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The Whitakers #5
The Wrong Track
Remy needs a reset.
The past four years have been…rough. Her life, previously on a positive track, has turned into something she wouldn’t have wished on anyone—but now she has the chance to restart. She’s in a new place, a frozen tundra that some people call “Michigan” and she has people looking out for her, trying to help but also driving her a little crazy with their kindness. It’s like they don’t trust her to take care of herself and her problems. And maybe, they have good reason to feel that way.
But everything will be perfect when she can escape on her own to someplace warm, someplace without people, someplace where she won’t have to look over her shoulder all the time, and where the constant nightmares will go away. Until she can leave, she moves in with Tobin, Tobin Whitaker. He needs someone, after all, and she could stay for a while. Just a little while, because she’s moving on for sure, no matter how much he seems to lean on her, no matter how safe he makes her feel in return.
As much as everyone thinks that she’s going to fall apart without them, Remy is actually going to be fine. Right? She can handle her problems, her nightmares, everything. She doesn’t need anyone—except that Tobin is pretty wonderful. He works his way into her life until he’s more than a friend, until he’s more like someone she doesn’t know if she can live without.
But how can she let him take on her history? How can she let him take her on at all? How can she stay—but how could she ever go and leave him behind?
The past four years have been…rough. Her life, previously on a positive track, has turned into something she wouldn’t have wished on anyone—but now she has the chance to restart. She’s in a new place, a frozen tundra that some people call “Michigan” and she has people looking out for her, trying to help but also driving her a little crazy with their kindness. It’s like they don’t trust her to take care of herself and her problems. And maybe, they have good reason to feel that way.
But everything will be perfect when she can escape on her own to someplace warm, someplace without people, someplace where she won’t have to look over her shoulder all the time, and where the constant nightmares will go away. Until she can leave, she moves in with Tobin, Tobin Whitaker. He needs someone, after all, and she could stay for a while. Just a little while, because she’s moving on for sure, no matter how much he seems to lean on her, no matter how safe he makes her feel in return.
As much as everyone thinks that she’s going to fall apart without them, Remy is actually going to be fine. Right? She can handle her problems, her nightmares, everything. She doesn’t need anyone—except that Tobin is pretty wonderful. He works his way into her life until he’s more than a friend, until he’s more like someone she doesn’t know if she can live without.
But how can she let him take on her history? How can she let him take her on at all? How can she stay—but how could she ever go and leave him behind?
314 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 3, 2023
53 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
January 7, 2023
enjoyed it so much but…
remy broke my heart several times throughout this book. her resilience was awe-inspiring and i shed a lot of tears for her. i’m so proud of her growth.
my only issue was that i didn’t feel like tobin’s and remy’s relationship development was organic. fans who read the author’s previous release would know about tobin’s relationship with lulu and his almost fall out with hazel. so i needed something to make me believe that tobin would grow up and have genuine love for remy.
i know he did care for her. but as readers, we don’t actually see much of it. i wanted to see them spend more time with each other—and i guess they did but most of them, we only got to see all of this after they have passed, through few word descriptions from remy. we didn’t actually experience them.
i never got the feeling that he loved remy for real. we know he was done with lulu (not before one last fuck) and he was feeling alone and restless. it just felt like he only fell in love with ella and with that love, he extended it towards remy. ella’s mother. not remy. probably unpopular opinion but this whole thing makes me more sad because i feel like remy deserved so much better.
remy broke my heart several times throughout this book. her resilience was awe-inspiring and i shed a lot of tears for her. i’m so proud of her growth.
my only issue was that i didn’t feel like tobin’s and remy’s relationship development was organic. fans who read the author’s previous release would know about tobin’s relationship with lulu and his almost fall out with hazel. so i needed something to make me believe that tobin would grow up and have genuine love for remy.
i know he did care for her. but as readers, we don’t actually see much of it. i wanted to see them spend more time with each other—and i guess they did but most of them, we only got to see all of this after they have passed, through few word descriptions from remy. we didn’t actually experience them.
i never got the feeling that he loved remy for real. we know he was done with lulu (not before one last fuck) and he was feeling alone and restless. it just felt like he only fell in love with ella and with that love, he extended it towards remy. ella’s mother. not remy. probably unpopular opinion but this whole thing makes me more sad because i feel like remy deserved so much better.
