4.5 Stars!
That’s The Way I Loved You is the ultimate second chance small town romance, about how Savannah and Jason reconnect when she returns home after ten years to tie up loose ends before going back to the new life, she’s built for herself in New York.
Savannah is all set with the perfect life, the handsome Wall Street boyfriend Perry, the high-class friends, her dream job and is about to sign on for the skyrise penthouse in the heart of New York. Until a credit check is run, and it shows she has some outstanding debt on a piece of property back in Hale, Texas, her small country town she ran from a decade ago to escape the life she once lived. When she arrives back in town, she travels to the shack she once dreamed of living in with her high school sweetheart, so it’s a surprise when she bumps into him at their spot. Jason has never left Hale, having had a life altering injury, leaving his hopes and dreams crushed. He never expected Savannah to appear back in town, as did her siblings, but now she’s back, he realises this is his chance to fix everything that went wrong all those years ago and convince her that he is still the man she fell in love with. Their chemistry is still there, it’s just hidden behind bitterness and anger. Jason makes a deal with Sav that if she helps him fix up the shack, then he will buy her half from her and she can run back to New York and to her life. But as the spend time together, Sav reverts back to her small-town ways and realises how much she’s missed Hale, her family, and Jason. Once the shack is complete, will Jason have done enough to convince Sav of his love for her? Will she go back to her big city life or stay in Hale? Or, will she be able to find something in between to allow them both to truly find happiness?
This story was so amazing, I adore small town country romances. Sav and Jason had explosive chemistry, you could clearly see the love between them was still there from the offset, but they were just too young and were put through traumatic experiences and didn’t know how to react, so pushed the other away. When they reunite, older and with more life experience, they truly fit. Carrie’s writing is amazing as always, I loved the setting and the descriptions of Hale and the surrounding areas. The secondary characters added more depth to the story and made Hale seem more like a small town, I felt like I was coming home with Savannah.
Savannah was independent and determined, having lived in New York for so long. But she craved stability, something she found with Perry, but she never had that deep connection like she did with Jason. She grew as a person in New York but didn’t realise what she was missing until she returned to Hale and realised that to be truly happy, she needed both. Hale reignite the sassy, fiery side of her she lost in New York and brought back how to appreciate the small things in life. She reconnects with her siblings and old friends, but she adores her job in NYC and the independence she found there. Savannah really grew in this book, I didn’t really like her materialistic side at the start but the more she opened up and parts of her old self started shining through, I respected her so much for the difficult choices she had to make at such a young age and how she stood by her dreams and refused to sacrifice them. At the end when her old self and new and improved blended together, she was finally happy and complete. I loved her character and Jason really was her perfect match, they balanced each other out perfectly.
Jason, being the popular athlete in school, was dealt a hard hand after his dreams were taken away from him. After Savannah left, he truly made something of himself and became the best kind of man, caring, generous, humbling, funny, helpful and so loving, I adored him. But he never let Savannah go and when she returns, although he is still angry with how she left him, he does everything he can to clear the air between them to make way for the possibility of reconciliation. Although this proves harder than he thought, he doesn’t give up, but he also doesn’t push her and brag about his life, he knows that it’s who a person is that’s important and not what he has, something he wants Savannah to realise and see that he has not changed from the person she knew. When he opens up with is feelings and is honest about what he wants, I swooned hard. His apology for how things ended was heartfelt and sweet, everything made so much more sense after.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, it had minimal angst but a lot of love. Second chance romances are the best because it gives you hope and proves that sometimes the timing just isn’t right for couples but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a fit. Jason and Savannah got the happily ever after they deserved, and I loved it!
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.*