Wreckage and Rain

by Kimmy Kummings

Genres: Second Chance, Romance, Contemporary, Artificial Intelligence, Second Chance Romance

323 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 2, 2026

Reviews

[Storm]

Wreckage and Rain – Kimmy Kummings

A slow, heartbreaking descent into a marriage in crisis, brought about by emotional betrayal. The other woman slipped through a door the husband had left open. Although her sole aim was to replace his wife, she could never have succeeded without his willingness to let her in.

To the author's credit, the husband genuinely earned his way back in the end. His redemption felt deserved rather than handed to him.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. However, I found the final quarter of the book a little slow and lacking in emotional depth. For me, it needed either a stronger emotional payoff or a tighter edit that trimmed a few chapters. As it stands, the ending didn't quite deliver the impact the rest of the story promised.

The ending felt strangely detached. The events were there, but the emotional resonance wasn't. For a story built on the slow devastation of betrayal and the painstaking rebuilding of trust, I wanted to feel those final moments far more deeply than I did.

[Rose]

Started good and writing was packing a punch, but then it got boring as fuck.

[VoraciousReader]

1. Although I think that Colt did earn his redemption, he was never able to say *why* he cheated with Cheyenne. Without knowing why, I can’t believe that it will not happen again.
2. This book has definite AI vibes with the typical over the top similes that are completely meaningless. Eg. “he pushes through the door like a man who has misplaced his own face.” and “with the white feather fan that she chases around the stage like a thought she is trying not to lose.”

[Lea_D reads]

AI assisted

[Carole Copeland]

Close to good

I want to start with wondering if AI is part of the making of this book. Some moments were confusing of who was talking and comments where someone was trying to be impactful didn't land right and make sense. Things can make sense in the head but translating them to paper is different. So there were moments that didn't land for me. My biggest complaint for this book is the other guy. She's like gone for what...2 months and the author already brings her another guy. At first I was leary because I don't like when authors bring in another guy to give the hurt wife self worth. Instead of where she can do it all on her own. Then I was kinda ok because they didn't go the next step and have her sleep with him but the author continues to give them a connection that isn't just I met a new friend. She gives it something more like...we totally would get together if I wasn't. This took away from the connection of the husband and wife. Then when she describes the new book about what happens to them and says how she is going to write how the wife slept with the bartender and isnt ashamed, I was like wait a minute. I'm pretty sure the author didn't have them cross that line. Ahe slept on his couch, he walked her home, she said she wasn't going to use him. When I read that I was like, no I'm going to just go with what was written and have them not slept together because I hate books where, yes, the wife has to slept with someone to feel better and two I don't want to read books where close circle of people have shared partners. It's bad enough the author is setting up the next book with the bartender and the best friend. Not once does the best friend ask him or her married best friend about the feelings they shared and decided to lock away. I wouldn't want to be with someone who over the years might look at my best friend and wonder if. And definitely not if he slept with her! Come on. Like a cheating spouse, you would always wonder how deep the feelings for the friend lasted over the years. Kinda wish the author would go in and delete that sentence about sleeping with the bartender, that she didn't even write in the story. Not sure about the next book.

[rebecca kendall]

soooo long

The story line was good but yes but it was soooo dragged out. So repetitive. There was some timeline errors.

[Karina]

dnf
he cheats
the writing is also terrible

[Bookish.Midnight. and. black]

dnf 55%

[Debbie DiFiore]

Very heartbreaking but so good

I must admit, this book caught me off guard. I figured it was going go be one of those cookie cutter emotional cheating books which I somehow like to read, even as I rage at the pages and the idiot husband who messed up terribly. And it started that way but then the journey was so rewarding. It was a bit different. The whole Sam and Vibes Burlesque Bar shocked me. It was so original and perfectly perfect for this book. the characters just reeled me in, all of them, and it was so hard to finish this book. I felt like I was saying goodbye to friends! Her family and friends were phenomenal. They touched my heart. I don't know why this book hit me so hard. I feel like he truly had an affair with her, not physically, but emotionally. The other books I have read, some of them like this, but mostly the heroes really didn't.want the other woman.in this case I felt he really did. The almost kiss, the dinner he lied about, and she found them in intimate surroundings. He was totally heading there. But there is a twist I didn't really see coming. It was very evil and demented. I was pretty shocked. Okay enough. Just read it and I hope we all find a Sam one day that will allow us to see ourselves.

