My first book of 2019 was The One You Fight For so it seemed fitting to select The One for You as my first book of 2020. I've been in love with this series from the very first book — The Ones Who Got Away. I loved how each new book gave me the story of a character (or a couple of characters) I met earlier in the series. I'll admit I was unsure when I picked up the first book. I'd only ever tried to read two other books that involved a school shooting and I had to nope out of both of them. But the way Roni approached these characters and their stories was nothing short of magnificent. Sure, there's pain and loss from the past, but it's the hope of the present and future that connected me with them immediately. 

I loved the first three books, but I was anxious for Kincaid's story. I'm so glad we got it. I don't like to play favorites when it comes to books in a series, but Kincaid and Ash might be my favorite. Their unrequited love/friends-first romance gave me all the angst and feels. A small word of warning about this book, however. If you've read the previous books, you know there isn't a lot of the past on the page. At least from the night of the shooting, at any rate. That... wasn't the case in The One for You. It wasn't glorified and I thought the story benefitted from having it, but it did take my breath away. I sat reading with tears streaming down my face. I wasn't expecting to watch it play out in detail. It added a whole other level to my experience.

The end of a series is always bittersweet and The One for You was no exception. It was maybe even more bittersweet because of the overall story in the series. I got to know these characters and watch as they learned to deal with the past and move forward as survivors. It was beautiful. Each book tugged at my heartstrings. But this one probably more than the others combined. Especially when it came to the epilogue. I cried like a baby. I tear up just thinking about it months later. I wasn't really ready to say goodbye to these characters, but I can't think of a better way to do it. This book brought a beautiful close to a unique, emotional and hopeful series. 

Favorite Quotes:

"I wanted a world with both of you in it. Turns out, I ended up with one that has neither."

"Hope is the thing that hurts the most. It's the thing that makes people make plans even though we have almost no control over whether that plan comes true." 

"You sure you're not going to get tired of me? I've heard I'm best in small doses."
"I've never been more sure of anything in my life. You, my love, are best in really big, superintense, lifelong doses."

"We weren't ready for each other then. We wouldn't be the people we are now if we had gotten together so young. We would have messed it up. You needed to get the idiotic cowboys out of your system to realize bookish dorks are totally where it's at."

Ronnie Lauren absolutely positively definitely never disappoints. Her novels Illicit such an emotional connection that I simply cannot imagine not enjoying one of her reads. This novel had everything- it was a tearjerker it was emotional it made me laugh it was sexy I recommend this 1000%.

Now that I’ve arrived at the end of Roni Loren’s conclusion to her four-book series based on the adult survivors of a Texas high school shooting, I can confidently say that, with Molly O’Keefe’s Crooked Creek Ranch series, Loren has written one of the best contemporary romance series of the past ten years. Though #4 wasn’t my favourite (my heart remains with The One You Fight For) it was a most satisfying conclusion. The One For You tells the romance of two of Long Acre High’s shooting’s survivors, prom queen beauty Kincaid Breslin and her best friend, Ashton Isaacs. Cue sixteen years. Ash returns to Long Acre from NYC (after having left soon after the tragedy, abandoning Kincaid) to stay with his deceased friend’s parents, Grace and Charlie Lowell (his ex-fiancée left him homeless). Ash is a globe-trotting successful writer and the opportunity for some down time to let the Muse have her way with him is welcome, even in the town he’d hoped to never see again … and the friend he can’t forget. Meanwhile, wrong-side-of-the-tracks Kincaid is now a successful realtor and in the midst of clinching a sweet deal on a charmingly dilapidated farm house … except, like most things, Kincaid can’t resist the call of the broken, so she buys it instead, hoping to juggle job and renos and start her own B’n’B. Like estranged friend Ash, Kincaid is still close to the Lowells; their son, one of the shooting’s victims, was her high school sweetheart. The Lowells own Long Acre’s sole bookstore, but decide it’s time to sell and retire. They ask Ash, who’s staying in the bookstore’s upstairs apartment, and Kincaid, to spruce it up and put it on the market for them.

