Book Review — Unloved, a love story by Katy Regnery

I have fallen in love with him.
Utterly, totally, completely in love with him.
And all I want is a forever that I cannot have.

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OMG!! I fell absolutely in love with this story. With its heart-wrenching feels, gorgeously swoony love story, and unexpected surprises, this book really was the complete package! An addictive romance entwined with a mystery in a way that kept my undivided attention as I read. If you’re looking for a amazing new book to read, definitely try this!

*Side note* I need to start this review with explaining something that might be super obvious to you but was quite confusing to me. Cassidy is a male — it’s the hero’s name. Brynn is a female — the heroine. I’ve only ever seen those names with the opposite genders so I just wanted to clear it up at the beginning in case anyone else has confusion.

That being said, I knew I wanted to read this book from the moment I saw the blurb:

My name is Cassidy Porter…
My father, Paul Isaac Porter, was executed twenty years ago for the brutal murder of twelve innocent girls.
Though I was only eight-years-old at the time, I am aware – every day of my life – that I am his child, his only son.
To protect the world from the poison in my veins, I live a quiet life, off the grid, away from humanity.
I promised myself, and my mother, not to infect innocent lives with the darkness that swirls within me, waiting to make itself known.
It’s a promise I would have kept… if Brynn Cadogan hadn’t stumbled into my life.
Now I exist between heaven and hell: falling for a woman who wants to love me, while all along reminding myself that I must remain…
Unloved.

Isn’t that intriguing?! With that kind of unique premise, I couldn’t wait to dive in and devour this story. And once I started reading, I absolutely couldn’t put the book down!

Now, given the most recent tragedies on the news, the very first scene of the book had such a strong impact. Even though I was barely a few pages into this book, I felt this woman’s pain deeply. I hurt for her loss and for the life she lost with her fiance. To lose a loved one in such a violent manner had left scars on her heart that seemed impossible to heal and the writing was so vivid and seamless that I just absorbed all her emotions right off the page.

The rest of the world moved on from the Steeple 10 Shooting, ever more numb to the news of similar events, out of sympathy for nameless strangers who meet the same tragic end.
But I can’t seem to move on.
I had someone in the crowd that night who had a name, who was dearly loved. Those of us who survived are the walking wounded. Or, the walking dead.

Two years after her fiance’s death, she finds a clue in the last message he was typing to her on his cellphone right before he died, and so she sets off on dangerous hike in an effort to find peace and finally let go.

In contrast though to Brynn’s present day story, we begin the Cassidy’s story back when he was a boy. The chapters alternate between Brynn and Cassidy and his throwbacks were crucial to showing the reader what kind of events had formed his identity. Brought up as the only son of a serial murderer and rapist, he’d been an outcast since childhood.

I am the son of the man one reporter called “the bloodiest serial killer the state of Maine has ever known.” … It’s a fact.
And now it follows me wherever I go.
Rapist’s son.
Murderer’s son.
Freak.
Killer.

It didn’t matter that he was as good and pure as the his father had been evil, everyone assumed the worst from him and treated him as though he’d committed the crimes himself. And while the thought of everything his father had done revolted him to his core, he remained ever terrified that somehow the madness was genetic and could be passed on. So he became resolved to live out the rest of his life in isolation, thus ending the genetic line of evil.

For each story of a serial killer’s child becoming a police officer or a teacher and living a normal life, there’s another story that supports the idea that evil can be inherited. And each one chills me through…
While having children is physically possible for me, it is ethically impossible.
Which means that, despite my urges and longings, loving a woman is impossible too.
Because it would be wrong to deprive a woman of children, and it would also be wrong to risk infecting the world with the terrible legacy I might carry in my DNA.

So for each of their own reasons, Brynn and Cassidy’s worlds collide on a remote mountainside. He quite literally saved her life. If he’d arrived on scene even a few seconds later, she would have suffered a fate worse than death. So suddenly the man who lived his whole life trying to stay away from everyone had become her unlikely hero.

[This] beautiful girl asleep on my chest, her ear over my heart, needs me right now. So I hold her close and let me eyes shut as the sun lowers over “the greatest mountain.”
I don’t really know her.
I don’t have any right to her.
I shouldn’t get attached to her.
In a handful of days she will be gone.
But right now, there is simply nowhere else on earth I’d rather be.

It was absolutely heart-breaking to see how Cassidy had conditioned himself to believe it would be too dangerous to ever let anyone love him. He was such a genuinely good and kind man but he firmly believed that he was genetically predisposed to be evil and that thought horrified him so much that he would rather isolate himself than risk anyone being exposed to the man he feared he might become. But then came along this woman who changed everything. And as he slowly nursed her back to health in his remote cabin, they grew closer and she offered him the one thing he never thought he’d have…

She’s come dangerously close to offering me something I might actually be able to accept — no-strings-attached physical intimacy with an expiration date.
No commitment.
No marriage or children or forever.
No chance of infecting the world with my father’s genes.
Without realizing it, she’s giving me the opportunity to love her without breaking my promises.

As time passed, a deep love and attraction grew between them until finally they had to face the truth that neither one of them wanted to let the other go. I’m not gonna lie, things got a wee bit cheesy and insta-lovey for my taste, but let’s be honest, this is fiction so I just went with those parts since I was really enjoying the overall story so very much.

With a firm expiry date on their growing relationship, all the emotions were heightened as they savored and cherished each new experience they shared while also being keenly aware of how close they were to it all ending.

“If I ever see you again, I’ll never be able to let you go.”

AHHHHH but then a TWIST!! I’d actually loosely considered something like this in the back of my mind from the moment when **that** happened but I’d been too wrapped up in the story to give it serious thought and so when everything began to be revealed I just couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. And I especially loved that the heroine was the one who put the pieces together. From that moment on, the story turned into a bit of a mystery and it was so thrilling as she raced to save the man she’d grown to love from something even he didn’t know about.

**** HAPPY SIGH ****

This is the kind of book you can completely loose yourself in. It’s one of those blissfully addictive and effortlessly well-written romances that sweeps you away and tells you a unique story that makes your heart-racing and keeps you reading until the sun comes up. I loved it and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a wonderful read!

I will love her until the sky falls.
Until the sun and moon fail to rise.
Until Katahdin crumbles.
I will love her forever.

Rating: 4.5 stars. Contemporary Adult Romance, standalone.

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• Buy UNLOVED, A LOVE STORY (Paperback)
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