[BookNerdQueen]

okay

This book was an okay read.
About halfway through after the climax and we found out what happened I had to force myself not to DNF.

The book drags on once she leaves and he starts groveling.
I thought that having Sam’s POV was a waste of time and it added nothing to the story. I get it, the author wants to set up for the next book but his POV was a waste of time. Especially because they didn’t get together and had they got together Sam would’ve been a rebound.

More should’ve happened to his father and the hired OW. The punishment wasn’t fitting.

Overall the story had good bones but it could’ve been better.

[Jillaine Bohne]

started off great

This book started off great, then about halfway through got a real AI written vibe. I’m not sure what happened in the last 25% because I just skimmed it.

[Coven]

First 40% was good. Rest was too drawn out for me.
I also didn’t like the path the plot took, with the whole set up etc. But that’s more of a personal preference thing.

[theloukid]

This book was me reading outside of my comfort zone- I don’t tolerate cheating so reading a second chance romance within a marriage as they attempt to get over his affair was such a new thing for me. But there was something about the description or blurb that made me want to try. This type of book still isn’t my cup of tea, but it definitely did wreck me.

The book starts with Colt having an emotional affair with a colleague while Summer feels invisible. He makes constant excuses for his behaviour, and keeps thinking to himself that he’ll fix the argument later but he never does.

Now, I think the way that I was okay reading this was that it wasn’t a romance for me. But just a novel. Once I thought of the book that way, it was an easier read than thinking of it as a romance because I’m such a grudge holder that I wouldn’t let anything go.

Summer was the main character for me. I liked that she stood on business for Colt to fit into her life rather than making herself smaller to make room for him. I liked that the plot didn’t use big grand gestures for Colt to earn her back, but for him to do the actual work to improve with no expectation that it would be enough to get back together.

The book is a slow read, at no point did things happen the way that I expected, which I suppose is the goal when reading outside my comfort zone. I did have a small issue with the writing style of the book in that there were lines of speech with no allocated person, which wasn’t a major issue for most of the conversations but a few times I wasn't sure who said what. I’m not interested in reading further into the series, though I am glad that the rest of the characters get their own happy endings. I don’t think these kinds of books will work their way into my regular reading, but I cried enough at this one that I’m glad I read it.

I did have a few quotes that I liked, so I thought I’d add them here:

Summer speaking her mind- “So love is not enough to protect me from you.”

Colt’s realisation- "She didn’t leave our marriage. I gave her no reason to stay."

Colt’s friend putting it plainly- "The drugging is on Cheyenne. The conspiracy is on your father. But the emotional affair you actually had with Cheyenne was on you."

[Crystal]

First half great second half awful

The fact the first part was so good it sucks cause the second half ruined it.

Things that were good.
The writing was good, the idea, the setup, the fmc during first half, the husband during the second half, the work the husband put in.

Things I didn't like.
The whole second half from the exact point two months after she left. The emotional affair she has that she doesn't have to crawl back from like her husband did because she did indeed do the same thing to him with no excuses, Sam because of course there has to be a guy who props the woman up instead of her doing it herself, Sam for being who she has affair with. The first spicy scene with main couple after they decided to give marriage a chance it was not comfortable or emotional it was like a kid asking his mom for permission not a partner.

I won't be reading the next one because it's about Sam with this fmc best friend and I'm not for passing someone around a friend group it's not my thing and they seem to be making it where its not even addressed how he was emotionally involved and physically involved with her best friend. It's icky!

And the author needs to be more clear in some details she writes nowhere in the story that Summer sleeps with Sam. She makes it seem like that line wasn't crossed then she has Summer talking about writing her next book as basically the downfall of her marriage and says in her description of book that she slept with Sam so very different things said then shown and people deserve to know this beforehand because that basically means that Summer had a full fledge emotional and physical affair on husband and Colt did not do that so that changes what kind of story your really getting. I wish I had known that before going in that it was both husband and wife that have one only the wife getting away with doing it while the husband didn't.

