Letting Go: A Novel (Thatch, #1)

by Molly McAdams

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling New Adult author returns with a sizzling novel of love, loss, guilt, and forgiveness. Grey and Ben fell in love at thirteen and believed they'd be together forever. But three days before their wedding, the twenty-year-old groom-to-be suddenly died from an unknown heart condition, destroying his would-be-bride's world. If it hadn't been for their best friend, Jagger, Grey never would have made it through those last two years to graduation. He's the only one who understands her pain, the only one who knows what it's like to force yourself to keep moving when your dreams are shattered. Jagger swears he'll always be there for her, but no one has ever been able to hold on to him. He's not the kind of guy to settle down. It's true that no one has ever been able to keep Jagger-because he's only ever belonged to Grey. While everyone else worries over Grey's fragility, he's the only one who sees her strength. Yet as much as he wants Grey, he knows her heart will always be with Ben. Still they can't deny the heat that is growing between them-a passion that soon becomes too hot to handle.
But admitting their feelings for each other means they've got to face the past. Is being together what Ben would have wanted ...or a betrayal of his memory that will eventually destroy them both?

• ISBN10: 0062358405
• ISBN13: 9780062358400
• Publish Date: 4 December 2014 (first published 4 November 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 5 April 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[Cocktails and Books]

I have to tell you, I really enjoyed this story. I liked how two friends, who helped each other through the aftermath of their best friend/fiance’s death, fall in love.

Grey and Jagger certainly climb an emotional mountain to get to their HEA. They are both still very raw after the death of fiance/best friend, Ben. Grey, a little bit more broken needing all the strength Jagger can give her to dig her way out. But when they finally make it to the other side, it’s to have a long held secret revealed and a discovery that their friendship changed somewhere along the way. But when they both finally admitted to how they felt, they knew they were where they were supposed to be.

There were other secrets, other than how Grey and Jagger felt for each other, that had the potential to cause serious issues between the two of them. There was Jagger’s mother and sister’s secret, along with a secret that Ben had. The secrets could have destroyed them, but we were able to see the strength of their relationship by how they handled the fall out once the secrets became public. My only problem was how easily everyone was forgiven for the secrets. I could understand eventually forgiving and moving forward, but it felt like Grey forgave way to easily. I’m not generally a blood thirsty kind of person, but she definitely should have been pissed for longer than 1 day after she discovered what had happened.

As always, Molly McAdams gives readers a story full of angst, drama, heartbreak and eventually the HEA. She always manages to create characters that just beg for you to rally behind them. Grey and Jagger were no different and they definitely rank up there as one of my favorite couple of the year.

If you haven’t picked up a Molly McAdams book before, this is definitely one to try (especially with it being the first book in a new series).