to this already fantastic series!

This series has quickly taken a place as my favorite current contemporary romance series, and The One You Fight For features a couple that seems like one of the most unlikely, difficult pairings that I've read yet. Not in that they are difficult or unlikable individually, but the way in which their pasts are connected seems insurmountable. Naturally, it's a romance novel, so it's not, but reading the ways in which this pair navigate said past and find their way together is a worthwhile trip.

I needed an angsty read that I was sure to enjoy. Loren did not disappoint. I have loved every story in this series centered around survivors of a school shooting. Taryn, the heroine, by some weird circumstances befriends Shaw Miller, who’s brother was the Long Acre shooter. They shouldn’t be friends or more. This was a take on forbidden love and I LOVED every moment of it. I was in incredibly invested Taryn and Shaw’s love story and on them finding and fighting for their HEA.

I think I have mentioned in every review for the books in this series that I recognize that the content is incredibly heavy and not for everyone. But if you can handle the premise, I think the payoff is worth it. There is one more friend in the group that hasn’t gotten her HEA and I will be curious to see if she gets her story.

Taryn and Shaw, Roni Loren proves that she can again nail the slow burn as their attraction to each other is complicated by their experiences of the shooting. It’s “should we/shouldn’t we” with a side of “I can’t, but damn I want to.” For me it is annoying, but I understand we cant all have fluffy easy books, and this by far was that.

This was a 3.5-4-star read for me, an unnecessary twist late in the book diminished the experience. but Still, The One You Fight For is brave and raw and a solid story!

PNR BOOK LOVER REVIEWS

This third installment is one of the best of the series. While school violence is a very difficult subject, Loren tackles it with sensitivity. The story never devolves into tear-jerking tragedy or emotional manipulation. All the emotions from the characters are earned, and the story reaches into many different facets of grief, all while plotting a beautiful love story about two characters who have a bit of a forbidden love thing going on, but also an intense friendship and belies their attraction. Highly recommended.

Roni Loren weaves a masterpiece in the latest addition to The Ones Who Got Away series with the latest book, The One You Fight For. I admit that I am new to Loren’s work and therefore did not know about this series. I read this book (the third) in the series first, and was able to understand the events detailed in previous books. This book is more amazing than I can relay. I don’t know that I have ever been more emotionally invested in a book before.

The One You Fight For centers around Taryn and Shaw. Both are living lives built around a single incident in their past. This tragedy has driven both, but in different ways. Taryn has dedicate herself to the study of Psychology and ways to prevent school shootings. Shaw, on the other hand, has abandoned his Olympic dreams to live a life of solitude. Both suffer from guilt stemming from the shooting - one as the sibling of a victim and the other as the sibling of the school shooter.

Taryn and Shaw meet at a bar one night. There is an instant attraction but Shaw disappears before anything can happen. Their romance is a journey for Taryn and Shaw as individuals and as a couple. It is painful and sweet. It is clear that Taryn and Shaw care for one another but Taryn struggles with admitting the relationship to her parents and friends. Shaw, does not believe that he deserves a love like he has with Taryn and so he tries to protect her. If there was one book couple that I knew deserved a HEA, it’s Taryn and Shaw. Although they survived the actual shooting, their lives after the shooting were significantly impacted by the events of that one day.

Roni Loren’s writing is emotional and thought provoking. The book is so masterfully crafted that you can’t help but feel empathy for both characters. Loren is able to have the reader look at the lasting impacts of school shootings, but from different perspectives. This book was a journey of the heart for me.

You should purchase The One You Fight For as soon as it is released….just make sure you have tissues on hand. I laughed, I cried because I was happy, and then cried because I was sad and then just cried some more at the HEA. This book is an amazing love story with characters that face emotionally raw realities. Don’t miss out on the book of 2019!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I will also be buying all of the books in this series. Roni Loren can count me as a new fan!