[Kris]

I would say this was a 3 1/2 star book. It could have been 4 but I was a bit confused. My understanding was this was the author's first book, but I felt like this book was a sequel and I should already know all of the characters, and secondary characters and how they connected. I felt like I was dropped in the middle of a story and I missed a book that would have explained the back stories of all of the characters. The first half, up until the final betrayal, was great. The second half left me slightly confused. I don't remember Summer and Sam sleeping together during her separation. I remember them deciding to be friends. Later, when she is explaining her new book to Colt, she references not being sorry for sleeping with the bartender. So, did she? Also, I wanted Colt to feel the gut punch Summer felt when seeing her closeness with Sam. I didn't feel that. Also, I needed a better understanding of why he neglected Summer, lied to her, and allowed the EA with Cheyanne. Because while there may have been shadiness in why Cheyanne was there, he still made all the decisions he made, to engage in an emotional affair with her, and neglect his wife emotionally as well as physically, such as seating arrangements at dinners he sat next to Cheyanne and his wife was seated way away from him, letting OW touch him, confiding in OW, lying to his wife to spend more time with OW, leaving his wife alone at parties while spending it with OW at his side. Also, Summer's bday. later it says the calendar reminder was removed by OW. But he shouldn't need a calendar reminder to remember her bday, but it also says she texted him a reminder about the dinner that he read. So, the deleted calendar reminder shouldn't factor.

[Ashley]

I get the low ratings

The relationship dynamics in this was so forced it’s actually a bit hilarious. Personally I don’t see strength in taking back the source of your misery. I couldn’t care less about Colt’s “redemption” if you could even call it that. The man got duped and fell for a fantasy and decided he wanted his wife back after finding out that not only was he not in on the joke, he was the joke.

What was the point of introducing Sam if he wasn’t gonna be new end game? The author basically just used him as Summer’s emotional support man while she pined away for garbage. So no, Summer’s growth wasn’t growth. It’s actually weak of her to go back to where she started. Colt reaped all the rewards that Sam sowed. Thinking about it, Summer and Colt deserve each other. Both are spineless who only know how to cry, perform, and use other people to make themselves feel better.

Colt kept insisting that everything he did wasn’t performative, and yet he discloses all his “changes” to Summer each time like he’s keeping a tally. Of course Summer was gullible enough to lap it all up like it’s holy information. Matter of fact, she’s performative herself. Serving Colt divorce papers but all too willing to “put a pause” in it just because he asked.

Hard to feel bad for a man who willingly walked into a trap and for a woman who knowingly accepted gravel and convinced herself it’s a gem. They deserved each other. Truly.

[Amy]

A marriage in crisis, emotional betrayal, and a plot twist you won't see coming ... this book is similar to a lot of Maya Alden books - the husband's rich family doesn't like his wife, they live in the south, etc.

Colt is having an emotional affair with his colleague, but he's too busy at work to even realize what he's doing. Summer, his wife, calls him out on it multiple times. When his company wins a big client, his father, the CEO, demands they all go out and celebrate. There are pictures of Colt and the colleague tagged on the company's socials, Summer sees and leaves Colt.

Summer saves herself in this book ... she moves to a different city, makes a new friend in a bartender called Sam, and begins to pick up the pieces of her life. Colt has a hard earned redemption arc ... and trust me, he does earn it.

The book is good. I liked the main and side characters. The writing - I suspect a lot of this book was written with AI influence. There's a lot of repetition and some of the paragraphs don't make sense. A sharp edit of this book would have made it that much better.

It's long, but it's worth reading, and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

[Sunstarandsea]

The writing is good but the story didn't really grip me or keep me engaged.

First - the good parts - even though there is emotional cheating, he recognizes it and he grovels. He really does try and while nothing ever quite justifies the betrayal, he gets a gold star for effort. To the point where it feels like he might spend the rest of his life on his metaphorical knees, which is as it should be. She gets empowered and tries a whole bunch of new stuff, which is also pretty cool to see.

What I struggled with - there were some characters, who all have roles, but then seem to pop in & out and I wasn't quite sure of their role in the narrative. Perhaps they could've worked if those relationships had been explained better, but that was distracting. The story was also quite drawn out. By about 80%, I felt it was looping and repetitive and I just wanted the plane to land.

So anyway, I think the author has potential but this one was ok.

