This love story had a twist that I didn't see coming. Wren has just had her heart broke by her fiance that has fallen in love with a co-worker. She decides to leave the UK to visit her dad in the US. Little did she know she would find the love of her life. But neither her or Anders is ready for a relationship so they try with all of their might to not fall for each other. Anders older brother, Jonas and Wren's sister, Bailey help each of them along the way and Wren finally is building her relationship with her sister, dad and step mom. But will it be enough to get her through the tough situation she finds herself in.

I thought this book was going to break me, when I think it actually helped heal me. This book deals a lot with relationships and dealing with having you heart broken. Absolutely had be sobbing at some points, but it felt like I was healing with wren.

It seems that everyone liked this book more than I did, so maybe this one is a matter of "it's not you, it's me."

I wanted to like this story more. I thought it was an interesting premise, especially once the "secret" was revealed (though I did guess it ahead of time). My frustration was with the writing style, and this could be a matter of personal preference. But the writing seemed very choppy to me. Every chapter ended abruptly, feeling like a cliffhanger. The dialogue didn't quite feel authentic to me either. And I was distracted by these things throughout the book, which probably took away from my enjoyment of the story.

I also didn't love Anders as the male lead. He was fine, but I don't felt like we really got to know him through this story. So I was not really invested in his relationship with Wren and didn't feel a connection between them.

This one was sadly a miss for me, but you can find many other reviewers who had more positive thoughts, so it could be the right book for some!

Absolutely loved this romantic, heartbreaking, well-written story. It mostly takes place in Indiana, on a farm, and it was such a delight to read for me, as I was born and raised in Indiana, among the farms. Our main character, Wren, leaves the UK to spend time on her father's orchard while she recovers from a breakup with her long-time beau. It's here she runs into Anders on his family's farm, and her life will never be the same. Anders is hiding a bit of his past from Wren, and if he will only open up and share his heart with her, they could spend forever together. This story is touching, heartbreaking, and hopeful. I loved it, and will now read some of Toon's backlist titles for sure!

ONLY LOVE CAN HURT LIKE THIS by PAIGE TOON.
MAIN CHARACTERS : Wren, Anders, Jonas, and Bailey
POV : Wren and at end , once, Anders
Thank you to #NetGalley, the publishers, and author for giving me the opportunity to read and review #OnlyLoveCanHurtLikeThis with my honest thoughts and feelings.

REVIEW:

This book in my mind was a beautiful story. It is very sad and might be traumatizing for some, if they have been through a similar experience. But the story and characters are great. Paige Toon is a great writer and this is my first time reading her and it was great! I can’t wait to read her again! It starts out with Wren in a relationship and they’re engaged and soon to be married, but her fiancé has fallen in love with someone he works with, that they both know, and breaks off the relationship with Wren. He is devastated about it and tells Wren he is so sorry, but he and Wren had been in the relationship for awhile and they just hadn’t noticed that they both had changed and needed more. Of course, Wren is devastated and takes it not so well. She is living in England with her mother, lived there most of her life. But now, she heads to America, very near to Indianapolis, where her dad, stepmother, and stepsister live. She had to get away and she wanted to spend more time with her dad. So now was the perfect time to go. Once she gets there, her life changes drastically and it’s sad, hard, and painful at times, but there’s so much love. She can’t deny that. Again, great novel. It’s one of those you might put on the shelf and read again and again. There was some language throughout, but it’s spread out through the story and I just skipped over it, because it wasn’t too much and towards the end, there was some sexual content, but it was written in a pretty good and more proper way, not vulgar. So if you decide to read, Christian and people of faith, take this into consideration.

After reading a bunch of thrillers, I was in the mood for little romance. After reading a synopsis for Only Love Can Hurt Like This, I was so curious about the story that I was dying to get my hands on an advanced copy. I was beyond excited when I was approved!

I fell in love with all the characters, the landscape, the story…. All of it. I found so many facets to this story - swoon worthy moments, a lot of heartfelt family drama, and parts that will literally make your heart break in two.

