It’s been 20 years since Clara has seen Benjamin. When a bomb goes off at his local football arena however, she knows she needs to head that way to make sure he survived. Football has always been an issue in their relationship. Mainly that he went to every home game, and watched all the others while she hated it. This book delves into what brought these two together, what broke them apart, and if they will once again find each other.

This book was not what I expected at all but I truly enjoyed every second of reading it. Though Clara and Benjamin had a sometimes toxic relationship at the start (what college students don’t) I really loved following both their stories to find out how they got to where they are in 2022. Exploring the feelings of your first true love, what happens when it blows up in your face, and what continues to happen as you yearn for them for years to come.

PUB DATE:  TODAY!!! 8/15/23 by St. Martin’s Press
PAGES:  320
RATING:   4 stars
GENRE:  Contemporary Romance

A BIG Thank you @NetGalley & @stmartinspress for gifting me this Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for my honest review!

SYNOPSIS:  Benjamin and Clara meet while attending university and spend two years, head over heels together.  But one day while they’re dating in 2000, ONE mistake alters their life courses, and they spend the next twenty years apart from each other.  Clara marries a handsome man and has a wonderful job, but she is borderline miserable & feels unfulfilled.  She simply never got over Benjamin.  One evening in 2022, there is a bombing back in the city where they first met, and she goes in search for him to see if he is ok.  Was he at the scene when the bomb went off or will she live with regret all her life for not making things right?

REVIEW:  This debut novel by Charlotte Rixon was beautifully written.  It takes you on a journey of two people who fall madly in love and feel they are destined….soulmates.  There were times when I struggled just a bit with the FMC.  She was so intense, insecure, uptight, & demanding when she’s in the relationship with Benjamin in her early twenties.  Sometimes I just wanted to reach through the pages and shake some sense into her for her being so afraid of being alone and co-dependent on him, and for giving him grief all the time for loving football.  I also struggled with how incompatible they appeared to be, and so I juggled some confusion in how they could be true soulmates.  However, upon completion of this story, I realize it was intentional writing, and that when were all in our twenties, many of us were, or are, a lot of those things and make similar mistakes.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and had goosebumps at the end!  Get your copy as it’s out TODAY!

Happy Reading!

When Benjamin met Clara at university, he knew she was the one. But, two years into their relationship, they are forced apart by a horrible and devastating mistake. That mistake takes Clara and Benjamin in different directions. Fast forward twenty years later, Clara, a successful journalist in an unhappy marriage, is shocked to hear about a bombing in the city where she and Benjamin first met. Rushing to the city, Clara doesn’t know if he is dead, alive, or injured. Will Clara find Benjamin? What happened that night twenty years ago? And who is the bomber, and why did that person target the football (soccer for Americans) stadium?

When I read the blurb for The One That Got Away, I was mildly intrigued. I like books that span decades, and I also like when those books are recent with characters around my age. That is why I decided to accept the St. Martin’s Press widget. But now that I have read it, I am very unimpressed.

The One That Got Away is a medium-paced book that is set in the city of Newcastle in, England. The storyline for this book moved slowly. That slowness kept making me lose interest, and I had to force myself to keep reading.

The storyline of The One That Got Away is centered around Clara and Benjamin. This storyline was chaotic. It was a dual POV storyline (Clara and Benjamin). That is not what bothered me. The author did clearly label the chapters. What bothered me was that it ping-ponged back and forth in time. One chapter would be in the early 2000s, the next in 2023, then the 2010s, and so on. I couldn’t get a handle on anything happening.

I couldn’t stand Clara. When she was first introduced, I thought she was a little immature but chalked it up to her age. But, as the author continued with the book, I disliked her. She came across, even in her 40s, as immature and selfish. She constantly lied to herself, her friends, husband, and Benjamin. She ruined the book for me.

On the flip side, I liked Benjamin. He got the short end of the stick when it came to Clara. I also felt he was made so oblivious by love that he was willing to overlook her behavior. When the mistake happened, and Clara cut ties with him, I pitied him. But, in a way, his life turned out so much better than Clara’s. My only fault with him is that he didn’t push Aiden after the party, and something was clearly wrong.

This book’s storylines with Benjamin and Clara are so chaotic that I will not start explaining or unraveling it. I found some more well-written than others. I also wish the mistake had been revealed sooner in the book instead of being talked about and around.

The bombing storyline was maybe the only straightforward one in the book, and it shocked me. I was wrong about who I thought it was. I also was heartbroken over why that person chose to do what they did. Looking back, it made sense. I just wished that Aiden had told someone sooner.

The end of The One That Got Away was a HEA. Clara was finally living her best life after cutting some dead weight out. I disagreed with the romantic angle, but hey, good for them. I also loved seeing how Aiden turned out!!