[Glenda]

I was really enjoying this read, and then.....

I would like to start by saying I was all in on this book, engaged, entertained, and enthused.
For me the Chicago segment was where it got wonky. The club and characters were great. Loved the premise of burlesque and the dancing. What I wasn't a fan of was drinking bourbon every night, grew up that way, watching sucked. The second was when Sam got his own POV, obviously setting up another book.
Then it just got slow and drawn out. Summer's character was suddenly doing almost what her husband did, even though she left him. Emotional entanglement with another man. I hate when authors throw in another guy. Can't she save herself? Did we need all that?
Save it for the next one.

[Patricia Charlton]

Good Book

I have enjoyed this book.
Summer is a really good character and I loved her whole family including chosen family they were all great characters.
Colt was a good character once he got his head out of his a**hole.
I never understood how a grown man can be lead down such a stupid path just to gain the approval of his father, if he doesn’t have his approval now he never will and it’s just a carrot being dangled.
I was so happy Summer left and looked after herself and grew from strength to strength, and Sam was a great addition.
I loved how Dom was so lost to Marisol from the moment he saw her 🤣 he was doomed.
Great story and some great characters.

[SC Girlie]

Absolutely no accountability

Basically, this author decided to write a book that erased everything the man had done because he was drugged for one night. It blows my mind that a third of the book him emotionally betraying to his wife, lying to her, treating her terrible, and then someone tries to manipulate him and then that makes some sense? Let’s pretend for two seconds that didn’t happen. He doesn’t deserve his wife back just because someone else harmed him. He was a bad husband and she should have found someone new. I will never read this author again.

[Maria Moody]

Enjoyed this

It's very similar to another book I've read but it was still a good read and it kept me hooked.colt is gradually leaving his marriage to summer without even realising it and only when the sh#t hits the fan does he realise what his losing He's trying to fix what he has broken and he needs to face and fight his awful parents who have never liked summer .Summer is doing much better and I love her family and friends and the new friends she makes while dealing with heartbreak .It's a good book and a good ending ,is liked to read more about the other characters

[B Thomas]

2.75⭐️
I wanted to love this more. The premise seemed like a messy, angsty time but the execution just didn’t quite hit the mark. There were some glaring inconsistencies that took me out of the story and diminished the emotional impact. There ages felt too young as well. While life circumstances can certainly deepen one’s maturity, none of the characters felt like true 24 year olds. It certainly wouldn’t be an age where one is stepping into a CEO role. I found this discordance quite frustrating.

[Lisa Urban]

great story

I found this on a pay as you read app and thought it was fabulous. So I looked on Amazon and the rest is me reading a wonderful story, discovering a great author, and can’t wait for the next book! The hoops that Summer and Colt jump through to get to their HEA keeps you reading. It lets you as the reader see how a couple cope with the deceit they encounter. Great everything!

[Kim Brewing]

This started out really strong. I was hooked and thought this may be a 5 star read. Then the pace slowed down, a lot of repetition and I lost some of my eagerness to read. I did finish and I believe Colt worked on himself and getting his wife back. I think Sam stole the story though. I was actually hoping he would be a new H for awhile. Looking forward to his book.

[Michelle Lonnee]

Awesome

I have found a new author that knows how to write something worth reading. The story flowed and the characters were all needed. I like the small bits about the other characters. Next books?! You will not be disappointed.

[Susan Fernandes]

Great Book !!

Wreckage and Rain was truly a great book. The storyline was tough at times, because you don’t realize there’s more than one way to have an affair!! The characters were easy to love and the pages easy to keep turning !!

[Muguet]

First half of the book was good but then it was like someone switched to AI and writing got repetitive and boring. I was so hopeful that I found a gem. I had to skim after 47%. And the author thought that the dual pov is not enough so, we got the third from an irrelevant mc.

[Paige Whitecotton]

😭😭😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️😲

Wow I mean wow. What a hard one. Colt bless his heart really messed up. Oh he did the work and came back to summer but there was a ,or if pain in between all of the good.

[Lindsay]

Okay

The story had potential but it falls flat in the second half of the book. I'm also pretty sure this is written with AI. Bizarre conversations that there's no way a human wrote. Had to force my self to finish this.