A devastating event destroys the Mexico vacation of a couple and causes life altering effects for years to come. In this emotional novel, the lives of three people are examined, finding secrets, lies, and huge fissures.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Debbie Johnson really weaves beautiful stories. The first one of hers I read, Maybe One Day, was packed with intense emotion: love, heartbreak, grief, PTSD, etc. It’s actually, in that respect, not too different from the core of this one. A traumatic event rips two people apart. Many years pass as they live separate lives, but the feelings never fade and the potential for a happy reunion sustains both the characters and the readers.

However, there’s a definite twist to this story in that it’s a love triangle. Harry and Elena have been together since college and have taken a trip to Mexico; in her mind, to figure out if their relationship has run its course or if this time together will help them reconnect. When disaster strikes as Elena has just met Alex, the course of their lives is thrown off-kilter. Circumstances occur and decisions are made, whether through guilt, pity or perhaps love, that force them all to give up on their dreams and expectations and forge new paths.

It isn’t until a decade has passed that a documentary on the anniversary of the moment Alex and Elena met stirs up painful memories and forces all three of them to face the past that they’ve buried. Sometimes people do “the wrong thing for all the right reasons” and the time comes to make painful, but inevitable decisions about what the future might look like if they have the courage to be honest with themselves and each other.

Johnson is a masterful storyteller. She deftly weaves a stunning love story from the ashes of disaster, drawing characters who are flawed but have the best of intentions. She’s delicate and respectful in her handling of grief and survivor guilt, and navigates the lives of her characters in a way that helps her readers find empathy for all of them and hope that they’ll each find their happy ending. Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from William Morrow Paperbacks through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

A trip to exotic Mexico, it’s what Elena Godwin has saved and planned for for, well, what seems like forever. She’s hoping the trip, which she’s taking with her kind of immature boyfriend, will add some much needed excitement to her life. That excitement comes in the form of an earthquake, and the nightmare that follows, changes Elena forever.Ten years later, she still can’t get the . man who saved her life that night. And when fate throws them together again a decade later, Elena is forced to question everything about her life since that fateful night