I went into this expecting a heart-wrenching, angsty love story about soulmates reuniting after twenty years—complete with a dramatic meeting during a bomb explosion. While I love second-chance romances, this one didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

For starters, the timeline was a bit confusing, and the premise wasn’t entirely accurate. Ben and Clara, high school sweethearts who parted ways, didn’t actually spend 20 years apart before reconnecting. This threw me off and made it harder to fully invest in their story. Additionally, I struggled to connect with both characters and their love story, which felt more tumultuous than romantic.

The book tackles a lot of heavy topics, including suicide bombing, rape, alcoholism, mental health struggles, grief, cancer, IVF, and manslaughter. While these are important issues, the sheer number of them felt overwhelming, making it difficult to fully process and engage with the story.

Clara, in particular, was a challenging character for me to like from the start, which further impacted my enjoyment. Rather than feeling like a heartfelt second-chance romance, this book felt more like a portrayal of mid-life crises and flawed, often unlikable characters.

That said, the story is raw and honest, showing the messy realities of growing up, making mistakes, and trying to find hope amidst life’s chaos. While it didn’t fully work for me, it may resonate with readers who appreciate deeply flawed characters and heavier themes. I’m giving it three solid stars for its emotional depth and authenticity, but it’s not a book I’ll revisit.

A great second chance romance book, that is so much more than just a romance book. A really great read.

This book was not what I expected. It dealt with a lot of sensitive topics and overall I couldn't connect with either of the main characters. I did like the dual pov and would read more from this author in the future. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this one
⭐⭐⭐

The One That Got Away: A Novel by Charlotte Rixon is a perfect fit for readers who adore sweeping, emotional, and romantic stories that explore the complexities of first love, tragedy, and the power of second chances, and are willing to embark on a journey of self-discovery and nostalgia.

I wouldn’t have classified this as a romance. It was heavy and slow and we didn’t really get the opportunity to believe the characters were in love. The back and forth time line gave more depth to the story, but their relationship spanned 20 years.. so it started to get messy to pay attention to the timeline. I mostly felt sad for the characters and wasn’t interested in all the drama.

I received an advance review copy for free via Netgalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book really makes you FEEL!!! I had lots of misty eyes and several tears. Not just from a sad event, often just because the level of emotional I was feeling for a scene was just so strong, it overflowed. I haven’t stopped recommending this book.

This book hit hard, maybe due to personal reason, we all have one that kind of got away right? I loved everything about this book.

Unfortunately this one was just not for me. I thought both characters were unlikable, immature, and had major self worth issues. I tried the audio version and thought it was painful so it is a DNF for me. Sad.

It’s a book that annihilates you from within, slowly breaks your heart into so many pieces you’ll need a minute to pick them all up, and then it simply stuns you into silence with one of the most unexpected, soul-shattering book moments in history. I’m stunned. So loved it.

This book has a different quality about it that makes it very easy to read and make you think about it after you put it down. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

I have loved Charlotte's books in the past so was excites to see how she would change genre, but this was not a disappointment. Another addictive and intereating read, just of the more comforting rather than disturbing variety!!

In all honesty, I expected this one to have some sort of romance in it. It's far from it. It's a second-chance romance trope, yes, but it subverts that genre so well and so much that I cannot possibly put it in that category. There's a lot of heavy stuff discussed in the book: abuse, SA, addiction, cancer, and mental health to name a few. I loved that the book was in dual POV, and I also really loved Benjamin's character. Overall, the book was a nice twist on the usual second-chance romance, very hard-hitting and real as compared to a lot of the books in this genre already, and for that, I loved it!

This was a fun read and I definitely recommend it!! Thank you to the author and NetGallery for this arc

I was lucky to receive an advance copy of The One That Got Away by Charlotte Rixon from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review and opinion. WOW this book will take you breath away and have you feeling all kinds of emotions. Not going to lie, I had tears rolling down my face as I finished it. It's a fantastic love story and is so well written. Read this the first chance you can, I promise you will not be disappointed.

This was such a fun read! I can't wait for more by this author. I would absolutely recommend! If you are looking for a book to get you back into reading. This is it!

I'm a sucker for stories about lost or unrequited love, so this one immediately appealed to me. Benjamin and Clara meet in 2000 while attending university in Newcastle. They have an instant attraction and connection. Twenty years later, they're no longer together, but Clara feels drawn to find Benjamin, worrying for his safety after a terrorist attack occurs at the stadium of his favorite team. I loved the dual timeline, in the early 00s when they were together and 2022, when Clara goes to search for him. The characters are very sweet and charming. It highlights those loves we have in our lives that we never lose affection for. I listened to the audiobook, which was wonderfully narrated by Carl Prekopp and Katherine Press. They brought wonderful life into the story.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for providing this ebook / audiobook ARCs. All thoughts are my own.

This was a heavy, emotional read that was well written and respectfully broached. I felt a bit drained by the end of it, but in a good way if that makes any sense? Not what I thought it would be but enjoyable nonetheless

This book had a great premise and I was very excited to read it. Wouldn't we all like to know what happened to "the one who got away"?

We started off strong but unfortunately my attention decreased towards the half way point. An easy read but not a memorable one, in my opinion.

This book deals with some incredibly heavy topics at times but never seems to lose its sense of optimism and consistently feels like a gentle, slice-of-life kind of story.

In this story, we follow Benjamin and Clara, two people madly in love during their time at university who had their happy ending ripped away from them. In the very loosest sense of the term, this story is a second-chance romance about the way that a horrific event brings them back together but don't go into this book looking for romance in the present timeline as it is a lot more about the way that the traumatic event causes them to reflect on their pasts and re-evaluate what they want in the present.

The timelines do jump around a little bit as we follow Benjamin and Clara 20 years ago when they first meet, throughout their relationship, and then through the spanning years taking us right up to the present. Their story is not always told chronologically though as the reveal of what wrenched them apart doesn't come into almost the end of the story.

This is a book that is likely to hit quite close to home with a lot of people as there are topics of mental health, trauma, assault, generational trauma, and more. Beyond that, this is a book that reflects on, well, the idea of the one that got away which I feel like a lot of people can connect with, regardless of how happy they are with their present.

I found the writing of this book to be utterly compelling and the story was crafted marvellously so that the reader never felt as though there were too many unanswered questions at one time but rather every reveal was shortly followed-up with nudges towards the next mystery of the story. I also thought the red herrings were masterful as a palpable sense of dread is created as the reader waits for their suspicions to be confirmed.

I don't understand why this is advertised as a romance as it definitely isn't one. Based on the description, I was expecting something easy to read and uplifting, yet it was actually the opposite due to it being filled to the brim with troubling themes. There were so many big topics packed into 330+ pages and I, personally, feel that not a single one of them was handled or written well. Character-wise, no one really stood out to me and we didn't get to experience any progression or growth in their overall character arc.
Nothing like what's described in the blurb and not one that I would recommend picking up.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.