I would recommend The One That Got Away to anyone over 21. There is language, nongraphic sexual situations, and violence. There are references to childhood sexual abuse, alcoholism, child abandonment, cheating, and attempted rape.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Charlotte Rixon for allowing me to read and review The One That Got Away. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

GENERAL INFO

Year Pub/Re Pub: 8/15/23

Book's cover: beautiful blue with hand holding

Format: e-arc

Source: Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. I voluntarily give my honest review and all opinions are my own.

Page Count:336

Setting: UK-Newcastle

Genre: NA, Women's Fic

Tropes: right person wrong time, 2nd chance

Standalone/Cliffhanger/Part of a Series: standalone

HEA/HFN ending: HFN

Epilogue Included: no

Character(s)POV Spoken: alternates between Clara and Benjamin

BOOK DESCRIPTION
Synopsis/Plot Summary: Clara and Ben met in college in 2000, were in love and meant to be for 2 years, then lies and insecurities separated them. In 2022, a mass bombing @ football stadium happens, and Clara wonders and worries about Benjamin-what if?

M/F-M/M-M/M/F-etc: M/F

Contains Cheating: yes

Contains Children: yes, Aiden-Benjamin's son

Flashbacks: yes, book goes between 2000- 2022

Amount of Sex In The Book: a few scenes

Overall Smex Rating: 2

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

Hero: Benjamin Edwards

Hero Description: 19, college student, shy, withdrawn, low self-confidence. Studying computing for business. Has sick mother w/ cancer. Played football until he was cut due to panic attacks. He and his father George have season tickets, go to every home game together.

Hero Likability Rating: 4

Hero loves books/writing: no

Heroine: Clara Davies Clark

Heroine Description: 17, college student in UK, wealthy family, starves to fit in. 2022, she's 41 unhappily married for 10 years, p/t sub-editor @ newspaper &writing a novel. Has an uncomfortable relationship w/ her mother. Younger sister Cecily had leukemia as a child.

Heroine Likability Rating: 4

Heroine loves books/writing: yes, she was an English major

Secondary characters:
Lauren-college roommate, still friends as adults

H /h RELATIONSHIP INFO

Endearments: CDC for Clara and Mr BE for Benjamin

OW/OM/Exes: Richard- Clara has a terrible one night stand while Ben is away.
Daniel-the boyfriend Clara followed to college and he cheated on her.

Cheating Before/During/Outside H/h Relationship: yes, 2000 Ben goes home for a few weeks, doesn't tell Clara why. She is very insecure, gets drunk, sleeps w/ Richard.

CONTENT WARNINGS/TRIGGERS: cancer, mass bombing, self harm, prison, rape, child neglect

AUTHOR OVERVIEW: Charlotte Rixon

New or read before & any favorites: new author

PERSONAL OVERVIEW

Overall Rating: 4

Do You Recommend This Book: yes

Will You Re-read This Book: yes

Would You Read More Books by this Author: yes

Comments: This is an intense read with many triggers. They all push the story forward though, without being graphic. It's not really mentioned, but Benjamin really suffered as a child. His coach physically abused him, and his father pushed his dreams onto him. I loved how Benjamin never treated his son that way. Aiden was definitely the best thing he ever did. It takes Clara a long time to finally admit she didn't love herself. She is impossible as a girlfriend, and tried too hard to fit in with friends. It takes being on her own to truly be happy. I'm glad their reunion ended in friendship and not a HEA. They both have been through so much together and apart, that they need time to rediscover each other.

I went into this one not knowing what to expect, but it was a solid character-driven novel that kept my attention the whole way through. A well-written story of love and loss, it kept me wondering how things would turn out for the main characters.

Told in multiple timelines, this book keeps the reader wondering what traumatic event tore apart Clara and Benjamin who met as university students and fell into a passionate love affair. The serendipitous way in which they met led each to believe they had found "the one" who was meant for them. Twenty years later another tragic event leads them back to each other. This may not be your typical romance story, but a lot of readers will be able to relate to the ups and downs of the relationship. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy to read and review.

While this was a mildly enjoyable read, it felt like it was about 578 pages long. With it actually being under 350 pages, and divided into what 5,6 parts? It was a bit brutal. Our MC Clara was totally unlikable. The unkindness and unreasonableness she displays to everyone in her life makes her absolutely one of the worst characters I’ve ever read. Benjamin was adorable, and very much preferable to Clara. I wish they stayed apart forever, honestly. Benjamin deserves better.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted ARC.

This book. This book was incredible. The topics discussed are not for the faint of heart, but it's so worth it. The Today Show even recommended it! This book is about true love, settling for what's in front of you, loss, heartache, depression, addiction, illness, and friendship. I didn't think I'd like this, but I really really did.

