This Love

by Lea Darragh

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.

Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org

*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

Pub Date Sep 15 2016 | Archive Date Oct 13 2016

Description

Forgiveness can be hard–even when it's the only way to save your life.When Emmy's fiancé, Ethan, is killed by a speeding driver on the way to their wedding, she is devastated beyond words. Numb and confused, she withdraws from the world. Eighteen months later, Emmy has settled herself into the coastal town of Cobbler's Cove. With satisfying work in a new restaurant, a quiet home by the sea, and friends who pick her up when grief comes back to haunt her, she's finally daring to dream of a bright future.That is, until she meets Jack Archer–a worldly chef who draws people to the restaurant. Emmy and Jack have mutual friends and a common goal, but their history could tear them both apart.When Emmy finds herself falling for Jack, she begins to question her love for Ethan. She's tortured by the past and scared of the future. Does she have the strength to forgive and move on?

Available Editions

EDITION	Ebook
ISBN	9781489221001
PRICE	A$4.99 (AUD)

Additional Information

Average rating from 25 members

See all member reviews

Featured Reviews

Katie C, Reviewer

This Love is so much more than a love story- it is a real primer on forgiveness and finding joy again after catastrophe.

The novel opens as Emmy is running into the hospital emergency ward in her wedding gown to learn that her soon to be in a few hours groom, Ethan has died in an automobile accident on the way to the wedding. The prologue deftly captures Emmy's utter despair and grief.

Fast forward 18 months later and Emmy has moved from Melbourne to a small coastal town to rebuild her life and her business. Her friends Finn and Aubrey are having her redesign a new restaurant and event space where the chef will be Jack, the driver of the car that killed Ethan.

Ms. Darragh does an amazing job of considering the professional and personal relationship between Emmy and Jack as well as considering the reactions of Emmy's friends and Ethan's family. There is no black and white defined in those others' feelings not even among one of the most ardent critics, Ethan's brother Adam. Instead, the novel gracefully works through guilt that both Emmy and Jack share as well as anger at circumstances that have resulted from the accident. The depictions of the characters' feelings is so raw and so well-written.

What emerges is one of the most heroic and mature female characters. Emmy has an incredible sophistication and maturity that seems a bit extraordinary given her background and her profound loss. Even more amazing is how long it seems to take her to realize it - even as others most notably her friends, Ethan and his family, and Jack see it. This forgiveness and growth extends the story from a truly beautiful love story to an amazing tale of a young woman's courage, conviction, strength, and determination. Emmy is the heroine that we should all strive to be!

This is a compelling and well-written love story that entails more than just romantic love. I am confident that you could read This Love again and again and glean something wonderful at each reading!