July 26, 2023
I felt as if the hero did not love her and was only settling. He cared for the heroine, but did not have the same emotion as he had for the OW in the previous book.
January 7, 2023
I love Jamie Bennett books!! My eyes leak reading about these dear women....so much depth to these characters. It's standalone but I've read many of the other characters' books that I remember them too.
I do wish communication was better with Remy and Tobin so that we knew they loved each other sooner and for longer before their wedding. It was a little awkward on their wedding night until it settled in between them (too quickly as a reader) that she could have regular relations with Tobin and not as a prostitute or nasty Kilian. She really needed therapy (truly) and the author missed responsibility to interject after highschool story and life with Kilian trauma. She dealt with Kilian as a victim and Stockholm syndrome. It was a lot. So I took a review star away.
I am also on day five of the dreary northern Michigan winter weather.
Haven't seen the sun in five days!!!
But do remember the other three seasons as spectacular!!!!
I do wish communication was better with Remy and Tobin so that we knew they loved each other sooner and for longer before their wedding. It was a little awkward on their wedding night until it settled in between them (too quickly as a reader) that she could have regular relations with Tobin and not as a prostitute or nasty Kilian. She really needed therapy (truly) and the author missed responsibility to interject after highschool story and life with Kilian trauma. She dealt with Kilian as a victim and Stockholm syndrome. It was a lot. So I took a review star away.
I am also on day five of the dreary northern Michigan winter weather.
Haven't seen the sun in five days!!!
But do remember the other three seasons as spectacular!!!!
June 27, 2024
Well written as always.
This is the first one of Jamie Bennett's books that I really disliked. She's a great writer, and because personal taste factors into whether you enjoy a story, I believe that while I personally found myself disappointed in this book, many other people might enjoy it.
I personally didn't like that the main characters didn't communicate well....at all. This was not a love story, but in my opinion a story of 2 people who settled, and while there was an iffy HEA, I can't help but think that both characters missed out somewhat. The last chapters just left me feeling sad for them. I felt like it was a very lukewarm love story, and the reason I like reading romances, is for a little romance.
This is the first one of Jamie Bennett's books that I really disliked. She's a great writer, and because personal taste factors into whether you enjoy a story, I believe that while I personally found myself disappointed in this book, many other people might enjoy it.
I personally didn't like that the main characters didn't communicate well....at all. This was not a love story, but in my opinion a story of 2 people who settled, and while there was an iffy HEA, I can't help but think that both characters missed out somewhat. The last chapters just left me feeling sad for them. I felt like it was a very lukewarm love story, and the reason I like reading romances, is for a little romance.
March 4, 2024
A bit BLEH in comparison to the other books. Honestly I already pegged Tobin as having the personality of a wet paper towel in Hazel’s book so I wasn’t shocked. The thing is I read Lulu’s book Crookstown and she gets a redemption arc, her maturity and intelligence come through AND she stops mentioning Tobin as her love story progresses.
January 14, 2023
Absolutely loved it.
By far the only baby trope book I loved.
Remy is a tough heroine to like at first, because she’s not easy to approach and she’s been through a lot.
But Jamie Bennett did it again and made me feel all kind of emotions. I just love her books!
By far the only baby trope book I loved.
Remy is a tough heroine to like at first, because she’s not easy to approach and she’s been through a lot.
But Jamie Bennett did it again and made me feel all kind of emotions. I just love her books!
July 12, 2024
I love Bennett's books. They are similar in tone to Marina Zapata's books. Bennett's stories tend to center around or in some way tie in with the fictional NFL team the "Woodsmen."
You absolutely do not need to read any of the other books to read this one. In fact, it took me a moment to even realize that characters from her other books were in this one. It's because it's written so organically. A lot (most) of the time, when a series of books come out written in the same "universe," characters from one book will make a cameo in another book. They play no part. Have no significance. It's basically just a nod to fans of a "look, see? they're still together and doing fine." I don't mind it usually but sometimes it can slow a story down.