Herein lies one of The One For You‘s weaknesses: the plot lines are thick, deeply rooted (this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, except for one flaw), and convoluted. Kincaid and Ash, both easy to like and root for, have a long and complicated history, and the shooting isn’t the only tie that both binds and estranges. Though Ash has had an exciting career and plenty of girlfriends, heck, even a fiancée, his heart has only ever beat for Kincaid. She, the golden hair and statuesque beauty, is stuck in her only-love-was-her-hs-sweetheart-and-he-died phase, going from guy to guy and never seeing herself committed and in love. Except for her friend Ash, whom she still loves. She’s hurt, though, when he left and never looked back. Kincaid is “someone a person could walk away from without looking back … she wasn’t worth staying and fighting for.” (A woman whose lack of family growing up helped her make her own, with the three woman whose friendship she cherishes and who were the heroines of the first three books, Liv, Rebecca, and Taryn.)

When Grace and Charlie ask loyal Kincaid and loving Ash to groom the bookstore for sale, neither can deny them. But this means Ash and Kincaid will be thrown together and those pesky unanswered physical and emotional calls will get louder and louder. Like many a friends-to-lovers romance, Ash and Kincaid foolishly believe they can have all the benefits of familiarity and attraction, be lovers, and put a finis sign on their affair.

As Ash and Kincaid’s affair plays out, and beautifully too, with great banter, affection, a meeting of minds and souls, a real talent for kindness, and smoking-hot attraction, we also get to piece together their past and the fateful night that changed their and the town’s lives. I could see why Loren had to structure her romance with a double narrative of lengthy flashbacks and present affairs. It deepened her characters and lent weight to their conflicted feelings. I, however, found the device clunky because while I LOVED present Ash and Kincaid, I found the flashbacks to their high school selves flat. I rushed through the flashback chapters to get to adult Ash and Kincaid. The flashbacks should have lent poignancy to the present, but they made the novel feel like 90210, or The OC, which I know many readers may have loved. I’m not one of them.

What I loved, though, was Kincaid and Ash, wonderfully tender, loving people, funny and smart, playful in the bedroom, supportive and affectionate, out of it. It’s easy to imagine them happy together. They bring out the best in each other and promise a marriage of equal and true minds when their HEA rolls around. I have to say the dark moment and subsequent reconciliation/epilogue were beautifully handled: not too long-drawn, no Big Mis, honest conversation, hurts exposed; wrongs, corrected. I loved it and the epilogue, a perfect ending to a wonderful series. With Miss Austen, we say we’re sad to see the series go, but we’re looking forward to seeing what Ms Loren will write next. As for The One For You, it offers “real comfort,” Emma.

Roni Loren’s The One For You is published by Sourcebooks Casablanca. It was released in December 2019 and may be found at your preferred vendor. I received an e-galley from Sourcebooks Casablanca, via Netgalley.

It is no secret that I love second-chance romance and The One For You ticked all the right boxes for me. Not only that, but this book is also an unrequited romance! And it’s the hero that’s been crushing on our gal for since they were kids!

I’ve also been waiting for Kincaid’s HEA since I read The Ones Who Got Away because she was the brains of their little group and basically rounded up all the girls and helped them heal 10 years after the school shooting that scarred each of them.

The One for You ticked at my emotional heartstrings and I really feel for Ashton. He was the typical geeky bookish guy crushing on his best friend who happened to be popular! To complicate it even more, Kincaid was also dating Ashton’s best friend, so he couldn’t even make a move on her.

I love the conflict between Kincaid and Ashton’s second-chance romance because of the complication of Kincaid’s ex-boyfriend and an event that happened after the shooting.

The One for You really brought this whole series to an amazing close. I loved getting a peek at each of the ladies and their HEA. I don’t really want to leave this series and I am so happy that each of the books got better and better as the series progressed.

I highly recommend this series if you haven’t read it already. Trigger warning though, this series deal with high school shooting survivors and there are scenes/flashback scenes of the characters during the shooting.

This book was slightly disappointing, and was not up to the same quality as the other books in this series. I liked both main characters, but the whole thing seemed underwhelming.

