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The One I Didn't Keep
Some loves never really leave you.
Some heartbreaks never really heal.
And some second chances feel like fate refusing to let go.
Lila Hart has spent ten years building a quiet, steady life in her small-town bakery, hiding her cracks behind sugar and flour and a perfectly controlled routine. She doesn’t think about Evan Reyes—the boy who promised her forever and then broke her heart so deeply she learned to live without its missing pieces.
Until he walks through her door.
As the groom in a last-minute wedding cake order.
Suddenly, Lila is thrust into the orbit of the only man she ever loved—the one she never truly got over. Evan is older, steadier, regret carved into every line of him… and shockingly, devastatingly certain that he wants her back.
But Evan’s wedding is six weeks away. His fiancée is kind. Lovely. Wrong in ways only he and Lila can feel. And every stolen glance, every almost-touch, every whispered apology threatens to pull them into a dangerous gravity neither of them is strong enough to fight.
With a lifetime of secrets between them, a wedding barreling toward them, and a passion that refuses to stay buried, Lila must
Is she willing to risk her rebuilt heart for one last chance at the love she never stopped wanting?
Or will she let the past repeat itself—and walk away before it destroys her twice?
A breathtakingly emotional, slow-burn second-chance romance full of longing, heartbreak, yearning, and the kind of tension that steals your breath. For readers who love The Light We Lost, Love and Other Words, and angsty, atmospheric love stories you feel long after the final page.
Some heartbreaks never really heal.
And some second chances feel like fate refusing to let go.
Lila Hart has spent ten years building a quiet, steady life in her small-town bakery, hiding her cracks behind sugar and flour and a perfectly controlled routine. She doesn’t think about Evan Reyes—the boy who promised her forever and then broke her heart so deeply she learned to live without its missing pieces.
Until he walks through her door.
As the groom in a last-minute wedding cake order.
Suddenly, Lila is thrust into the orbit of the only man she ever loved—the one she never truly got over. Evan is older, steadier, regret carved into every line of him… and shockingly, devastatingly certain that he wants her back.
But Evan’s wedding is six weeks away. His fiancée is kind. Lovely. Wrong in ways only he and Lila can feel. And every stolen glance, every almost-touch, every whispered apology threatens to pull them into a dangerous gravity neither of them is strong enough to fight.
With a lifetime of secrets between them, a wedding barreling toward them, and a passion that refuses to stay buried, Lila must
Is she willing to risk her rebuilt heart for one last chance at the love she never stopped wanting?
Or will she let the past repeat itself—and walk away before it destroys her twice?
A breathtakingly emotional, slow-burn second-chance romance full of longing, heartbreak, yearning, and the kind of tension that steals your breath. For readers who love The Light We Lost, Love and Other Words, and angsty, atmospheric love stories you feel long after the final page.
193 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 26, 2025
1 person is currently reading
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 14, 2025
Engaged to ow + kissing h + emotional connection to h = cheating
Like: 1 + 1 + 1 =3
PERIODT.
“You’re engaged,” she said, voice breaking. He exhaled like that word cut him open. “I know.” “Then we can’t do this.”
Their lips collided. The kiss wasn’t soft. It wasn’t careful. It was years of unsaid words and buried hurt and impossible want. Evan made a low, broken sound, pulling her closer, hands gripping her hips like he needed to memorize the shape of her all over again.
“I can’t do this to you,” he whispered. “Or to her. Or to us.” She closed her eyes, throat tight enough to hurt. “Then go.” He didn’t move. “Evan,” she said again, softer this time. “You need to leave.”
“You almost cheated on your fiancée.” She forced the words out steady, even as her insides trembled.
Next installment:
Only When We Fall Again (The Love That Stays Series Book 2)
They got their second chance.
They just don’t know how to keep it.
Amazon Blurb:
Link in NOTES, Beeg
Months after Lila and Evan finally chose each other, life inside their shared home is soft—until it isn’t. Old patterns creep in: Lila overworks to outrun her fear of abandonment, Evan avoids conflict to keep the peace. One unexpected phone call, one spiraling fight, and suddenly they’re standing on opposite sides of an old wound they thought had healed.
When they decide to take space, it’s quiet, devastating, and wrong in all the ways they don’t want to admit.
But fate—and a contract they can’t escape—shoves them back together at the city’s biggest food and art festival. One bed. One squeaky couch. One weekend of forced proximity and unresolved longing.
Hands brush during a baking demo.
Secrets spill at midnight.
A storm traps them together long enough for truths to finally surface—
the ones that hurt, the ones that heal, and the ones that might save them.
What follows is a slow-burn reunion of two people learning to love without running, without hiding, without breaking themselves to fit the shape of someone else’s fears.
Tender. Spicy. Heart-splitting. Hope-heavy.
This is a love story about rebuilding—not from zero, but from the wreckage.
About choosing each other again and again.
And about the quiet, beautiful courage of saying:
I’m staying this time. For real.
Like: 1 + 1 + 1 =3
PERIODT.
“You’re engaged,” she said, voice breaking. He exhaled like that word cut him open. “I know.” “Then we can’t do this.”
Their lips collided. The kiss wasn’t soft. It wasn’t careful. It was years of unsaid words and buried hurt and impossible want. Evan made a low, broken sound, pulling her closer, hands gripping her hips like he needed to memorize the shape of her all over again.
“I can’t do this to you,” he whispered. “Or to her. Or to us.” She closed her eyes, throat tight enough to hurt. “Then go.” He didn’t move. “Evan,” she said again, softer this time. “You need to leave.”
“You almost cheated on your fiancée.” She forced the words out steady, even as her insides trembled.
Next installment:
Only When We Fall Again (The Love That Stays Series Book 2)
They got their second chance.
They just don’t know how to keep it.
Amazon Blurb:
Link in NOTES, Beeg
Months after Lila and Evan finally chose each other, life inside their shared home is soft—until it isn’t. Old patterns creep in: Lila overworks to outrun her fear of abandonment, Evan avoids conflict to keep the peace. One unexpected phone call, one spiraling fight, and suddenly they’re standing on opposite sides of an old wound they thought had healed.
When they decide to take space, it’s quiet, devastating, and wrong in all the ways they don’t want to admit.
But fate—and a contract they can’t escape—shoves them back together at the city’s biggest food and art festival. One bed. One squeaky couch. One weekend of forced proximity and unresolved longing.
Hands brush during a baking demo.
Secrets spill at midnight.
A storm traps them together long enough for truths to finally surface—
the ones that hurt, the ones that heal, and the ones that might save them.
What follows is a slow-burn reunion of two people learning to love without running, without hiding, without breaking themselves to fit the shape of someone else’s fears.
Tender. Spicy. Heart-splitting. Hope-heavy.
This is a love story about rebuilding—not from zero, but from the wreckage.
About choosing each other again and again.
And about the quiet, beautiful courage of saying:
I’m staying this time. For real.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2025
This book seemed promising but the plot execution was a little frustrating for me. I felt like I kept getting lost. I wasn't sure if they were replaying the same scene but in different ways, like groundhog day, or was it a different day and scene.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews