Photo credits: Barbara A Lane (pixabay), Free-Photos (pixabay) Edited by Vaishali Title: Reclaimed Love Series: Heartfelt series #1 Author: Alina Lane Publisher: Self published Year of Publication: 2021 Format: E-book/kindle app Genre/Themes: Contemporary romance, small town romance ex-best friends to lovers. Review... First things first, I was floored with the perspective-shifting revelation that Reclaimed Love is (in every traditional sense) a debut novel. I wasn't aware of this precious fact until I finished the book entirely. Wow. A first for me and an apparent first for the author, it's like this story already knew itself without hesitation, found itself as if it belonged and resolved itself without apologies. It adjectivises itself with a series subtitle that fits like a dream because to call this book heartfelt is to say the sea is fit for swimming. It's like its heartfelt chords already knew how to sing a song of second chance romance with the confidence and habituated hand of only one with multiple writes under the belt could accomplish. I say with veritable veneration: brilliantly done Alina Lane. And another unapologetic declaration: Swoony authentic heroes for the win. Always. A family emergency brings Kate Palicki back to Felt, Idaho, familiarising herself with the people of a town she hadn't let herself be a part of for twelve long years. Kate 2.0 has had a major transformation but that doesn't mean that a lifelong battle with confidence evaporates entirely once she's back on home soil. Having the eyes of an entire town on her again and it's hard not to feel the rise of that old inhibition when everything she decided to become originated from the people who made her feel like an outcast; like her social acceptance was a conditional thing; like she was worth the torment of a bully who made her feel worthless. After learning that her gram's independent bookstore is on the brink of closure Kate is nothing less than determined to make sure that doesn't happen. She's a pro, a woman on a mission and full steam ahead to revamp and modernise the family business. Even if it means stomaching the man she shared the best of her formative years with because Arik Beaumont was once everything to Kate. The germ of her reactive decision for that 12-year distance is an ex best friend who broke her heart and her trust. What she doesn't know though is that she isn't the only one who's nursed that teenage pain for twelve years and what she also hasn't entertained is that there are two sides to every story. Arik's not the teenager she ran away from anymore and she's not the girl who turned tail from a town that once made her feel the smallest she's ever been. He's a man who's overcome his own obstacles, and taking on the major project of restoring the bookstore requires a partnership she doesn't want to be a part of. While Kate's hellbent on avoiding Arik, he's desperate to nip this long-time animus in the bud. The "at odds" stage of the relationship dissolves quite quickly because we have a determined hero who just, in his own humble words, "wants his friend back" (and that’s adorable Arik in a nutshell) even if the subtext lets us know that he wants a lot more than just that as he bides his time. Persistent heroes are my weakness (I'm unhealthily infatuated with them) but this precious hulking alpha with Viking-likeness is something special. It was clear how much he wanted Kate but didn't want to push her, even if he really wanted to push the situation between them. What really melts this heart though is Arik's fidelity to Kate throughout their years apart. She abandoned him, refused to let him be a part of her life and he remained the most loyal friend to her a friend could be. Out of sight and out of mind, he never stopped caring, and he championed her from afar through the gaping gorge between them. Neither of these two always make the right decisions, they may not be as communicative as they should be (in the past as well as the present; ergo the big misunderstanding/miscommunication and then the repeat of that almost-identical conflict in their adult years) and they may not always think and act in harmony but if their connection had been sworn into a book of vows, I would have believed in their longevity without a second thought. I knew I wanted them together from the offset. I knew I wanted them as one from their first on-page meeting. I felt that way the entire way through, decisional flaws and all. One can't read this and come up for air without being caught up by the history, the past friendship (which, while wasn't on-page, held its own), the chemistry, the intensity, the pride, the pain and the natural depth and freshness of their re-connection. The theme of their relationship is on the fairer side of omission because Arik and Kate struggle with truth, the whole truth and nothing but the whole truth. Because they've both become different people through a lot of self-work, I did hope for them to assume a more agile cut-from-a-different-cloth approach instead of dodging and repressing. The emotive component however, was truly on point because the author both puts into them (and pulls from them) a lot of believability as people with real lives and real feelings. It's easy to argue the futility of one tiny misunderstanding causing such a long, displaced rift but the writing intentionally seizes what its sets out to explore, in a way that delivers what needed to happen with some depth, distance and delicious chemistry. Kate had come a long way from the girl who struggled in her early life with her