It's a heart wrenching story which I just couldn't stop reading. - Amazon Reviewer
Serena Lindahl is fantastic at turning out heart breaking books with sweet and fulfilling endings and this one is no different. - Amazon Reviewer
As kids, they were inseparable. When tragedy struck and circumstances pulled them apart, Senya lost everyone who ever cared about her.
A group project brings the four guys and Senya together one last time, but it's clear they're not kids anymore...and it changes everything. Can she forgive them? When tragedy strikes again, will it ruin everything?
This is a full-length, standalone, non-bully, young adult / new adult, whychoose contemporary story about love lost and found. Mature language, subject matter, and scenes. Trigger warning - one scene involving domestic violence, talks about past abuse.
A 3 star review for me is like giving someone a C. I found it passable and filled with plot devices common to this sub-genre (broken girl, abuse, poverty, hot dudes who want to protect her). You have to suspend everything you know about high school to swallow the premise. I don’t believe for one second that in a contemporary setting (e.g. not supernatural or fantasy), that kids are that sexually aware of themselves or experienced. I’m not saying teens don’t have sex...I AM saying that the ability for a group of 18 year old dudes to sit down and have a logical conversation about sexual kink and preference—about the girl they all want to do it with—feels like a stretch. Shit, maybe this book IS fantasy after all?
3.5 Stars I really wanted to like this book so much more than I did. In essence this book is everything I love to read about and more. A heroine with a bad home life and men who love her and put her above all else. This time around the heroine and her men have been separated by time and years of friendship hang in the balance until a school project brings them together again. However there just was no other plot, no other purpose to the book and I guess I was a bit bored as well. The only mildly exciting thing that happens is a threat from the heroines past whom returns seeking vengeance. In that moment everything just worked out too well and came off as so cliche that it didn't even feel a bit realistic. I think with more added to the story it would have been a lot better for me, particularly the end which felt especially rushed. We barely got time to even see them all as a couple before the epilogue sprung up and we got their unbelievable HEA.
Huh, who knew that a high school reverse harem can be done without the MMCs being mean to or bullying the FMC. There’s so much bully harems’ out there I was beginning to think that’s the only way a high school based reverse harem story can go. It has come to the point where I just avoid anything that has “Academy” in the title. I really feel this book is perfect, a perfect amount of everything, angst, sexy, conflict, mean, sensitive, innocence, dirty, resolutions etc. Good or bad, everything is well balanced, I loved everything about this book.
Oh, my heart. I wanted angst and sweetness and reverse harem and I got all of that and so much more. Senya, Aric, Manny, Apollo, and Orion hooked me from the first chapter. They pushed their heavy hearts into my hands and took me on an emotional, heartbreaking, uplifting journey as they reconnected, supported, and loved so hard. Senya was their entire world as children before tragedy tore them apart and through honesty and action they all realized she never quit being their entire world.
It’s rare to find a standalone RH that hits every emotion and leaves me feeling content. I adored how HONEST every single character was with others. They were upfront and vocal about everything. While they’re all in high school, each of them admit their faults, guilt, and desires and for some reason that just made the connections unbreakable.
For the longest time I thought it was going to by YA but they finally get their moments toward the end and it was perfect. This book was focused on the relationship and healing and I think it needed to be done that way. Don’t get me wrong, the few scenes we do get were 🥵 but I was completely fine with having more plot than sexy times.
I like the trope of an FMC with past trauma and her hero (or, with RH, heroes) who care for her and help her to heal. I like protective men and men who can allow themselves to be vulnerable with the FMC and show her how much they care. Non-alphaholes.
This story had all that, but somehow missed the mark for me. The FMC had traumatic stuff happen but seemed on the whole not so affected by it. She seemed more upset by the lack of support from her group of friends than she was by the actual abuse. I think that's what bugged me.
Sure, maybe she has worked through it because it happened in middle school and she's now a senior. She has had five years to heal. So okay, if I overlook that, I'm going to try and understand her bitterness.
She and Manny were step-siblings. When their parents died in an accident, Manny went to live with his dad and they moved out of town. She went to live with her mom and was transferred to a different school, away from the three other guys. She's hurt and angry because she tried to keep in touch with Manny but he never responded. That's understandable. But she doesn't have any good reason for pushing the others away.
She admits she knew that Orion and Apollo went to her middle school for months to try and get in touch with her, but that she avoided them. She says she was in depression after the abuse from her mother's boyfriend and didn't believe that anyone would want her, and then I guess when they all transferred into the same high school she felt like too much time had passed and she didn't want to approach them... but this doesn't explain why she would still push them away when they approached her again in high school.
