Popular. Smart. Gorgeous. With his cocky grin and perfect family, he was the fantasy of almost every girl I knew, including mine. And for some reason, he wanted me. Me, Henley O’Connell. The ugly bookworm with bright orange hair. Poor white trash with a quick temper and a chip on her shoulder. He confused me and made me angry. He treated me like I was something more than what I was. Like maybe what I wanted wasn’t just a silly fantasy. Like maybe it was real. As much as I wanted to trust him, believe in him, I couldn’t. I pushed him away. I left Boston. Tried to move on without him. Tried to pretend that letting him go wasn’t the single worst mistake of my life.
But now I’m back.
It wasn’t supposed to be forever, It was temporary. A way to find closure. A way to move on. To prove to myself that I was right. That Conner Gilroy forgot about me as soon as I left. That I didn’t break his heart. He isn’t at all who I remember. He’s surly and arrogant. He drinks too much and calls me Daisy. He scares me because one look at him and I know that there is no going back to my perfect life. Eight years later, I still want what he promised me.
USA Today best-selling author Megyn Ward lives on coffee, chocolate and more than the occasional glass of red wine. When she's not spending time with the hot, dirty-talking Alphas and the strong, capable women who love them who live in her head, she's busy chasing chickens (and kids), hanging laundry and burning dinner. Either way, she is almost always in the company of her eight dogs, her truest and most faithful companions, and her almost as faithful husband, Joe. Megyn is also the author of the award-winning Sabrina Vaughn thriller series, written under the name Maegan Beaumont.
Ugh, I go back and forth with these books so much. The authors writing style is great, the sex scenes and chemistry are off the dang charts, but these books are just one constant state of angst and heartbreak. Which a lot of could be avoided if the characters just told the other how they felt. I feel like these adults are so emotionally stunted they can’t even have a real convo about their feelings, and maybe that’s the point. I continue reading this series because I actually love the characters and again... the chemistry is awesome, I just wish they could pull their heads out of their butts long enough to have a normal conversation.
Finally! Conner gets the girl. Finally! Henley chooses him. Finally! Everyone gets their heads outta their asses. So far, out of this series Connor and Henley have been my favorite. So much love with so much let down. The journey with these two was so worth the wait. Truly can’t wait for Declan’s story.
Loved this story!! Finally seeing Henley stand up for herself and get what she wants was awesome. Also seeing the growth in Connor despite getting his heart broken was perfect. I’m glad they got their stuff together. Loved the glimpse into the future too that showed the perfect combination of the two of them! Can’t wait for the next story!
These books are not mind blowing but I'm enjoying the story as it continues through each characters parts.
These books (especially Conner & Henley's) are pretty spicy, so you get a lot of that and less of an "exciting story". There's just enough story to keep the book interesting enough to keep reading - in this pair particularly.
I really enjoyed the relationship with Henley & her stepdad Spencer in these books. I've found that while I love romances, I love to be impressed with the non-romantic relationship between other characters in a romance novel I'm reading - silly? Idk but I love it.
My continued complaints about these books: all the dang typos and grammar issues. It really does get annoying after a bit.
I absolutely loved this book. I adore both Conner and Henley. They both are trying to find themselves…Conner stays true to himself and his love for her. Henley struggles with living her life for herself and her own happiness. I love the loyalty that these friends have for one another and can’t wait to read some more in this series!
Conner & Henley have a past that has prevented a present worthy of a future. I loved the book. The editing/proofreading was done poorly; it made reading at a normal pace tedious.
Well I liked this duet better than the first. I still maintain that none of these characters need two books. The good: -I really do like the writing style. -I liked the flashback scenes to Henley and Conner in High School. -I like Conner a lot and enjoyed getting more back story of him and having to grow up being a genius but surrounded by normal people and how difficult it was for him to make genuine connections.
The bad: -Does this author have an editor? If she does, they need to be fired asap. If she does not, there is a great need for one. Spelling mistakes, weird paragraph spacing/layout, quotations randomly inserted when not needed, one whole chapter is labeled as being set in 2009 when it was not. I could go on. All four books so far have mistakes all over the place. GET AN EDITOR. -Again, the female protagonist could have been expanded on more. Although Henley was much more fleshed out than Cari, I still didn't understand what made her think that Conner wouldn't want her? Like he flat out stated that he liked her. And then she broke up with him when he wouldn't sleep with her. Girl, what? -Like with the other duet, the main conflict between the two main characters is miscommunication and assumptions. Again, the female protagonist couldn't, for whatever reason, say 'I love you' to the man that had already told them they loved them. The main plot is basically the same with a more fleshed out back story this time around.