It was just so good and it’s probably my favorite book of the year. So much so that I bought both my Mom and Mother in Law copies for Mother’s Day gifts.

Thank you so much to the publisher for gifting me an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This was my first read by Paige Toon, and it certainly won’t be my last!!

EMOTIONAL DAMAGE 😭
Oh boy, I rarely pull all-nighters anymore, but I could not stop reading this book! I flew through it, and it pulled no punches.

I love books like this, where they’re emotional and angsty but are also easy to read and entertaining. I think this story had a good balance of romance, friendships, family drama, and healing for many characters. I most often teared up at the scenes where Wren was healing her inner child and coming to terms with her insecurities. Our childhoods were totally different, and yet I still related to her so much!

I kind of sort of guessed the ‘secret’ in this book, but it did not take away from the overall shock factor. Usually, I’d hate something like this in a romance, but it is so well done here! It just made me think of people going through something like it in real life and hoping they can find peace and hope.

Do I wish there were more romantic scenes between Wren and Anders? Yes! But do I not?

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an ARC of this book!

I enjoyed this emotional, heart wrenching story! I did not see the twist coming (Anders’s secret). This book is a slow burn romance. It was difficult for me to get into it at first, but about halfway through, I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. I loved all the characters, became invested in them, and found myself rooting for them all to get their happily ever afters. If you are a CoHo fan, you will love this author, too!!

Thank you @netgalley and @putnambooks for giving me access to this arc in exchange for an honest review. 💕

Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paige Toon is Wren's story as she tries to find her way after another unsatisfying relationship. It may have been my mood at the time but I found it difficult to relate to Wren and so the book was less successful for me. That said, there are tons of folks that found this story extremely moving so I'd chalk it up to my specific views.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. Only Love Can Hurt Like This is available now.

This book was heartbreaking. I was very shocked during many parts of this book, but really enjoyed every minute. I thought Wren and Anders had such a sweet relationship and I loved the farm setting. Jonas was also the sweetest ever and be totally deserves his own book!

This story was a slow burn romance with some complicated relationship baggage attached for not only the main characters, but some supporting ones too. I thought the main character, Wren, was interesting, thoughtful, and intelligent. Her interactions with Anders, his family, and her family members were mature and realistic. She really went out of her way to have a positive impact on those around her. Anders and his brother had complicated histories and it was nice to see them work through those obstacles to find happiness. Anders’ backstory was truly heartbreaking and I felt so sad for him for much of the story.

There was a lot to like about this book and the last quarter of the book was lovely. Unfortunately, having to wait until about 75% into a book for things to start to happen is just too long for me to be fully invested and enjoy the story. The buildup and pacing was just too slow for my liking, and if I’m being honest, I’m not sure if I would have been able to finish it if I had not had access to the audiobook to push me along.

Thank you Putnam Books for the ebook arc copy and PRH audio for access to the audiobook version.

The editors blurb drew me in. Wren is devastated when she discovers her fiance is in love with someone else. Living in a small community means seeing the new couple and it is heartbreaking so she takes a break and heads to the US to visit her dad and his second family hoping to feel the love and escape feeling as if everyone is pitying her. She hasn’t seen them in a while and is in for a lot of unanticipated changes and surprises. What never entered her mind was finding someone to help heal be broken heart or the experience a betrayal by so many people that it would make her fiancé leaving her seem like a whole lot of nothing. I had no expectation of things to be all sunshine and roses for Wren as the would be boring, but it as she’d been through the rinse cycle over and over again, this seemed over the top and somewhat redundant. When she recognizes she’s the only one not in on the truth about someone she has opened her broken heart to only to find out that the collective thought was she would figure it out for herself and that they weren’t lying to her, just not telling her I was done. I found most of the people in this story unkind, unlikable, generally selfish. A lie of omission is still a lie. Then to wrap things up in a short ending rang false and was wholly unsatisfying to me.

