Back to You: Against All Odds Book 1, Kim Breyon

The angst is high as is the concerning codependency issues both in Riley and Beckett's past as well as their present.  As they figure things out together, this very slow-burn romance gives them a lot of room to be open, honest, and happy, but that's not always how life works.  So many things unsaid between them about their past and present that it makes the story seem much longer than it really is.  Despite taking a long time to get to the point of everything, this was a good story that I felt invested in most of the way through.  I truly wanted to see them make it through to the other side.

Alternating POV's as well as including numerous flashbacks gives us a very complete story that felt appropriate.  Sometimes having a ton of flashbacks detracts from the story and what's going on with what we feel are the relevant moments of the timeline, but these are well done.  There's so much in their past that if we started there this would have had to be split into multiple books.  Or it was left out only to be brought up in small explanations or brief mentions and remembrances we'd be completely lost as to why they stayed apart, what they needed to grieve, and how they became who they were now.  I appreciated how the back-story was written.

But the codependency bothered me.  They even acknowledge it later in the story and while I agree that the choice for their future shouldn't have been taken out of their hands, it was only through the passing of time and growing up that they were in a better place to have the relationship we hoped they would.  Both Beckett and Riley have a lot of inner turmoil that should have been addressed separately.  Being one another's catalyst for that change would have been apropos and I didn't think there was enough of that.  Instead we see them fall apart and hold back and tiptoe around big issues.

This honestly wasn't the healthiest of relationships.  At times their interactions felt like high schoolers and not grown men.  Then when you added all the extra drama from family, jealousy, unclear relationship expectations, and unsatisfactory trauma coping, it becomes incredibly heavy.  There's honestly just too much near the end.  And I'll also mention that virtually no child talks the way Beckett's niece does.  Way too enlightened and her interpretation of complex concepts was too advanced for her age.

As we finally get to the end of the story I was pretty disappointed in the conclusion of the family heirloom case.  Connecting it to Beckett's affection for pirates felt forced.  Getting him to Reedsport I can understand, but dragging it out to pop up for a moment or two to remove him from Reedsport a time or few and then concluding the case with cheesiness just wasn't the way to go.

The setting was quaint and felt like home.  This was probably the best part of the story, creating a haven for them and a community where they both fit as the individuals they became as well as as a couple.  Even though the road to their happy ending was long and fraught with all kinds of drama and trauma, they did get there and I was glad they made it.

*$3.99 on Amazon or FREE on KU