I have to say, despite my love for this series, I was dreading reading Kincaid's story as I knew it was the end of the road for this beautiful series. It's always bittersweet to end an amazing series and say goodbye to characters that I fell in love with from book one and who feel like good friends. This series has been amazing from start to finish. For a premise that is very sensitive, Roni Loren wrote this story with beauty and grace.

While all these stories can be read as standalone stories. I would highly recommend reading them from book one. If you're just coming in on this one, this series surrounds four friends who weren't friends in high school, but after a dance that ended in the death of their classmates, it formed an unbreakable bond.

Now, we've reached Kincaid's story. I have to say I had a feeling her story was going to make my chest ache something fierce since after reading this series I could tell she was carrying around a lot of guilt. Despite her fun, friendly, and loving nature, there have been hints behind her happy go lucky mask. The night of the shooting she lost her boyfriend and then later her best friend. She can't remember anything from that night and doesn't know how to cope with the loss of everything. When she comes face-to-face with her ex-best-friend she's overrun with a lot of emotions.

Ashton has been in love with Kincaid for a long time. I have to say this story held a lot of mystery on Ashton's end since he wouldn't tell Kincaid what happened that night or how he was involved. When the truth comes out it was beyond heartbreaking. I felt for him and I am such a sucker for friends-to-lovers stories. Roni Loren always does an amazing job with any trope and this one was no different.

The romance and love and friendship and just overall story didn't feel rushed or fake or anything like it. It felt real and heartfelt and you could see the progression of the feelings as they gradually grew.

That epilogue was beautiful. I cried, like a lot and just loved everything about this story. I was happy our beautiful ladies got a happy ending with guys that loved them. I couldn't have been happier with how this story ended.

This whole series is an absolute must-read. I have a great love for Roni Loren's stories so I may be biased, but this is a great series to start her books if you haven't already.

I haven’t read all the books in this series and I plan on going back and reading the rest. This series is based on an awful event that brought this group of friends together for the anniversary of the school shooting they survived.

I love childhood friends romances. Kincaid puts on a good front of letting others think she’s the most ok. She is doing her best to move on with her life. Aston is a sexy book nerd who has always had feeling for Kincaid. He tries to be what she needs at the time and puts his feelings on the back burner.

I enjoyed watching these two come together. Roni Loren has done a fantastic job with these books. I imagine it was hard to write about such a hard subject, but she done an amazing job writing these stories.

First time reading a Roni Loren book. The One for You is book #4 in The Ones Who Got Away series.

When I started, it felt like I just slide into the story and as I go further into it, I care and relate to the characters very much. I liken it to a good car ride at cruising speed. No nasty plot twists, just wonderful character development and excellent story progression.

It’s a great standalone despite being the last book in the series. Appearances of characters from the previous books didn’t crowd things, nor is there a nagging feeling that I should read the others to understand Kincaid and Ash’s story.

I guess this is a story of childhood friend(s) coming to terms with their shared past as (now) grownups. Don’t want to give away too much details about the plot, go read it!
5-star steamy romance

Great characters and good set up!If you're not aware of the premise of this series, it tells the story of four friends who survived a high school shooting when they were younger. Each book explores the impact of the event of their lives as well as their journey to finding peace.This might be my favorite from the series.I've been waiting for Kincaid's book and so happy that it was well worth the wait.It was an emotional read!

I really enjoyed the first book in this series but have not as yet picked up the middle two books. That didn't matter, though, as this could have been read as a stand-alone. Kincaid is great, but Ash stole my heart, and I especially loved that a bookshop and letters were central to their romance. There were plenty of laughs, too, to lighten a story based around survivors of a school shooting. I will definitely be catching up on the two books in the series I haven't read yet.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

A fantastic finish for this series! While this series has been an emotional read, it’s so worth it. The way the author has written these characters and their stories makes me hurt for them in the grief and cheer for them in their triumphs. These stories remind me to cherish my friends.

If you enjoy contemporary, small town romances, I encourage you to pick up this series. While this could be read as a stand-alone, I recommend starting with the first book.