Ahh, I love small town Mid-West farm life setting. I have been to Bloomington, Indiana a lot of times and Paige Toon has described this setting to the bone! She also packaged farm life intricately making the readers feel it to the core! From the hardships, weather challenges, long hours, family responsibility passed on from generations and the mental burden that is weighing down on everybody involved, not to add depression despite the beauty of preserving family history.

Both main characters Wren from UK who is spending a summer with her Dad and his family in Bloomington, IN and Anders , one of the brothers from the neighboring farm have previous relationships that they have a hard time getting out of. No one can deny their chemistry specially when they bonded over a vintage Aistream that were working on to bring back to life. Both are successful at their jobs, Wren and architect and Anders a race car engineer who happens to be a born farmer as well. This was a kind of summer love that Taylor Swift songs are talking about! It was so much that you do not mind to lose, and living for the hope of it all! Synopsis was telling about an earth-shattering secret and I was absolutely devastated and heart broken for our main characters when that twist came out! This book has live up to its title! Its builds you up fast, drops you down in a blink of an eye, shatters you to pieces, broken and bruised as you slowly and painstakingly put your heart back together for a hopefully sweet ending.

I love all the characters, I love the setting, I love build up and I love the ending! I want this to book in film, just exactly the way its written! Thank you Penguin Random House for the e-arc via Netgalley and e-audio via PRHAudio for copies in exchange of my honest review! I absolutely adore this story! 4.5 star! Less half a star because it has to end fast and I was not ready!

Loved this story! The characters were well developed and kept me wanting to read more. Is love worth waiting for? even with the pain? Wren has had her heart broken first by her father when she was young when he left her mom for another woman. Then she finds out her fiancé is leaving her for another also. With a broken heart and the need to get away, Wren goes to visit her father's family, finding a relationship with her step sister develop. Partying with Bailey she see two brothers that catch her interest and finds they are neighbors. the story has romance and pain. Highly recommend!

Lovely love story. I don’t usually read romance but this was an engaging story with romance thrown in. Not sappy at all.

Thank you NetGalley! I did enjoy this book and the characters! Definitely did not see that twist coming. I felt all kinds of emotions while reading this book and I definitely won’t forget it!

This book was everything I didn’t know I needed right now.

In the wake of a canceled engagement, Wren finds herself boarding a plane to the States to spend the summer with her father and his family. She doesn’t plan to stay long in the small Indiana farm town, but when she meets rugged and reserved Anders, she begins to imagine settling down and planting roots. When a secret from Anders’ past is revealed, Wren is left questioning everything.

Heart-breaking, tender, and real, this love story is a must for fans of Colleen Hoover and would be the perfect accessory for a day at the beach. I enjoyed the slow, steady relationship building between Wren and Anders. It felt genuine, which was refreshing. And the cast of secondary characters were like a breath of fresh air. I especially enjoyed Bailey and Jonas.

Thank you to NetGalley, Putnam Books, and Paige Toon for an advance ebook. I can’t wait to read other books by this author.

I really liked Wren and Anders and the small-town Indiana setting, but the twist in this one ick-ed me out a little. I can see why CoHo fans might love it, though.

Thanks to Putnam for the copy to review.

I LOVED this book. The friendships and family dynamics that are portrayed in this book are very accurate to real life. The twist in this book did have me SOBBING. I felt myself caring so much for Anders and Wren, and I can’t even imagine going through what they went through. The ending to this book covered all aspects and didn’t leave anything out!

Only Love can Hurt Like This is such an emotional read. Following Wren, an architect who is working in the UK, as she visits her family in the US who she is not very close with, Wren finds herself both creating familial and platonic relationships. Enter Anders, the mysterious neighbors son who from the outside looks like he is doing everything to keep his family together but inside is dealing with his own demons.
I loved how layered this story is with themes of familial bonds, grief, love, and acceptance. The beginning was maybe a tad slow but once the stage was set and the action started I could not get enough. Would definitely recommend for anyone looking for a slow-burn, complicated romance.
TW: death, cheating, depression, grief