Not here. Like I said, I didn't even realize that I was reading about people who were tied in to another book until 1) football was mentioned and if you are familiar with Bennett then you know football=Woodsmen and 2) one side character (but a major character in another book) used a gas powered...what it a quesadilla?...maker. THAT jogged my memory a bit. LOL.
Bennett's stories are slower paced but full of emotion and detail. Never boring. I felt for the FMC Remy. A normal highschool girl who made a bad decision and paid terribly for it. It felt realistic and I could see how that could make a girl who worked hard and had a potentially great future get on the "wrong track" in life. And how each decision and action just trapped her more and more. I thought Tobin was a great guy BUT, I started to remember him as a side character in another book and didn't like him as much there. Not because he wasn't a great guy so much as he was a kinda stupid GUY guy. If you know what I mean. In both books, he is swayed by his "then girlfriend/now ex" Lulu. I just felt like he was so attracted to Lulu that he kinda didn't see anything else. So when Remy and Tobin eventually make their relationship official it felt a little like...well..I don't want to say settling. I just felt that Tobin loved Remy's baby. And it was the baby that bonded them together mostly. But I get it. They were both at the right time in their lives to grow up a little and look for something more than just the physical attributes of someone to determine a relationship. That they were building something deeper that had nothing to do with looks, money, success, etc. This was actually stated more clearly in Crookstown which centers around Lulu. (It's like six degrees of separation here!!!). Again, somehow Bennett took a MINOR minor character in one book, used her as a mostly unlikable minor character in this book (yet somehow manages to throw in some redeeming qualities) and then give her her own book which frankly, I loved "Crookstown." But since I read "Crookstown" first, I think it helped me understand Remy and Tobin's relationship better in this one. Because in "Crookstown," Lulu often contemplated the fact that she was beautiful and sexy and had a number of tricks to get a guy and yet in the end, her ex dumped her for a woman who didn't wear makeup or sexy clothes, had a small baby, etc and was very happy with her, etc.
That's a long way of saying if I had read "The Wrong Track" first and then "Crookstown" which I THINK is the order I was supposed to read it in, I wouldn't have understood Remy and Tobin's relationship as well. It was only having read Lulu's observation of their relationship in Crookstown that I understood it in the "Wrong Track."
You absolutely do not need to read any of the other books to read this one. In fact, it took me a moment to even realize that characters from her other books were in this one. It's because it's written so organically. A lot (most) of the time, when a series of books come out written in the same "universe," characters from one book will make a cameo in another book. They play no part. Have no significance. It's basically just a nod to fans of a "look, see? they're still together and doing fine." I don't mind it usually but sometimes it can slow a story down.
Not here. Like I said, I didn't even realize that I was reading about people who were tied in to another book until 1) football was mentioned and if you are familiar with Bennett then you know football=Woodsmen and 2) one side character (but a major character in another book) used a gas powered...what it a quesadilla?...maker. THAT jogged my memory a bit. LOL.
Bennett's stories are slower paced but full of emotion and detail. Never boring. I felt for the FMC Remy. A normal highschool girl who made a bad decision and paid terribly for it. It felt realistic and I could see how that could make a girl who worked hard and had a potentially great future get on the "wrong track" in life. And how each decision and action just trapped her more and more. I thought Tobin was a great guy BUT, I started to remember him as a side character in another book and didn't like him as much there. Not because he wasn't a great guy so much as he was a kinda stupid GUY guy. If you know what I mean. In both books, he is swayed by his "then girlfriend/now ex" Lulu. I just felt like he was so attracted to Lulu that he kinda didn't see anything else. So when Remy and Tobin eventually make their relationship official it felt a little like...well..I don't want to say settling. I just felt that Tobin loved Remy's baby. And it was the baby that bonded them together mostly. But I get it. They were both at the right time in their lives to grow up a little and look for something more than just the physical attributes of someone to determine a relationship. That they were building something deeper that had nothing to do with looks, money, success, etc. This was actually stated more clearly in Crookstown which centers around Lulu. (It's like six degrees of separation here!!!). Again, somehow Bennett took a MINOR minor character in one book, used her as a mostly unlikable minor character in this book (yet somehow manages to throw in some redeeming qualities) and then give her her own book which frankly, I loved "Crookstown." But since I read "Crookstown" first, I think it helped me understand Remy and Tobin's relationship better in this one. Because in "Crookstown," Lulu often contemplated the fact that she was beautiful and sexy and had a number of tricks to get a guy and yet in the end, her ex dumped her for a woman who didn't wear makeup or sexy clothes, had a small baby, etc and was very happy with her, etc.