Oh, the feels! Words fail me how much I loved this book, but I'll try to tell you anyway. I'm in serious book hangover mode from The One You Fight For by Roni Loren.

I know I can count on Roni Loren to create great characters whose path to true love is never an easy one. She casts her stories with real people facing significant issues, not billionaires or rock stars. Their conflicts are real & painful.  They are easy to fall in love with and very hard to forget. Her stories are among the handful I read again and again (Nothing Between Us & By The Hour, just 2 examples. )

Shaw Miller & Taryn Landry should be all wrong for each other. His youger brother killed her younger sister 14 years earlier when he shot up a senior prom. But they are drawn together from their first meeting, where they exchange assumed names. Shaw is a wounded, haunted man convinced he was at least partially to blame for his brother's rampage (revisited also  in books 1 & 2 of the series). He avoids people except for his bud, River, & lives like a hermit, avoiding people. Dr. Taryn Landry is a research psychologist who has devoted her life  to developing a program to identify and help at risk youths. She understands clinically what made Joseph Miller do what he did, but has locked up her heart. Both Shaw & Taryn harbor a secret about that night.

Shaw & Taryn recognize a kindred soul in each other & fall in love in what is a mesh of Romeo & Juliet meets Beauty & The  Beast. Their path to HEA is heartbreaking & wonderful. Ms. Loren makes every word count in this beautifully written story.

It's a stand alone but read the first 2 for the pure enjoyment.  Told in 3rd person POV, you get the story from both Shaw & Taryn.

Arc provided by Net Galley.

This is my favorite of the series thus far - so emotional and full of obstacles for the heroine and hero. Writing about a school shooting victim later getting involved with the shooter's brother presents a unique challenge, but Roni Loren handled all of the ups and downs perfectly. Taryn and Shaw's journey is one well worth taking. I so look forward to the next installment.

I really like this series. I think overall the writing was good and the characters sucked me in like usual. I did get annoyed with Taryn's parents for a lot of the story. I liked the relationship between her and Shaw and I think it was an easy read. I will read more from the author and hopefully the series.

The One You Fight For is the most emotionally gripping of the series so far, as it deals with two kinds of survivor’s guilt more than a decade after the Long Acre high school shooting.

With Taryn and Shaw, Roni Loren proves herself a master of the slow burn as their attraction to each other is complicated by their experiences of the shooting. It’s “should we/shouldn’t we” with a side of “I can’t, but damn I want to.” This was a 5-star read for me, until an unnecessary twist late in the book diminished the experience. Still, The One You Fight For is brave and raw and chillingly relevant.

4.5 stars

I have read the first book of this series and enjoyed it, so I was happy to read and review “The One You Fight For” by Roni Loren. The brother of a school shooter and the sister of his victim are definitely an odd couple, but it works. The happily ever after proves that forgiveness is possible even if the hero in this story really didn’t do anything that needed forgiving, A five star read for me.

This book, like the others in this series, is very emotional. This author has a way of making you feel like the actual characters, therefore living the tragedy they've experienced. It's a remarkable talent and probably one of the biggest draws to this series.

Taryn is one of the survivors of the Long Acre massacre/tragedy. It's been years of not only personal reflection, but trying to help prevent such an event from ever happening again. Due to years of living with not only guilt, but a secret at that, she's still struggling to just....live. That is until she walks in to bar. Sounds like a pick up line, right? Nope. But it's definitely a night that will change everything.

Shaw is one of the survivors of the Long Acre massacre/tragedy as well. But not in the same sense. You see, his brother was one of the shooters that day. The day that his entire life changed and took on a new course. One that didn't include his dreams of being an Olympic athlete. One that forced him to change his name, location...pretty much everything about himself. But when his best friend asks for his help, he returns to the one place he never thought he would. And then he walks in to a bar....