So it's like... she's upset that her friends weren't there for her when she needed support, but Orion and Apollo were -- except that she didn't allow them to be there for her. So it seems a bit ... irrational to hold that against them when she didn't blame Aric for being distant, knowing that he'd had family stuff going on at the same time.
If she had pushed them away and tried to keep them at arm's length because she felt unworthy or broken or some other thing like that, due to the abuse and what happened after it, I could have understood. But she never once says it's for that reason. So I felt that her reasons for staying apart from them and isolating herself were pretty weak and difficult to understand.
I liked that the guys aren't perfect heroes (except maybe Orion and Apollo). Manny and Aric both have issues of their own to deal with. It's never really explained why Manny has so much anger inside him. He already had it when his mum and Skylar's dad were together and they were a happy family, so there must be something more behind it but the author never discloses this.
I also thought that the guys handled the whole harem thing really maturely. I guess it's not beyond the realm of possibility that 18-year-olds could have that kind of emotional maturity, but maybe it's a bit more believable since they've had such a close bond since childhood.
I didn't like how the author simply skipped over the college years. There wasn't even any discussion about it. I wanted to know if Aric and Senya had managed to go to college; if they had all ended up being separated, and if so, how had they maintained the long-distance relationships; and if Senya hadn't gone to college, what had she ended up doing for a living? I would have much preferred the epilogue to dwell on this rather than to jump 10 years ahead.
I felt that the college discussion was an important one to have since they'd only just gotten back together and there are only six months left to go till the end of school. In Peyton's Path by Kerry Taylor, the FMC and her harem are all also in senior year, and they have discussions about which colleges they're applying to and how they're going to sustain the relationships once they are separated. This is realistic because long-distance relationships are difficult to maintain and they'd all likely apply to different colleges depending on what they wanted to major in or which college would offer a scholarship.
Overall, I guess the portrayal of emotions just didn't feel as real to me as they did in Peyton's Path. Senya's pain didn't grip my heart and twist it; maybe this is because she talked about her pain quite unemotionally and we didn't get to experience it along with her. There's something about her character that feels two-dimensional, like she's 'flat' and not coming alive to me within the pages of the book. Likewise, the guys all talk about their emotions and I hear it but don't feel it. There's too much inner monologuing and not enough dialogue and action.
I normally dont to tend to read contemporary RH especially second chance books,but i saw this and have read from Serena before so i thought, why the hell not i have nothing better to read. Boy am i glad i took a shot.
All MCs are either 18 or 19 and in their last year of high school. What made this a 5 star for me, there wasn't any unnecessary teen drama. Almost everyone is dealing with shitty home lives but they deal with their issues so maturely i had to remind myself that they are still teenagers. Yes there were times when Senya or one of the guys over-reacted but it was to be expected.
In terms of plot, the majority of the book focuses on them re-building their broken friendship, giving and receiving forgiveness and coming to terms with what caused their friendship to turn into a shit show. No action pack drama. One thing i wish could've been added more of
There are also some important topics being discussed/mentioned but its done in such a way that it didnt come across as preachy.
My overall feelings, i'm so stoked that found this book and will probably be re-reading it in the future and i need to finish the Soul tenders Series.
Growing up Senya was very close with four boys. Where one was, the others were sure to be. But a tragedy happened. Ripping away her world. Fast forward to senior year. A class that they all wanted to take. When they are all reunited for the class project, can Senya forgive them? Will things pick back up where they left off? Or has the damage been done, and too much time has gone by.
I have been looking forward to this story ever since I first came across it, and I can tell you I was not disappointed. Senya and her boys, Orion, Aric, Manny, and Apollo, all have such a tense relationship in the beginning. You can see how close they were, and how drifting apart because of the tragedy really hurt all of them. I do not want to give any spoilers, or reveal what said tragedy was, but I can tell you that at such a young age it would devastate someone. And poor Senya had to do it alone. I could understand her anger, her resentment to the guys. As the story goes on, we get to learn about what happened, and realize how things could have been different. But we know life happens and things do not always go the way we plan or want. The guys all have different personalities. Honestly I really couldn't choose a specific one I liked. They all had huge qualities I look for in my leading men. I also really enjoyed the multiple POV, so we got to see what the guys felt and background into how they deal with things. That ending was so good! It left me with a smile on my face.
Ugh my heart just feels too full... I just honestly, I’m like kind of speechless. I didn’t think I’d enjoy this book this much, but I’m glad that I read it. I also LOVED the epilogue!! It just filled me with so much joy....
This is like the first time in a while that I’ve read just a stand-alone book and not one in a series, so I kind of don’t know what to do with myself.
This book had multiple POV’s in it but I actually really didn’t mind it! There was like one or two times that I wished it went to Senya’s POV but other than that I did enjoy having the perspectives of the guys, but I still don’t really like multiple POV’s.