That's a long way of saying if I had read "The Wrong Track" first and then "Crookstown" which I THINK is the order I was supposed to read it in, I wouldn't have understood Remy and Tobin's relationship as well. It was only having read Lulu's observation of their relationship in Crookstown that I understood it in the "Wrong Track."
January 12, 2023
Convenient or inevitable
Remy and Tobin are both in her last book, The Takeaway, but the didn’t interact very much. Why would they, a troubled young woman and an officer of the law? But that slight yet significant interaction opens the door for something more lasting and life-altering in this book. A girl with no family finds a place with a boy who has the largest and best fictional family there is! Jamie Bennett has a knack for writing characters that you want to know more about and literally embrace. Even her secondary characters are so well drawn that you could invite them over for coffee and pie. Or maybe a smoothie with milk and ice cream.
Full disclosure: it took me longer than usual to read this book due to IRL commitments, but I ended up dreaming about Remy two nights in a row! So, on the third night, I tossed the reasons out the window and lost the sleep to get to the requisite HEA!
Remy and Tobin are both in her last book, The Takeaway, but the didn’t interact very much. Why would they, a troubled young woman and an officer of the law? But that slight yet significant interaction opens the door for something more lasting and life-altering in this book. A girl with no family finds a place with a boy who has the largest and best fictional family there is! Jamie Bennett has a knack for writing characters that you want to know more about and literally embrace. Even her secondary characters are so well drawn that you could invite them over for coffee and pie. Or maybe a smoothie with milk and ice cream.
Full disclosure: it took me longer than usual to read this book due to IRL commitments, but I ended up dreaming about Remy two nights in a row! So, on the third night, I tossed the reasons out the window and lost the sleep to get to the requisite HEA!
November 22, 2023
I really like Bennett’s writing, and I still overall enjoyed how things slowly build. Reading Remy’s story was painful—she is in such a bad place when this book starts.
Tobin….. I just couldn’t really warm up to him enough. I remembered him from Hazel’s story and his completely inappropriate behavior with his obnoxious (but hot) GF Lulu. He can’t drop the Lulu habit…not even well into this book. I mean, he didn’t have romantic intentions towards Remy, and I can recognize that surprising feelings building slowly is one of the things I like about Bennett’s writing, but Toby….and his small brain always making decisions just leaves a strong ick. I think Bennett tried to win us over with him falling in love with Remy’s baby and while an man being all about a baby is attractive—you want him to marry you for you and I wasn’t sold. And I still had the ick.
Highlight of this book was being able to see Annie Whitaker-Gassman again. She’s a favorite!
Tobin….. I just couldn’t really warm up to him enough. I remembered him from Hazel’s story and his completely inappropriate behavior with his obnoxious (but hot) GF Lulu. He can’t drop the Lulu habit…not even well into this book. I mean, he didn’t have romantic intentions towards Remy, and I can recognize that surprising feelings building slowly is one of the things I like about Bennett’s writing, but Toby….and his small brain always making decisions just leaves a strong ick. I think Bennett tried to win us over with him falling in love with Remy’s baby and while an man being all about a baby is attractive—you want him to marry you for you and I wasn’t sold. And I still had the ick.
Highlight of this book was being able to see Annie Whitaker-Gassman again. She’s a favorite!
September 12, 2024
3.5 ⭐️
In The Wrong Track, the heroine is Remy and the hero Tobin, both of whom we met in The Takeaway, and though they technically standalone I think it is better if you have read that book before this one considering the story involved and their background established in that book.
