Back to Us

I absolutely loved this book.This is a fun little read i just loved Zee and Colt and enjoyed getting to know them.You wont want to put it down a fantastic read would recommend to all.

really liked this book

Seriously, I love this book! I was completely hooked from the beginning. Colt and Zee are perfectly flawed, and there wasn’t a minute I wasn’t rooting for them! Ms. Gabriel does a perfect job blending together this story of heartache and love everlasting.

When Colt returns from a journalism assignment with memory loss, he returns to Zee, the love of his life. While he was held captive for months, she is what got him through. Memories of her, of them are what gave him the strength to survive. Only, when he returns, he finds out she is no longer his. He can’t imagine a world in which they no longer love each other. While everything else in his life is up in the air, he knows one thing for sure...he must find his way back to Zee. As the story continues, he manages to find strength and become Zee’s strength, but will they ever really be able to overcome the struggles that forced them apart in the first place? Will he ever even know what those struggles were?

Zee, a successful business woman and child of a celebrity seems to have it all...or does she? This past year has been incredibly hard for Zee both personally and professionally. Her solution? No men. She will focus on her business and that will have to be enough. This plan seems to be working until she returns home to find an unexpected man in her bed. Things continue to get worse when she discovers this man, Colt, thinks she is expecting him and they are still in a relationship that ended poorly years ago. Zee has a heart of gold and can’t send Colt on his way without helping him. As much as she would love to fall back into their relationship, she knows why it ended and why it won’t work again. Unfortunately for Zee, Colt is not the only problem she is currently facing. Her life seems to be spinning out of control. Will Colt really be able to help her through, or is her heart bound to be broken yet again?

The secondary characters in this book add a lot to the story as well. I loved Max even though I was a bit frustrated with him at times. I hated Ginger, Zee’s mom. However, the drama she creates provides a much needed backstory as to why Zee is the way she is. And I have to admit, I’m still a bit undecided on Phlox and Jared. Ms. Gabriel is a new author to me, so I didn’t know this was actually the second book in a series. Luckily for all of us, this is still perfect as a standalone. I, however, am now very curious about Jared and Phlox so I’ve already purchased their story Next to You and downloaded their additional short, Pink Diamonds (which is currently free on Amazon). I can’t wait to read them both!

Overall, this book was a complete success. It included fantastic characters, lots of drama, and a bit of mystery. My only complaint - I want more! I’m not sure who should come next, (perhaps Cherise?) but the story definitely needs to include Colt and Zee so I can see more of them! I would also be thrilled with an additional short for them. Perhaps it could focus on how everyone reacted to the big news?? Either way, we need more, Ms. Gabriel!!

A huge thanks to NetGalley for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for this honest review. I’ve got a new author to watch!

This was originally posted on www.NovelMomma.com

I loved this book i was hooked from the very first page and I couldn't put my kindle down while reading this book and when i was not reading this i was thinking about what was going to happen to the characters, I loved the romance in this and i will be reading more of Julia's work in the future

Back to Us, Phlox Beauty Series Book 2, Julia Gabriel
Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:  Romance, Women's Fiction

I loved Julia's DRawing Lessons and Chiarascuro, but somehow I missed the first book in this series, featuring Jared and Phlox. They appear in this book too as secondary but important characters and I worked out much of their backstory from that but its a book I'd like to read. sometimes. when the TBR list drops a bit....

So even though this is a second in sereis its a stand alone, and it didn't matter I hadn't read book one.
I really enjoyed this story, felt so much for both characters and as before Julia doesn't just stick to a standard romance of man meets woman, they fall in love, have a hiccup and then a HEA. No, Julia adds more and that's what makes it perfect for me.
Its not just that Colt and Zee were in love four years ago, not that they are perfect for each other, but that they somehow lost their way, had a big breakup but after being captured and tortured Colt had lost huge chunks of his memory, including the fact he doesn't live with Zee now....

Poor Zee comes home after a busy day, crawls into bed, only to find Colt in it. Colt who she's not heard from in four years after living with him for a while and he left!
What a huge shock..and then he explains and she feels for him, but won't open her heart again, it took her too long to recover the first time.
Since then she's had more issues with her love life, when her lover who worked for the company she and best friend Phlox own sabotaged it, and nearly brought it to collapse. Its taken hard work and money to keep things going, and somehow Zee feels all the blame, has lost confidence in her judgement so has sworn off men.
And then Colt comes back, and she can feel him all over again, feel how right for her he is. Still, the reasons the broke up were solid, she can't let herself go that route again. 

Colt goes to stay with Max, her grandfather and the man who inadvertently brought them together.
He was Max' writing professor, and there's still a lot of respect between them. Colt has literally just left hospital and doesn't know where he lives, doesn't have access to his bank, which was emptied by his captors, so is in a really hard postition. As well as the memory loss, he's physically weak from being beaten and starved and having a badly broken leg.
The trauma has left him with nightmares and he keeps losing bits of the present, such as forgetting where he is, right now. Its clear he can't live alone so Max takes him in, although he's away for a few days.
The first night he has a terrible nightmare, and in desparation somehow phones Zee, who collects him, takes him home and he ends up staying there for a few days til everything is sorted.
Of course Zee can't stay in bed when she can hear him screaming in terror - who could, and slowly he works his way back into her heart.

She won't tell him why they split up though, still trying to keep him at arms length and like Colt I was desperate to know. And when we did find out I was heartbroken for her, even though knowing Colt's background I can see why he made the decision he did.
We all think time is limitless when we're young, that there's another chance, another time. Carpe Diem is a good motto, who knows what's round the corner?
Trouble is when its two people who have different priorities for right now, different things they want to seize on the day. 

Poor Zee, still working long days, trying to assuage her guilt over the sabotage, trying to put things right even though it wasn't her fault, and now she's more pressure with Colt back in her orbit.
He's determined to wear her down, to get her back. he knows that for him she's it,. and now he's a better sense of life priorities.
Zee can't trust he's changed though, and she's her own background issues to contend with. her mother is famous, an award winning actress and for much of Zee's life she was dragged around, tutored privately and following her mother as she worked on yet another film. Her only stability came from her grandparents and after her grandmother died Max is the closest person in her life.  

Its a book full of love, full of small and bigger dramas and one I loved. I was so wanting Zee to let Colt in, so understood why she didn't though and was engrossed in seeing how on earth Julia could resolve things for them. And she did, in a perfect way. 

Stars: five,a lovely story, sensual romance, with real issues and characters

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers