If We Fly

4.25 stars--IF WE FLY is the second instalment in Nina Lanes’s contemporary, adult WHAT IF romance duet focusing on artist Josie Mays, and distillery owner Cole Danforth. For backstory and history I recommend reading the prequel novella-IF WE LEAP. IF WE FLY should not be read as a stand alone, as it picks up immediately after the events and cliff hanger of book one-IF WE FALL. Told from dual first person perspectives (Josie and Cole) using present day and memories from the past, IF WE FLY picks up immediately following the events of book one-If We Fall- in which Josie has returned to her home town of Castille, Maine to pay homage to the family she loved. But returning home meant coming face to face with her past, a past that is about to come crashing down when the truth is finally revealed. Ten years earlier Josie May’s life was destroyed, and now she is about to face the destruction once again. Cole Danforth has struggled for close to ten years to move on from the past but memories and pain are all that he has left of the girl that he loved. With Josie’s return to Castille, so too, do the memories that threatened to rip them apart. A lifetime battling his father’s legacy, and the rumors that continue to push him down, Cole Danforth isn’t willing to risk losing Josie again, even if it means revealing the truth about what happened, years before. IF WE FLY is a story of family, secrets, grief, lies and loss; a story about two sisters who struggle to move on from the past; one woman who searches for the answers to the missing pieces of her mind; and one man who hasn’t stopped loving the girl, now woman, he will always protect even if it means destroying his own reputation in the fall-out. Nina Lane pulls the reader into a revealing and emotional story about forgotten memories, broken souls, a passionate sacrifice, and a love that has endured. Although predictable and a rush to the finish IF WE FLY is an impassioned look at love and sacrifice. My only wish is that the author focuses a little more of the town’s acceptance and understanding of the man that Josie loved.

After my heart was gutted in book2, I didn’t know how this book would end but I thrown again. To find out how much Cole loved Josie was just beautiful. True he kept one big secret from her but I can’t fault him for it. I just fault him for leaving her and pushing her away. I loved that Josie still had a strength in her that wasn’t totally distorted by her sadness and psychosis. I don’t really want to let these characters go.

4.5 Flying stars If We Fly is the second thrilling book in the ‘What If’ duet by Nina Lane. Book 1 finished with quite a cliffhanger, leaving everyone wondering just what had happened on that night ten years ago. Here we get to the nitty gritty parts where the truth is revealed. It’s not pretty and leaves Josie reeling from the shock. She’s only just come to terms with the fact that she’d never stopped loving the boy she gave her heart to when she was sixteen, and even before then, he was the only one for her. This was a rollercoaster of a story, filled with tense drama, fierce emotions and everlasting devotion. It’s definitely left its mark on me. Josie is still fighting her nightmares and trying to find the answers she needs to help rid herself of them, but the despair the fills her when she finds them took a huge toll of her. And, Cole? I always knew deep down he was a good guy. He was just the perfect knight in the end, and when that came to light, I gave a fist pump of happiness. Finding out just how far Cole had gone to protect Josie was overwhelming. That boy loved with all his heart.