After seeing Remy (and Tobin) in that book, I was definitely eager for especially Remy to get an HEA, so I was happy to see them get one together. It took a long time for Remy to overcome her issues (no wonder, considering what caused them!) and the on-page romance is very spare and very far in the background in this one, but it is lovely to see Tobin fall in love with the "medical issue" (lol) and for Remy to finally allow herself to become a part of the extended Whitaker community and find herself again.
In The Wrong Track, the heroine is Remy and the hero Tobin, both of whom we met in The Takeaway, and though they technically standalone I think it is better if you have read that book before this one considering the story involved and their background established in that book.
After seeing Remy (and Tobin) in that book, I was definitely eager for especially Remy to get an HEA, so I was happy to see them get one together. It took a long time for Remy to overcome her issues (no wonder, considering what caused them!) and the on-page romance is very spare and very far in the background in this one, but it is lovely to see Tobin fall in love with the "medical issue" (lol) and for Remy to finally allow herself to become a part of the extended Whitaker community and find herself again.
April 22, 2023
So incredibly disappointing. The premise was good but the lack of depth of the characters - especially Remy - made it a very difficult book to finish. It was ironic that Tobin was constantly referenced as needing to mature yet Remy was made to appear vapid and childlike in her thought process. Her insipid personality did nothing to endear the audience to her. Her constantly questioning why other people wanted to be friends with her? I had to agree. I really don’t understand what they saw in her either and the book in no way explained it. The relationship between Remy and Tobin was possibly one of the most uninspiring.
May 21, 2024
I didn’t like Remy’s character. I felt she didn’t develop the whole book. I know she must have traumas but when I read a book I want to see improvement, and the whole book she spend dreaming of leaving the town with no real reason. She complained that people looked at her as incapable but honestly she avoided the baby stuff and she didn’t have anything ready when the baby arrived. I don’t know for me it was so irresponsible and she pretended to be the mist responsible.
and the romance. Zero romance. I don't know why Tobin loved her. good friends is the most we could see their relationship. The rest was zero.
and the romance. Zero romance. I don't know why Tobin loved her. good friends is the most we could see their relationship. The rest was zero.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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March 27, 2025Remy deserved so much better. I think Tobin loves more idea of family. I just couldn’t see it how much actually he loves her. I think for her too. Reason of marriage was just Ella. And I understand kind of both of them. But Remy deserves best in the life. She survived so much. But I know she will give her daughter everything . I am crying when I write this but I can’t say enough how much her life was hard, unfair. But it was life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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October 29, 2025On the Jamie Bennett Scale, this is a rough one. Especially since the Hatch and Hazel book was such a success. Remy is ESPECIALLY self-loathing and damaged for a JB character and Tobin is especially uncommunicative. We could have used a few more incidences of sparks before the big HEA. Like knock a few rocks together outside of the hand-holding while she has her three millionth meltdown of the book. I did leave it wanting to hold a baby though, so it did something.
January 29, 2023
Absolutely gorgeous story of the slow burn of Remy and Tobin, it’s told so gently that Remy’s vulnerability flows off the page, she cannot see her own strength but Hazel Is the first friend to support her, which grows into a whole support network and the strong, gentle Tobin needs her help, they become friends and then more, loved every page of this story!
November 6, 2023
I liked revisiting the Whitakers and Michigan in The Wrong Track. Remy has had challenging circumstances and I liked how Hazel, Monica, Tobin, and others rallied around her. I liked how Remy slowly, slowly came to understand that they only wanted the best for her and they enjoyed her company for who she was.
January 14, 2023
3.5⭐️: Was a good read, but not the best book by Jamie Bennett. I feel like they tried to handle more sensitive topics but don’t fully go into Rory’s healing process. She’d been through so much and I felt so bad for her, but I feel like she needed more help to process and heal from what happened in her past.
While Rory’s and Tobins relationship was sweet, developing from friends to more. It would have been nice to see more of them together as a couple. I felt it was a bit rushed towards the end. Aside from this is was an enjoyable read, just not amazing.
While Rory’s and Tobins relationship was sweet, developing from friends to more. It would have been nice to see more of them together as a couple. I felt it was a bit rushed towards the end. Aside from this is was an enjoyable read, just not amazing.
