All We Lost Was Everything by Sloan Harlow (2025)
This book certainly knows how to seize your attention and hold it to the last page. For sure, readable with a capital R. It's a romantic thriller with generous amounts of steam and spice, as well as a twenty car pile-up of 'are-you-kidding-me?' twists that come hurling at you one after the other.
But in its tireless strivings to reduce a reader to tears with heart-clutching family tragedies, the sheer amount of those twists (some of them off-the-rails outlandish) undercuts all the emotions on display. I'll admit I couldn't stop reading, but I suspect it was the kind of enjoyment you get out of a Guilty Pleasure read..
Aspiring singer-songwriter River Santos has suffered the woes of Job. A raging house fire killed her beloved father Jay and destroyed the rest of what she held dear in life, including her guitar and songbooks. Her devoted best friend Tawny started a GoFundMe recovery fund for her.....to which person or persons unknown contributed two million dollars. Who and why? You'd better believe that had me hooked for the whole ride.
In the midst of her personal chaos, River's wealthy boyfriend Noah suddenly broke up with her, as she clashes with Logan, her surly co-worker at the town diner where she waitresses. Logan, for the most dark, secretive of reasons, struggles to keep his growing attraction to River under control. (Yeh, good luck with that.....)
Inevitably, River and Santos go head over heels for each other, but long hidden reveals throw their lives into all kinds of turmoil and surprises that neither of them saw coming......(nor did we, the readers.)
I wasn't bored for a second, but that may be due to the twists that sound like they came out of a staff writers room of a soap opera that needed to pump up the ratings. with outrageous plotlines. Readers can feel free to roll with it that way, or just sit back and revel in those tender yet feverish moments between our troubled young lovers.
But in its tireless strivings to reduce a reader to tears with heart-clutching family tragedies, the sheer amount of those twists (some of them off-the-rails outlandish) undercuts all the emotions on display. I'll admit I couldn't stop reading, but I suspect it was the kind of enjoyment you get out of a Guilty Pleasure read..
Aspiring singer-songwriter River Santos has suffered the woes of Job. A raging house fire killed her beloved father Jay and destroyed the rest of what she held dear in life, including her guitar and songbooks. Her devoted best friend Tawny started a GoFundMe recovery fund for her.....to which person or persons unknown contributed two million dollars. Who and why? You'd better believe that had me hooked for the whole ride.
In the midst of her personal chaos, River's wealthy boyfriend Noah suddenly broke up with her, as she clashes with Logan, her surly co-worker at the town diner where she waitresses. Logan, for the most dark, secretive of reasons, struggles to keep his growing attraction to River under control. (Yeh, good luck with that.....)
Inevitably, River and Santos go head over heels for each other, but long hidden reveals throw their lives into all kinds of turmoil and surprises that neither of them saw coming......(nor did we, the readers.)
I wasn't bored for a second, but that may be due to the twists that sound like they came out of a staff writers room of a soap opera that needed to pump up the ratings. with outrageous plotlines. Readers can feel free to roll with it that way, or just sit back and revel in those tender yet feverish moments between our troubled young lovers.
If you're in the mood for 'Seriously???' twists combined with fog-up-the-windows' romance, here's a beachy read for you......4 stars (****).
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