TL;DR: I enjoyed this for what it is but I will probably not continue with this series/author. I like the writing style but the very noticeable editing mistakes and the very similar plots between the duets has me concerned that every single duet in this series is the same and that's just going to bore me.
I have to say I absolutely live Connor and Henley. Their friendship and codependency. How they really see one another. How they have loved each other for years and years and are only apart due to her horrible mother and their lack of self esteem and confidence in each others feelings. I personally throughout the two story books of Connor and Henley prayed that her mother would gets what’s coming to her for treating her children like insurance policies and back up plans to the life of rich and famous. She is ‘handled’ but I feel like she deserved so much more. Connor and Henley’s relationship has ebbs and flows all around her inability to stand up for herself and let her friendship with Jeremy and guilt dictate her life. But in that process she makes Connor feel and treat him like his is just a lay and that he will and would never be good enough for her and the life she now lives. Connor with his massive IQ and brain power never has an off switch and Henley provided him that outlet to feel normal and seen for once. To be able to decompress and just relax. He is very self deprecating. And just through his self monologue and convos with others you see he tries to portray this no cares attitude who just drinks and screws around. But he doesn’t even want that life or enjoy it. He simply does it to cope and function with how his mind works non stop. I love their growth and evolution in this story.
I'm a ball of emotions while reading this. Omg, such a touching story. I felt like balling every time Connor say "I just want to be with you, why cant I be with you". What Henley doesn't understand is that Connor see her beyond physical beauty. She owns him from the very start, but her poor upbringing lack of love growing up led her to feel less and insignificant. When finally, she gained money by her selfish mother marrying to wealth she still lack self worth and thought of herself more of a tool than a person of beauty. Connor showed her to be more even though clouded by anger for being left behind, when he realized he is going to loose her again he embraced and surrender to fate. Because all that matters to him is Henley's happiness. Henley on the otherhand, came to and decided to seek and claim freedom for herself to love and be with Connor. Thanks Megyn! Please reimburse me for all the tissue paper I used.(Joke).
Conner Gilroy will be one of my go down as one of my favourite book characters ever!!!! He broke my heart watching him struggle and hit that self destruct so many times because ultimately he never felt he fit in or had a place where he could truly be himself without pretence or judgment. Henley ack how many times did I want to give her a right good shake but at the end of the day she was just a scared little girl still looking for acceptance never thinking she was good enough safe to say her parents did a number on her thank the lord for her step dad she at least had 1 person in the last 8 years who genuinely cared for her just her and not what she could do for them.
The Gilroy Clan are shaping up to be one of my favourite families ever!!! Can't wait for Declan and Tess this one is going to be explosive!!!
Outstanding writing from Megyn Ward I honestly can't get enough.
I don’t usually review books and I’ve been reading a lot of romance lately. Some have been good. Even then, eh. This series has gripped me though and this book in particular wrecked me. Stayed up way too late reading it, crying more than I would have expected, and absolutely loving the story.
I see some reviews that say communication would solve it all in these books, but what I really like about this author with these books is the understanding of people’s own insecurities and/or unwillingness to be vulnerable locking them in a box. Sometimes people want to communicate and just can’t. So relatable and real life. Yeah the characters make me want to yell at them sometimes! But I totally get it.
I never expect much from romance as a genre and just look for a bit of an escape but so far these are fantastic truly and I imagine this book will likely be my favourite of the bunch.
I can’t put into words what this book has me feel right now. The conclusion to Conner and Henley’s story had me in so deep, am still trying to get out of my feelings long after finishing. I can not brag about this book, let alone this series enough!
If you are looking for a series to give you a rollercoaster ride of feelings, laughs, and the meaning of family; you need to pick these books up. I can’t believe I didn’t find them sooner. I can’t wait to start Declan and Tess’s book next!!
I absolutely adore Conner, I really do. Being so smart has to have it's troubles, but he found ways to work with it. May not have been the best ways but he made it work.
Hen, she truly got the poor end of the stick when it came to life but she also could have opened her eyes sooner.
Wonderfully written, loved the ending, the character dynamics but hoping in the next 4 books we get more future and less back stories. Can't wait for Declan and Tess, not sure what I am hoping for on the outcome yet!!
He hasn’t done a single thing wrong in his life and I stand by that.
Henley on the other hand? I don’t wanna get into how frustrated I was with her.
What is up with the endings of the couple’s duologies? The pacing is so weird. Like there are weird little time jumps forward. There’s also lots of flashbacks. That is not my issue, it’s the actual pace of the plot. It could go very into detail for a day and then skip WEEKS. Or just like abruptly tie all the ends together in less than 20% left in the book?