You know that moment you're reading a story and you know the poo is gonna hit the fan, but you're waiting...and waiting...and waiting? Yeah, that's not the case with this one. Although the poo definitely hits, it's not exactly "drama filled". These two characters, although both still dealing with their own personal issues, were still able to help each other. And who would have ever thought that these two would be together? But it works. It works well. And it's a beautiful thing to watch blossom.

reviewed by Chris

Having read the first two books in this series prior I was eager to get my hands on Taryn’s story. As with the first two books I felt like the story was told in a sensitive manner while also remaining as authentic as possible within the bounds of fiction. I have to say that I did struggle for some reason to really get into the story as much or as quickly as I did with the first two. It wasn’t the main characters as I liked them both. I think maybe the dialogue, particularly when discussing the tragedy of the shooting, seemed a little stilted or rehearsed and there was just some sort of disconnect there for me. Like this is what they should say if they felt like this, not necessarily what they would actually say. I also felt like we didn’t get enough back story with Shaw’s parents to really appreciate what happened with his relationship with them. I felt like his background was otherwise well rounded but there was just this gap in his history. Its possible this is what the author was going for to portray his family as being broken, I just personally wish there was a little bit more about them, even just a ‘where are they now’ element even towards the end.
So with these thoughts in mind I had a small break, (around 5-7 days) where I put it down and didn’t pick it up again. I was keen to finish it but wasn’t quite feeling it. I’m so glad I picked it up again and didn’t just put it off because once I started again it was like it just clicked and I was hooked. I felt like the way things played our rung true and was really happy with how things were all brought together. Taryn obviously had some serious things that needed to be said to her parents, you could feel how much she loved them while also feeling like she was trapped and barely living her own life. I thought this part of the dialogue and these difficult conversations were handled really well. You could totally feel for both sides given this horrific trauma they’ve been through as a family. While some things were sad to read and had my heartbreaking it made it that bit more authentic.
Another thing I loved about this story was that we did get to hear Shaw’s side- ie: the family of the killer(s). I have often thought how awful it would also be on this side of the crime. While its possible there are the killers who come from horrific families and you see a clear cause or development of this behaviour this is not the situation in most cases. More often than not they come from normal families. What is normal? Well for a start a normal family isn’t perfect, there is no such thing. We all come from varying degrees of broken families in one way or the other. But trauma doesn’t automatically equal psychotic or violent behaviour. Two people can go through the exact same experience and come out the other side completely differently. This is where the subject of nature vs nuture comes in and I think the book touches on this well when it says rather than one or the other it seems like its a combination of both as well as many other different factors (experience, isolation, entertainment, non-communication, support etc) that play into someone acting in this unspeakable way. The guilt Shaw experienced I imagine is often the case of such families and how truly sad for them. They also have lost a family member and then its as if they have lost the right or ability it seems to even grieve because there emotions are so clouded by these horrific actions. There are so many victims to such a crime directly and indirectly and the fault really only lies at the feet of the perpetrators.
This series has had me thinking of this subject a lot more than I possibly would have otherwise and I do always like when a book can do that. Its written with sensitivity and compassion with the underlying individual love stories that help it to not be completely overwhelming from its core subject matter.
*Thanks to Netgalley, publisher and author for ARC*

Every book in this series is stronger than the last.

Taryn and Shaw have both lived their lives since the Long Acre shooting devoted to horrifying event. Taryn has worked hard on a program to make sure another shooting never takes place and tries to keep her family together after the devastating loss of her sister. Shaw struggles to make sure that he remains hidden from the world after his brother's horrible actions. They both carry so much guilt and loneliness. It was a relief to see them find each other and start to emerge from the horrible fog they had been living in.

Loren does a great job of adding moments of levity that keep the book from being way too heavy. The moments that the friends get together always provided a chuckle or two.

I did wish for more from the ending. I wanted some things to have a more solid resolution even if it meant another 50 pages. Really, there can;t be a Roni Loren book that is too long for me anyway,

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and am already eagerly awaiting book four in this series.