Author Groupies: Review of Reaching Rachel by LL Collins

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Review of Reaching Rachel by LL Collins

Title: Reaching Rachel

Series: Living Again #2

Author: L.L. Collins

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Reviewer: Rebecca
Rating: 4.5 Star Groupie Rating

Rachel has always been seen as a wild child, never committing or settling down. She wants it that way, so that no one ever finds out the truth. Deep down, she is crushed over something that happened years ago that resulted in losing the only man she ever loved. Then she meets someone who tries to convince her that she’s ready to commit again. But some things are not what they seem. Realizing too late that she’s in over her head, and with her life on the line, she comes face to face with her past in a way she never thought possible. Devin was in love once, and it destroyed him, making him swear off love forever. After a promotion and subsequent move unexpectedly brings him into the middle of her dangerous situation, he must come face to face with his past and to the woman who broke him into pieces. But she needs help. Desperately. And maybe, just maybe, he didn't know the real truth of their past. Can he help her survive the terrible ordeal she's been through, and during it all, can he safeguard his heart from her? Or will the truth of the pain that has kept them apart show him that he can't live without her after all?

"You are now and have always been it for me. You are my beginning, middle, and end."

After I read Living Again, I didn't think LL Collins could write another heartbreaking, tear-soaking page turn. Boy was I WRONG!!! I couldn't wait to read Rachel's story. I wanted to know all about her and her past, or so I thought. After reading Reaching Rachel, I can't believe that one woman could go through so much, survive, and still have the ability to love.

"Their relationship had been combustible, passionate, and all consuming, but the fire had been instantly extinguished the moment he pulled away, riding that reverberating motorcycle."

Rachel ran away from her first and only love five years ago but still hadn't moved on. She couldn't or wouldn't get into a relationship. She still harbored feelings for Devin even after five years and didn't think she would ever get over him. She was head strong, opinionated, and felt no remorse for it. Then she met Justin. He was just supposed to be a filler for one night to help her forget but a few weeks in and he had firmly planted himself in her life. After Rachel talked to her best friend Kayley, she decides to give Justin a chance. The biggest mistake of her life.

"I just don't think I'm the person you are looking for. I'm not a forever kind of girl."

"No matter how much she knew that she needed to let it go and allow Justin in, there was a lock and key around her heart, and she was afraid that the only guy that would ever unlock it was the one person she would never see again."

Devin Putnam was on the up and up in his career as a police officer. He had just gotten the news that he got his transfer to a SWAT team on the west coast of Florida. A job he had been hoping for. He was praying that this would be what he needed to forget about Rachel and what happened five years ago. He never thought that the one person he was trying to get over would be the person he found saving on his first mission.

"All he was the ghost of a person he never thought he would see again. She was here. In this house. With this crazy ass psychopath. He'd know that face anywhere, because it haunted his dreams."

Devin saved Rachel but she had endured horrible things at the hands of a monster. Now he wasn't sure what would happen when or if she recovered. But he did know that he was never going to let her out of his life again. Devin is ready to fight for Rachel, but can Rachel forgiver herself for her past and let Devin back in? She's not sure she would be strong enough to survive if he left her again. But with more of their past coming back to haunt them, Rachel isn't sure that Devin can handle everything.

"You dealt with this all this time, by yourself. I wasn't there for you, Rachel. You suffered, and I was a jerk and left you. I don't deserve you, baby. You've been through so much, and I haven't been.."

OH GOD, this book! Rachel had so many things go wrong in her life and just when she thought she would give a little and open up, BAM!! She gets knocked down further than ever before. Rachel's story was such a heart gripper for me. I felt her pain and couldn't fathom how she was going to come back from such devastating experiences. L L Collins is a genius and definitely knows how to write an eloquent story to pull in the readers and keep them turning the pages!

"No one can ever be you because you are the only one for me."

LL Collins is a teacher who loves spending her days in the Florida sun with her husband and boys, reading, and writing. Her love of writing has found a home in the self-publishing world. Living Again her first novel, is available now exclusively on Amazon, in both eBook and paperback. Her second novel, Reaching Rachel, will be released in January 2014. LL has been writing since she was old enough to write. Always a story in her head, she finally decided to let the characters out and start writing and try to make her lifelong dreams of becoming an author come true. She has been a teacher for over ten years, a wife for 14, and a mom to two boys, 11 and 9.