Connor is the first male lead I have read and I've read a lot of books, who has a complexity and behaviour that just fit the steel typical alpha male arrogant ass. He is clearly hyper sensitive, highly functioning and highly honest with himself. I loved his journey here, Henley was absolutely perfect and the torture they both out each other through was so addictive. I said it in my last two reviews of this series, why the help did I wait so long to read them.
Megyn Ward wants to tear my heart out, stomp on it, and then put it back together. I loved the story of Conner and Henley, I really did. But oh did my heart break for them everytime Conner got in his own head and told himself he wasn’t good enough. Everytime Henley couldn’t lean into the love he wanted to give her. For them to just see each other. I love a good friends to lovers. I loved Conner’s complex mind. Finally, finally they can live their happily ever after. (PS SO CUTE THE BABY NAME)
It was tragic like a Greek tragedy. The neurosis of both Connor and Henley made me feel like I was reading a case study from abnormal psychology. Not even their 'love' scenes were enough to carry this book for me. I wanted to see how it ended....but that was a bust. I'm choosing you in this universe, then they have a three yr old. What's was the plot. The story of psychosis? Love conquers all... even though their love was toxic. It's fiction, maybe there was no plot. I'm happy I read until the end just to say I finished.
Conner oh my dear beautiful sexy Conner whose brain is wild...and is crazy for Henley. This Irish sexy beast just needs her to fight for him to choose him and herself and their possible happily ever after. You will have to get over the fact that this is the ending to ancliff hanger...because that's what dear sweet devilish author does to us...but she also gives us amazing characters who makes your heart bleed.
Conner and Henley have spent most of their lives loving each other but not admitting it. Henleys evil, gold digger mother, took her from the only life she knew and threw her into luxury with her new wealthy husband. When she's engaged ( sort of) to be married, she sneaks back to Boston to see Conner 1 last time. What happens next is complete chaos of the heart. Have your tissues ready. This story is wonderful.
After waiting forever for the second part of this book I was disappointed. Spent 2 books going back and forth Connor really did love her so much but I felt like she didn’t give enough the ending was so sudden she never redeemed herself I was hoping for a bigger bang . The epilogue was just put in there basically because hey we need to have kid in there to make it sound good . Blah blah blah
A great conclusions to Conner and Henley's story. I am in love with this series. Once I started reading this I couldn't put it down. Love the storyline and the characters. Love the explosive chemistry between these two. Can't wait to read Declan and Tess's story. Wish it was August already. I received an ARC and volunteered to leave a review.
The HEA for Conner and Henley. I loved this pair. A lot of heartache for both of them until they settled their differences and Henley “choose” Conner. This series is one I will certainly come back to read again, that is once have read each of the Gilroy Clan’s. I’m hoping the future stories will be just as good.
My thoughts on books 3+4 in the Gilroy Clan series: I liked this duet much better than the first in the series. This duet needs a lot of editing, but I overall enjoyed the story line and characters. The writing style itself I really like, but the books are way too drawn out IMO. I did enjoy this though and will continue with the series.
GRRRR!!! I was so invested in Connor’s story! I fell in love with him & his struggles... I felt like I was on this journey with him & I was rooting for him throughout the 2 books... I couldn’t put the book down!!! BUT WTF... the entire ‘ending’ consisted of literally 5 pages!!??? SOOO DISAPPOINTED!! I needed sooo much more from Connor finally being CHOSEN!!!
I wasn't sure she was going to pull off a convincing HEA but it was so satisfying after all the heartbreak. 4 stars because of the massive amount of grammar and spelling issues that could be taken care of easily by running it through a Word spellchecker.
Part2 not sure it's so much from Conners perspective as in part1 the story is told from Conners & Henleys perspectives. But continuing the hard love story of these two it finally comes to a conclusion.
Spencer is my favourite character a true dad, blood or not.
As I said before, I love Connor and Henley story. I wis there was a little to their story after Henley made her choice. Instead of jumping head to 3 years later, making you wonder what happened in between. Not enough of their Happy ever after. But a great read by Megyn Ward.
Absolutely loved Conner. Bi knew in the first books there was more to him then meets the eye. And I have to say I wasn't Disappointed with him story . We got to see so much of the man behind the grin I felt his hurt his happiness and his lose. He's amazing and deserves to be loved . My favourite gilroy.
This gotta be my favorite book from the series so far. Conner is my fav character from the series (for some reason when i read declan’s story i got upset woth his parents, no clarity on why they are @ssh*les woth declan) Whenever i talk about this book it made me cry. Maybe i can feel Conner’s love for henley, the desperation of falling for one person only. Overall love this book.