Unloved – Review – Ashes Books & Bobs

My Beat the Backlist Challenge is making my reading year so sweet! I decided to snag Unloved with a gift card I won from The Book Bee last week. It has been on my Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf for years and I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about the story.

Luckily, this was exactly the type of read I was needing. Lately I’ve been struggling to get invested in anything that doesn’t immediately capture my attention within the first few pages. When I started this book, I immediately knew I was going to love it. At the beginning of the story, Brynn mentions her fiance’s love of Mt. Katahdin in Maine, and I was hooked. It’s one of my dreams to someday hike the whole of the Appalachian Trail, which finishes with a hike up this special mountain. I’ve done loads of research and watched countless videos about hiking the trail, with views from the mountain, and it almost seems like a place I already know well. I loved how Mount Katahdin practically became like its own character in this story.

BLURB:

My name is Cassidy Porter…

My father, Paul Isaac Porter, was executed twenty years ago for the brutal murder of twelve innocent girls.

Though I was only eight-years-old at the time, I am aware – every day of my life – that I am his child, his only son.

To protect the world from the poison in my veins, I live a quiet life, off the grid, away from humanity.

I promised myself, and my mother, not to infect innocent lives with the darkness that swirls within me, waiting to make itself known.

It’s a promise I would have kept…if Brynn Cadogan hadn’t stumbled into my life.

Now I exist between heaven and hell: falling for a woman who wants to love me, while all along reminding myself that I must remain…

Unloved.

**NOTE: This book is intended for readers 18+**

Ultimately, this story features my favorite kind of romance – the reclusive guy is discovered by the love of his life, though he doesn’t know it yet. This story reminded me of Savaged by Mia Sheridan, which is one of my favorite books. Since I’ve been on such a Mia kick lately, it was perfect timing for this perfect read! I truly cannot get enough of these types of stories and love the chance to see how things unfold between the characters!

I especially loved how Cassidy was certain he was doomed to a life of being a horrible person. He was determined to fight who he believed he was inside at all costs, even at the cost of his own happiness. He was eccentric and a little odd, but he was good at his very core.

“The minutes I’ve spent with her are the greatest gift my quiet life has ever known.”

I was completely blindsided by the twist in this story, which is always a welcome surprise. When I didn’t think I could love the book any more, this suspenseful moment cropped up and made the book even more interesting. I could gush endlessly about how much I loved this book, but I’d rather leave something to the readers’ imagination. Everything about this story was top notch for me as a reader and Unloved will undoubtedly be making my list of favorites for the year, a list which seems to get shorter the more I read.