By Paige Toon

ISBN: 9780593544334

This book was received as an advance review copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Paige Toon’s ‘Only Love Can Hurt Like This’ might appeal to readers fond of romance or chick lit genre. The friends-to-lovers story would interest fans of transatlantic love stories albeit if they do not mind the slow-moving pace of the book.

Synopsis:

Wren embarks on a trip to her father’s house in rural Indiana from Suffolk, England to deal with the heartbreak of finding her fiancé is in love with someone else. She is not looking forward to meeting her stepmother and half-sibling in the US, the consequence of his father leaving her mother when they lived in Arizona in her childhood. The pain of her facing the same fate as her mother is not lost on her and makes her resent her father’s family.

On her family’s farm in Indiana, she comes across Anders and his family. She is immediately intrigued by him and soon learns that he is still dealing with his beloved wife’s death a few years ago. Like any forbidden love story, Wren finds herself falling for Anders but upon learning a secret that Anders has been hiding, she must deal with a heartbreak all over again.

What’s to like:

The rural Indiana setting is very charming. Wren navigating her relationships with her stepfamily and Ander’s sibling is nicely written. Her character is smart and likable, and the reader takes a liking to her. There are also some events that the author has beautifully penned such as the beginning scene where Wren realizes that her fiancé might be leaving her.

What’s not to like:

The story is very slow-moving. A large part of the book revolves around Wren waiting and hoping to see Anders and wondering if he is back in Indianapolis where he works or if he is at his parent’s farm who are their neighbors. The big events in the story’s timeline do not happen until the second half of the book and the big climax is not as ‘earth-shattering’ as the book’s cover claims.

The descriptions of Wren wanting to be with Anders or yearning for his company could be shortened for sure. These get annoying after a while and make the reader lose interest in the book.

Book Review Rating: 2.5/5 Okayish Read

Clean Content Rating: High Contains references to premarital relations and suicide. Age advisory: 18+