by Abbi Glines
Book: Stand Alone
Publisher: Author
Pub Date: February 5, 2022
Genre: New Adult, Romance, Sociology
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Book Links: Goodreads Amazon
Bryn Wallace had been the one bright spot in my
life before my grandparents brought me to live with them. While living in the
run-down trailer park my momma had moved us to the last few years of her life,
Bryn had given me a reason to smile every day. After finding my mother's dead
body, my grandparents had picked me up and I started a new life in The Shores,
Alabama. It had always bothered me that I never got a chance to tell Bryn
goodbye.
Now, seven years later, my memories of the
beautiful girl who I considered my first love were destroyed by the
disappointment she had become.
Bryn
When life took another nosedive from bad to
worse, which happened too often, I would tell myself that one day I'd find Rio
March. It got me through my darkest times and gave me hope.
When my sister had, once again, gotten us forced
out of town, by sleeping with the local minister and turning everyone in the
community against us, I took the money I had saved from working over-time and I
made the decision on where we would move. However, fate was never on my side.
Within two weeks of arriving in The Shores, Rio hated me and made sure everyone
else in town did too. I couldn't even take my nephew into the candy store.
It didn't seem to matter where we moved, this
would always be our outcome. Hated, looked down upon, and judged for sins I
hadn't committed. But I was done moving. The trashy Wallace girls were in town
to stay.
My Review: For the beginning of this book, I was very unsure where this was going and not really getting into the story. It took getting halfway through for the book to finally shine and hook me until the last page.
Bryn is just a sweet girl. She has a stutter at times, but only when she's nervous. Only Rio really does that to her, but that was then when she was younger. Now that Bryn is older, she's just had a rough life. Constantly having to be the one always working and taking care of her nephew while her sister just half does life. It's a lot on Bryn but I do enjoy the love she has for her nephew and putting him first. Her sister is a character I'm not a fan of. She didn't really hold down a job, doesn't really put much effort into caring for her kid and has a past with drugs. Relatable? Sure, but not my favorite lady.
Now Rio is a good guy, least until he gets pissed at Bryn, which then entails the entire town to hating her. Her sister hits his car, but in the effort to get her out of trouble, it's Bryn whos caught and since everyone loves Rio, Bryn is now the outcast. Sine she can't go back to Rio's family's business to work, she needs to find a job to pay him back and keep a place for them to live.
What Bryn finds, isn't the ideal job. But it will most definitely pay the bills and then some. After some time, everything seems to be going really well for once. Bryn was able to get them a nicer and safer place to live, and she can do even more for her nephew. All is peachy until Rio and his friend end up at her new job and he is pissed off. Why? Cause she shouldn't be in a place like this, he still deep down wants her and well it was truly a scene to read.
What happened from then is
when things started to pick up and get you hooked until the end. It's so worth
the read with the surprises and twists. You'll be glued to your seat.