Please check trigger warnings before reading.

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for allowing me to read this early. Pub date is August 15th.

CHARLOTTE, you killed it with this one!

Oh I loved this book, the angst, the longing, oh so so good! Every single second was great. Clara and Ben’s stories and lives, we’re just incredible and written so beautifully.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this read. I read romance at times as I like a few authors and this was one that I wanted to try. I liked the synopsis and I put in the request. The book really makes you want to read it as it has a fairly decent flow to it. I wanted to know what happened and find out the why to their break up. If you look for books to root for people, this is one.

I started reading The One That Got Away expecting a romantic story of two people who rekindle their romance which started as first love in college. However, I was surprised by a novel that is a much grittier, unhappy look at a relationship that ended because of a tragedy and how those two people continue to think about each other until another tragedy reunites them.

I wanted to love this book, but I really did not like the female main character, Clara, and I just couldn't get past her personality flaws to believe the intensity of the love between her and Ben. Her character seemed selfish, manipulative and immature, which made Ben look weak and desperate--maybe this was intentional, though for me it didn't work.

I liked the multiple timelines and dual perspectives, which allowed me as a reader to see how Ben and Clara's first love impacted their futures so greatly, and I loved how the mystery of what caused the relationship to end was slowly revealed piece by piece. I think the book realistically portrays relationships, particularly unhealthy ones, and how people get stuck in chronically unhappy marriages with otherwise good people. It was much heavier subject matter than I expected.

The book was not the incredibly romantic saga that I was looking for, though I found it likeable enough as a family(ish) drama. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC of The One That Got Away by Charlotte Rixon. The opinions in this review are my own.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this book by Charlotte Rixon and wonderfully narrated by Carl Prekopp and Katherine Press - 4 stars!

In the present, it's 2022 and a bomb has just gone off in a stadium full of fans. In the past, it's 20 years prior when Clara and Benjamin meet at university and begin a relationship only to break apart. In the present, Clara is not quite happily married and Benjamin is raising his son. When Clara hears about the bombing, she fears Ben was at the stadium and drops everything to go there.

Told in a multitude of timelines and from the POV of both Clara and Benjamin, we learn about their relationship, their break up, and the fact that they could never let the other completely go. There are a lot of trigger subjects here, both past and present. Neither character is extremely likable, but they feel real. They behave badly, they make mistakes, they wish for do-overs. Sounds like real life. I really liked Ben's son - the best character in the book. The bombing was the opening scene and kept the tension high throughout.

Clara and Benjamin meet and quickly become inseparable in college. After 2 years together, they are torn apart. 20 years later another tragedy strikes, Clara goes in search of the boy she’s never forgotten. But is it too late to make right what went wrong in their past?

•Dual POV
•Spanning Decades but not chronologically.

I’m not going to lie to you this one was a bit hard for me to get through. If I didn’t have the audio to pair with in, it would have taken me a really long time. I think one of my issues with it was Clara. She was totally unlikable through the whole book and is honestly pretty delulu most of the time. Benjamin wasn’t as bad but I also just didn’t see the chemistry between them.

This also is marketed as a second chance romance but it isn’t one. We are looking back at their past and figuring out what happened to tear them apart and then what happened after they were separated. I won’t give spoilers away about the ending but there isn’t time in the book dedicated to a second chance. Finally this book just had a lot going on. It needed a whole list of trigger warnings at the start because this was not the romantic read I expected and was actually pretty dark and sad (not in the fun way).

Anyways, it didn’t work for me but this might be up your alley and is available today!

Thank you @netgalley , @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for my advanced copies.

While this book may be someone else's cup of tea, it wasn't mine. The whole concept of the plot was great, but I just couldn't connect with the characters. It was a slow read and I wasn't a fan of the characters, so I ended up not finishing this one.

Charlotte Rixon's THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY is a poignant, moving story of two lovers, in their "together time" during university, the events that tore them apart, and the present day with stops along the way when they reached out to one another, the one that knew them better than anyone else in the world. While I appreciated the character of Benjamin, I never did warm up to Clara, hating her in the past and the present, laughing out loud when she is called out for being a self-absorbed idiot in a writing class. I muddled through simply because of Benjamin and his son, wanting to know how a terrorist bombing impacted their lives and what happens when Benjamin and Clara meet again all these long years apart. I would hope that anyone would safely tuck away that one that got away and allow the past to be the past if they have not changed with time, still want to be that single-note individual in their early 20s before real life began. What did ring true for me were elders (especially Benjamin's father George, the children, the friends such as Lauren around the principals. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this story. I was expecting your average second chance love story. This is not that...well, not exactly. I DO know that I was riveted and didn't put the book down unless I absolutely had to (work, sleep, and feed the hubby, lol). There was a lot going on in the story, and the timeline jumps back and forth, which is usually dizzying, but for some reason, it worked for this story. Neither main character is totally lovable IMO and I was frustrated with them more often than not, but the story was about more than just these two people. From the first few pages, you are left trying to figure out who was responsible, and when you do find out, all kinds of heartbreak ensued for me. Be aware that there are definitely some triggering events in the story, so proceed with caution.