weight, self-image, abandonment and bullying and I loved the retrospective commentary of that road taken, just as I really appreciated the same of Arik's dyslexia. Friends to lovers (or ex-friends to lovers in this case) isn't one of my favourite tropes because I struggle with the abstraction of a friend being blind to the potential best of someone who's been a sidelong all-time companion to them. Or one wanting more and burying any non-platonic affection or in the case of it being fully chaste on both sides, what could possibly be the turning point? How does that ensuing dynamic change from friend zoned to the love zone. Why didn't it sooner? I did enjoy the approach here though. Both Arik and Kate grew up together from the earliest age when things were harmlessly guileless in a way being childhoods friends always is. And in their late teenage years (though Arik had dated other people - and they've both been with others during the separation - but once it clicked for him), their best-friends relationship was on the verge of transforming into something more until a misunderstanding becomes the obstacle. All in all, a wonderful play out of a familiar theme, and what I do prize about this trope? Its core sentiment of friendship before courtship. It's so easy to surrender love to the scene, the setting, the plot points and the resonant community. It’s especially a personal joy to cede said love over to story that introduces a wonderful community of people. Supportive families and friendships just make my heart soar, and all the connections they have to each other, all the roots they have to the town authenticate the story - I even found myself moved in places I didn’t expect to be moved. Many small town romances that aim to institute the small town vibe either use a few quintessential small town strokes as an anaemic backdrop or execute the story with bombastically overripe characters with overanimated sensibilities. With Reclaimed Love there aren't any highly unrealistic situations to walk through nay any sensationalist schemes (well, there is a bit of that actually but it’s a face of the charm delivers without façade). But mostly, it’s believable without shouting at height and I’m starting to believe that stories are a lot like people because some make you feel estranged, some make you feel like a stranger in your own skin and then some just make you feel warmly shadowed by a companionable body or arm-linked by a long-suffering friend. I didn’t have soaring expectations when I started this but I loved it so much more than I thought I would so I thank this book for being that friend and taking a stroll with me. I loved walking through the setting, I loved piecing myself into the clime of Felt Idaho, I loved getting to know the side characters (there was an especially funny moment involving two burly men and a camera) and I desperately need Arik to let me stay in his home because I'd consider it a heavenly gift if I got to spend a few days in his idyllic ranch house. The characters were a casual delight without their personalities assuming an overly embellished device to persuade me into loving them. I just did. Reclaimed Love was a small town romance that felt like a small town romance. A romance without a hitch is a romance that hasn't lived its best life so I embrace the bump, light, lumpy, flighty or foolish (or in this case, stubbornly misunderstood). Pride and pain get in the way but love and longing loom large. Having the town's attention becomes problematic for Kate Palicki. Her fear defines what a relationship with her ex-bestie could be. But being forced to stay is a big cause for reflection; it's not the town she hates but the way she was made to feel by a handful of tormentors. With complicated feelings about her hometown, it's easy to forget the other side to a story, especially when the keeper of the other half is enshrined into every part of her formative years. But then there's also the truth; that love never really left and it takes this emotionally bruised heroine a smidge longer to realise it. Reconnection is always done best side by side and within close quarters, and with two stubborn personalities it proves to be a bit more of a challenge because sometimes love is hard to face when it means so much. With a hero who didn't know why he was just a token of the past, a heroine who never felt enough Alina Lane’s debut was wonderful on multiple fronts and probably one of the best romance debuts I’ve ever read. I gave this book 4.5 stars - Content Warning: Swearing. Mentions past/present bullying including fat shaming/body shaming and belittling. Past violence, alcohol consumption. Panic attacks. --------------------------------------- M Y R A T I N G S Y S T E M: ★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read --------------------------------------- Extra thoughts 1) Because Kate mentions her transformation and to road to self-love, she is presented as a character who's had a bit of a journey (and I really appreciated that because she's much more confident in so many ways) but there is one scene where she's body-shamed by her former bully in front of a crowd of watchers and I was a bit disappointed with the way she reacts by covering herself up rather than perhaps shamelessly making a point of who she's become now. I understand that insecurities stay with us and that the scene pointedly pushed that point forward but I wanted her to stand taller in that scene. I love interacting with fellow readers, reviewers, bloggers and writers. 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