Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for my advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Molly is in Italy, anxiously waiting by her husband Leo’s bedside where he’s recovering from a critical injury. While she’s relieved that he’s woken up and is seemingly on the mend, she’s anxious because he’s lost his memory and she’s not sure she wants it to return. While Leo is thrilled to have Molly by his side, he clearly has no recall of the past few months of their marriage that were most definitely a long way off from the earlier honeymoon phase of their relationship that they’d enjoyed.
Alternating between 2011 and 2015, the story unfolds and we slowly learn about how the extremely unlikely relationship between wealthy, privileged Molly and ‘wrong-side-of-the-tracks’ Leo, develops. It doesn’t help that he’s Aborigine and that her parents completely (albeit unfairly, and quite arrogantly, as is the way of the obscenely wealthy) blame him for the death of their only son, Molly’s brother, Declan.
The attraction between the two is immediately evident, despite their vast age and class differences, the clear opposition from Molly’s family to their relationship, and the fact that Leo is a hardened war correspondent who spends more time dodging bullets in war-zones than he does shopping in the aisles of the local supermarket. Of course they throw caution to the winds and against all odds decide that they’re going to make things work.
I plodded through Molly and Leo’s story – their budding romance, their marriage and all it entailed, Leo’s injury and recovery – but I’m still not entirely sure that I actually liked either of them! Despite the fact that both of them knew what they were getting into I find their lack of maturity and their pure selfishness quite breathtaking!
Does Molly really give up all that she ‘thinks’ she gives up to marry Leo? I really don’t think she did, to be honest – and you’ll have to read the book to find out what I mean because I’m not giving anything more away about that here.
In the end though, the remaining idea that you could get the chance to discover someone again and build your relationship differently is most definitely an appealing one. That second chance is something that so many people wonder about, and Kelly Rimmer explores that possibility here quite realistically.
This is bound to be a popular choice for many. I give it 3.5 stars.
Jan's Book Buzz 
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