What had the potential to be a great story about a long lost love rekindled very quickly morphed into a tragic tale of two people, Clara and Benjamin, who couldn’t seem to shake themselves out of their own internal tragedies. 

I tried. I tried so hard to like either of them. Instead I found myself almost frustrated with the two of them for separate reasons but also the same reason. They were infuriating. Yes it was young love but it truly felt like they barely liked each other, and now you expect me to believe that their love has stayed as strong as it (barely) was when they were in first year uni? I just wasn’t sold. 

On top of that I wasn’t entirely keen on the time frame. The whole time we were given little nuggets of what ended up separating them in their final days of school, but I truthfully was over it at that point and was shocked that they stayed so complacent the whole time until then. The best way to describe what I felt about their relationship was that they were together because it was easier than separating; both putting the other on an unnecessary pedestal.

On top of the jumps back and forth in the timeline, we get a whole separate story of a bombing that somehow becomes the catalyst to bring them back together in a completely unhinged move on Clara’s part.

Clearly this was not the book for me. I was hoping for what the story was named after … “the One that got away” … and instead I was just wanting them to give their head a shake and get out of the past. 

This was similar to Normal People, so if you liked that and you’re ok with reading about a bombing tragedy, accidental manslaughter, and SA, then maybe this will be the book for you! Unfortunately it was not the one for me. 

2 ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this e-ARC!

As soon as I read the synopsis for this novel, I immediately knew that I had to read it. It promised a bit of everything that I enjoy in a good story, but what I ended up getting was so much more than I had ever hoped for.

The One That Got Away takes the reader over the course of a couple of decades in Clara and Ben’s lives. We get to see how they met in university, how their relationship developed, and all of the highs, lows, intensity, and drama that comes with young love. We also get to witness how they have lived their lives since university and how they had each moved on. The one thing that didn’t change was their love for one another. Despite all that had transpired between them, the choices, poor decisions, the years that had passed by, the changes in their lives, they still felt the love.

There was nothing easy about Clara and Ben’s story. Nothing at all. This story hurt. But I am a reader who is always drawn to the stories that aren’t the easiest. I want the real feelings that come with relationships: the heartache, the complications, the intense feelings. Charlotte Rixon has written a book that makes a reader feel. This book put my emotions through the wringer.

As soon as I began reading The One That Got Away, I knew that I was in for an all-consuming reading experience. It grabbed me right from the first couple of pages and kept me glued to the pages, wanting to discover what exactly had happened and what was going to become of the characters.

If you’re expecting a swoony, mushy love story, you won’t find it here. If you’re looking for a messy, intense, somewhat dark story with some difficult subject matter that will make you feel a gamut of emotions, this is the book that you’ve been waiting for.

The One That Got Away will definitely be on my list of favorite books of 2023. I am looking forward to reading more books by Charlotte Rixon in the near future.

*5 Stars

What a stunning love story! Not your typical second chance romance at all. I went into this thinking this is what this was going to be about but I was wrong! There was so much more in depth to the why behind it all that it has you guessing how it'll all end. I loved the dual POVs and it brought me back to my own "one that got away"...read this!

3.5 rounded up!

Before I start my review, this is marketed as a romance and it is not a romance. I’ve noticed this more and more for books being marketed incorrectly, but it’s more contemporary fiction! Sure, there’s romance involved, but we all know what it means to be a romance.

OKAY! On to the book. This is very much THE LIGHT ME LOST mixed with bits of ADELAIDE. If you enjoyed those books, I bet you’ll like this one. I didn’t really like the books I mentioned, but I liked THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY a tad bit more.

The characters experience A LOT in this book. I’ll list the content warnings below, but please take care of yourself if you plan to read it. While there’s a lot of realities in this story, the amount the characters go through make it a tad far fetched. In a way, it was sort of trauma jambalaya.

From a writing perspective, we learn both Benjamin and Clara’s POV, jumping between present day and back when they were at university together. It felt a little choppy at times, but I think the format helped build to shape the characters to truly understand them.

The more I think about it, the more I tell myself I liked it.

This is available Tuesday, August 15! Big thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC.

Content warnings: death, terrorism, bombing, child abuse, sexual assault, infertility, infidelity