Let Love Stay by Melissa Collins

Love #2

Summary:

    If you’re lucky, you’ll fall in love – truly, madly and deeply in love. But what happens when that honest and pure love isn’t enough to erase your fears? What happens when your past rears its ugly head and threatens your future?

    Maddy and Reid had that kind of love – the all-encompassing, Earth shattering, once in a lifetime kind of love. Then life happened. Old wounds that were thought to be long healed and scabbed over are ripped opened and they are forced to face the possibility that, maybe, they are not strong enough to fight their demons and embrace the light.

    Together, they found out what love is, but now they will each need to heal on their own before they can ever be together again. They must face their fears and beat down their pasts in order to find their way through this crazy uphill battle called love.

    They’ve let love in, but now, they need to find out how to Let Love Stay.

Book two picks up directly where the first left off. And while I did like this book, I didn't love it.

Personally, I feel that their story moved too fast. Maddy and Reid are both a mess. They find each other in a way that helps heal them. But the love they feel for one another seems like the kind that, while they are young they will love each other, but once they are completely healed they may start to resent the other a little. But that just might be the pessimist in me talking.

I liked seeing more into Reid's past and learning more about his family, but in the end, I don't see where it made sense for him and Maddy to be together for the long haul. Even though I did appreciate that the author addressed the matter of trying to love yourself before trying to love someone else.

Most of this book revolved around Reid and Maddy trying to pull their heads out of their respective asses about forgiving each other.

The issues that the characters were faced with in this book, were a little deeper than the ones in the first book. Dealing with death, forgiveness, a sadist father, and a past that is hard to get past. The angst level is high enough that the story seems like it could be a true story, but not so full of angst that it's melodramatic.

If you like books like these, then you probably will like this book.

Recommended to 18+ (and people that don't mind reading intimate scenes)