A bit late to the party but Roni Lauren is great, this I the second book I've read from this author and all the covers are so steamy

"We've got you, girlie. We've always got you."

While yes, this is a romance novel, one of my favorite things about this series is the strong, supportive, healthy friendship the four women who tie these books together have for one another. They are 100% for each other, whether it means supporting a crazy idea or stopping them drinking too much and getting too frisky with someone, they just want to see each other happy and loved. It is a beautiful thing to see when so many novels paint toxic female friendships.

"I don't need you to seduce me, KC. I just need you to surrender."

It is a romance novel though and Kincade and Ashton have one of the greatest unrequited-second-chance-slow-burn loves around. It is hot. It is complicated. It is touching. And after three books of watching Kincade help her friends get their Happily Ever Afters, it was a joy to see her get her own.

Now I'm just left wondering...
Will we get a novella or something for Marco (the vet)?

The storyline was well written and the characters were so well created that as I turned the pages Kincaid and Ashton pulled me right into their journey as it effortlessly unfolded!

This one was a more difficult read, which is evident by how long it took me to finish it. It’s the story of a couple with a complicated history, which I usually love, but this one is SO complicated. It’s all tied to their school shooting that each of these books in this series is about. But this one gets into more detail about the tragedy itself, which made it difficult to keep reading, at times. I had to take an occasional break from it. The overall story is ok, and it wraps up the series very nicely. I do love a hot nerd, though, so thus story definitely had that going for it! Thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The One For You was a great conclusion to this series by Roni Loren. This series is about four high school friends (Liv, Rebecca, Kincaid, and Taryn) that survive a high school shooting. The final installment focuses on Kincaid, who up to this point has been a cheerleader and matchmaker for her three friends since reconnecting with them ten years after the high school massacre.
Kincaid reconnects with her high school best friend Ashton, who she worked with in a bookstore. Unbeknownst to Kincaid, Ash was secretly in love with her, but Kincaid was in love with Ashton's best friend Graham. Graham's family owned the bookstore that Kincaid and Ashton worked for. Unfortunately, a tragedy changes all of their relationships and they end up growing apart because of grief until they reconnect as adults years later.
Overall, this was a great series that details love and friendship between Liv, Rebecca, Kincaid, and Taryn. I enjoyed this book and was happy to see Kincaid and her friends find love, healing and friendship.
ARC provided by publisher through NetGalley.

I love a Roni Loren book. I have either purchased or reviewed every book in this series of standalones. This author is an auto buy for me. Great job.

Ashton's character was my favorite of the series. First time around Kincaid and Ash were the best of friends and always there for each other. After the shooting they lost each other but once they found each other again it was more than obvious they were meant to be together. I loved the flashbacks. The love notes were another favorite of mine. Kincaid's attitude was perfect for getting Ash out of his moods sometimes. Great read.

Such a fabulous, heart-wrenching read! I absolutely enjoyed it!! A fantastic end to a well-written series.

This book had so many aspects to it that your emotions are taken on a roller coaster. There were friendships, love, death, heartache, abuse, and many more I know I’m missing.
This author takes a terrible day in the lives of students like far too many towns in the world today are facing and shows that with group grief meetings and friendship with other survivors that bonds can be healing. Making you stronger. Not only as an individual but as a group.
For KC and Ashton, there were truths about their wonderful friendship that needed time to heal and be revealed even to them. Due to hurt feelings, the shooting from the trauma, and sheer grief and survivors guilt cast a huge net. The decade-plus gave them each time to grow, process, and see everything from a different perspective.
Although, Ashton had no idea KC was missing some pieces to the puzzle of that night. Ashton and secrets, he felt guilty about he knew she wouldn’t remember due to circumstances.
KC is a fly by the seat of your pants kind of girl, impulsive don’t think dumb blonde you’d be wrong.
Ashton reserved think once think twice then still maybe kind of guy and that’s what made them work. Home-body type.
Their friendship means everything to KC so when he disappeared a little over twelve years ago, she was lost. See how they make it back to each other and to how they can be more like themselves.
I give this: 5++++ stars. Provided by netgalley.com. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com.