really liked this book

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