Real and Emotional! The One You Fight For by Roni Loren [ARC Review]

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One of my most anticipated books this year is probably The One You Fight For by Roni Loren. To be honest, after reading The Ones Who Got Away, I was broken and thought nothing else would top it, but I was wrong! The One You Fight For is equally as good!

While I was reading this book, the shooting in Thousand Oaks happened and it did affect my reaction to the book, in a good way, though. While I wasn’t directly affected by the shooting, I live close by so it added a different layer to my reading.

I love the plot of The One You Fight For. As someone who has seen a lot of news coverage surrounding shooters, nothing is really said about their family or the people raising said evil. In this book, this is what is focused on. As we know, there are two victims – the actual victims of the shooting and the family. While a lot may argue about it, they are still victims, but no coverage is really done on them. So this is one of the angles that I liked.

In The One You Fight For, the heroine Taryn, is a survivor of the school shooting and her sister died in the same shooting. This really ruined her family and she has been working towards getting a program started in schools to recognize early signs. The hero, Shaw, is the older brother of one of the shooters and in this book, his life is ruined. He was a rising star in gymnastics and was going to the Olympics, but now he is hiding under an assumed name.

Taryn and Shaw meet at a bar and sparks fly. This starts a chain of events that would end up with them being together. Anyway, I love the sparks between Trayn and Shaw. And really, their relationship was complicated as well. I also liked that Taryn knew who Shaw really was before their relationship moved forward because then, that would have been a douche move to do and it would not have worked.

I understood Shaw’s side. His life was also affected by what his brother did, and he also blamed himself for what happened. His backstory was also revealed and how it related to the shooting. Taryn, on the other hand, blamed herself for the shooting, since she also did something on that fateful night. Again, these details were what I liked, and I am so happy they were included in the book.

This book broke me and had me in tears! in fact, I read this book around 3 AM and I was basically ugly crying, I woke up my husband.

This book also features a diverse couple! And yeah, this book actually doesn’t point it out blatantly and I love that so much!

One of the things that I was iffy about was the reactions of the other survivors of the shooting. When they found out that Shaw was the brother of the shooter, their reactions were all positive and forgiving. I find that hard to believe, though. Since they really didn’t spend a lot of time with Shaw, I would have expected them to be angry, at least for a little while.

Other than that, I loved everything about this book. This series is amazing and, in my opinion, timely. I wish there would be more books featuring this topic.

If you haven’t read this book before, please start with the first book in the series, The Ones Who Got Away.

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affiliate links below

The Ones Who Got Away | The One You Can’ Forget

Do you love books that deal with real life situations?

What are your favorites?