I absolutely loved everyone in the group, they were all so well balanced and just worked well with each other.
I just thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I had originally thought it was in a series, but I’m kind of glad that it wasn’t. It works well on its own :)
I am in love. This book was perfect. It had childhood friends to lovers, RH obviously, trauma, secrets, heartbreak, friendships and love 💙
The way everyone intricate thoughts were written and their actions and the best and worst moments, I loved it all.
It was funny to find out how the group project came to be. I hate Danny's stepmom and stepsister for what they did. And Loser obviously has a special place in Hell 😡
The relationship development was slow but satisfying and I loved reading about it all. The love between them all and acceptance of the flaws and mistakes and forgiveness is just so fulfilling to read 🥰
The scenes were sooo hot 🥵 The best part was the epilogue. It was so heartwarming to read about them all together and how their lives ended up. The twins were so cute and I don't mind having a book about them and their girl 😉
It would be awesome to read more about them all as a family. But what I've read is already amazing 🦋
Apparently I read this back in 2019, but I had no memory of that for like 80% of my reading so I haven't done so, but I’m not sure if I should downgrade it for forgettability or if I forgot it for other reasons.
I really enjoyed that it was not a bully romance like pretty much every other ‘academy” romance, not that there’s anything wrong with those but it was refreshing.
I thought the relationships and chemistry were established well and the characters were well developed with assistance from the multiple P.O.V.s. For the most part the characters behaved with maturity, with most of the miscommunication having occurred in their childhoods and the present having a focus on communication. I really appreciated how well the discussions went within the relationship in regards to forming it and establishing boundaries.
I will say that the plot was so so and the ending was a little rushed to me, but the strengths were definitely in the characters and the relationship.
Not a bad read! Easy and quick. I love that there was no bullying. As a stand-alone, it does a good job of establishing past relationships and brings the chemistry back in quick. It does move pretty quick once she accepts them back in her life. Hot group scene though! The action at the climax wasn’t my favorite, and i would’ve preferred a bit more leading up to the epilogue, but it was a nice read!
The cover got me again. 3.5 stars. I liked Sen, although she was stubborn and the guys were sweet and protective. I'm just not a fan of the school scene. I'm glad I read it though. Deals with dark themes of abuse, anger management, predators and addiction, with mother issues all round. I'm a sucker for the returning childhood friends and second chances, Manny, Aric, Orion and Apollo didn't disappoint. Other than the epilogue, favorite part was Aric and Orion both confessing to the set up.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Lost & Found is a standalone contemporary RH, there are some really emotionally charged situations. It’s so well written I couldn’t put it down... while I was work I was always twitching to read “one more chapter”.
The blurb is self explanatory so I won’t over use it but our main characters are childhood friends and through a traumatic accident they drift apart. It’s only when they are in their final year of high school do they rekindle their friendship, not that Senya makes it easy on them or herself.
The storyline is fantastic there are many parts that I couldn’t help but smirk, Senya is quite spunky and dark, but there are other times where I had to hold my breathe.
I just finished a really bad book that had so much potential but eventually became super boring. I needed a winner and I got one with this book. If you are new to RH, this is the perfect stand alone book to get you started. I couldn’t put it down. All the characters are really well written. Even each persons parents were brought to life in the small paragraphs. I loved all the characters and this was one fabulous book to end the day on. Read it! You won’t be able to stop once you start (1:59 am Sunday morning).
First time I’ve read a book by serena lindahl and I’m pleased that I did RH is my favourite genre and this book is now in my top fave read list. Well done a really captivating storey.
Fantastic book. The story was the soul focus here. Very low on spicy times, but that was fine because I was so caught up in the story itself. Told in multiple POV, if you like rh, this is a good one.
I really loved this book. It was a beautifully written story about childhood beast friends that drift apart during tragic events but come back together to find love. The characters are realistic, and there’s enough conflict to keep the story interesting. If you love contemporary RH, then this is definitely a book you ought to read!
Love, Love, Loved this book. It's heart wrenching story which I just couldn't stop reading. Senya's story is hard. Things haven't been easy for her after her dad's death. What was once lost is found and was always there waiting for her to find.
I loved everything about this book. It had the right amount of angst & I loved the fact that the guys didn’t give up. Shows how, with a little communication, misunderstandings can be prevented. 👍👍👍
The storyline was good and loved how in the end the MC got her HEA. Misunderstandings are cleared up and everything ends up like it should have been all along. Enjoyed the read.
The story was beautiful and inspiring. I almost couldn’t put it down and when I did it was only because the writing was something I needed to reflect on it moved me. Thank you for the perfect mix of sad painful tragedy and happy sexy scenes.