January 12, 2023
hard but wonderful
Really movingly written but a deep story about recovering from (so much!) abuse.
Also falling in love.
The abuse stuff was really sadly hard to great but you're so entrenched in the story by then that its unputdownable.
I loved it but it was really sad.
Really movingly written but a deep story about recovering from (so much!) abuse.
Also falling in love.
The abuse stuff was really sadly hard to great but you're so entrenched in the story by then that its unputdownable.
I loved it but it was really sad.
January 18, 2023
Ms Bennett definitely deserves more attention - her books are such a joy to read. And its Slowburn which is a big plus point.
I just wish that there were more moments where you can see/feel the characters falling for each other. Like the chemistry is kinda there but also not really.
I just wish that there were more moments where you can see/feel the characters falling for each other. Like the chemistry is kinda there but also not really.
April 22, 2023
Great story
This is a first book from this author I've read, and really liked it.
Very slow burn which is fine but then I felt like it was just rushed in the last 2-3 chapters. Would of like more of a story of how they grew as a couple.
Is Lilly getting a story?
This is a first book from this author I've read, and really liked it.
Very slow burn which is fine but then I felt like it was just rushed in the last 2-3 chapters. Would of like more of a story of how they grew as a couple.
Is Lilly getting a story?
December 21, 2023
This is another wonderful story by Jamie Bennett. She knows how to write sympathetic and vulnerable characters and stories that make me feel like I am right there with them. Sharing every sad and hopeful moment with them. Well done.
January 7, 2023
Wonderful book! I love Jamie Bennett! ❤️
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January 8, 2023Better than some of her other ones but not spectacular. I felt the ending was a bit abrupt and I wish they had dived a bit more into Remy's backstory. It felt a little lacking.
January 12, 2023
Read a Jamie Bennett book is like wearing your favorite comfy pj, eating comfort food
I love it
I love it
January 26, 2023
A really sensitive topic. And a way of coping with the trauma that was a bit difficult to understand for me. But the hereos was really perfect. And I was happy to follow hazel and Hatch in a new book
April 25, 2023
Writing style 5 /5
Story 3/5
Romance 3/5
Steam 1/5
Was good till the last 10%
Heroine was raped, forced to prostitution, brainwashed and drugged...this trauma was healed with kisses and cuddles.
Story 3/5
Romance 3/5
Steam 1/5
Was good till the last 10%
Heroine was raped, forced to prostitution, brainwashed and drugged...this trauma was healed with kisses and cuddles.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 27, 2023
her best book
I love all her books but this one is my most favourite. These characters felt the most real and once I started it I couldn’t stop.
I love all her books but this one is my most favourite. These characters felt the most real and once I started it I couldn’t stop.
July 7, 2024
beautiful story
beautifully written , engaging and heart wrenching .loved it !
worth the read . highly recommend it .
hope you enjoy it !
beautifully written , engaging and heart wrenching .loved it !
worth the read . highly recommend it .
hope you enjoy it !
September 10, 2025
I wasn't a big fan of the MMC I felt like they had no connection and the FMC kinda made me mad just accept help. I really liked the side characters in this book.
October 6, 2023
Enjoyable, but not my favorite of this author’s. I love Bennett’s books because she’s so so good at slow burn, and making the relationship feel organic and adorable. Her books are always packed with these little emotional moments that show you exactly how the characters should be together, and make you excited to see them get their HEA.
This one really felt like it lacked those moments. Or they just didn’t hit as hard. It was a very flat read, to me. And when the “I love you” moment finally came, it felt like too little, too late.
Still a pleasant read, and no struggle to get through. It was fun seeing Hazel and Hatch so much, too. Recommend reading to anyone who is a fan of this series, but if you’re just starting with Bennett’s books, definitely start elsewhere to see just how great they can be.
This one really felt like it lacked those moments. Or they just didn’t hit as hard. It was a very flat read, to me. And when the “I love you” moment finally came, it felt like too little, too late.
Still a pleasant read, and no struggle to get through. It was fun seeing Hazel and Hatch so much, too. Recommend reading to anyone who is a fan of this series, but if you’re just starting with Bennett’s books, definitely start elsewhere to see just how great they can be.
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