He was my first crush, my first kiss, my first everything.
But I’m not a lovesick teenager anymore, and I’d never let that cocky troublemaker break my heart again.
So when he shows up out of the blue asking me to have dinner with him “for old time’s sake,” I say I will. After all, it’s been twelve years, and I’m stronger and smarter than I was back then.
Except…he still does something to me. He’s got those eyes that make me weak, those hands that drive me wild, and a body I can’t resist—especially once I see the tattoos. It doesn’t take long for our trip down memory lane to go from sweet to sizzling.
We’re just as good together as we were back then—better, even—and I’m willing to give the only man I’ve ever loved another chance.
But he’s got to tell me the truth.

* * *

All I wanted was to see her again. Tell her I’m sorry. Make her smile.
Okay, that’s a lie. I wanted to do more than that—a lot more. But I know she’s better off without me, and I promised myself I’d behave.
Except I’ve never been much good at keeping promises…or my hands to myself when I’m around her.
I can make her laugh, I can make her cry, I can make her body surrender to mine in ways that neither of us could have imagined back then. I can—and I do—love her more than she’ll ever know.
But I can’t tell her the real reason why I’m here.
And I can’t stay.

There are these types of books that make you wonder if your heart can actually break while reading a book.

Only Him (One and Only #2) by Melanie Harlow is a book like that.

The essence of that book does not stay hidden forever and the tone is not loud or an aggressive one. It is more the soft tone and the struggle that got to me as a reader.

I loved both leading characters and this story is one of the few times that the rekindling  second chance romance felt real and I could understand and feel as well as forgive along with the characters in the book.

Dallas our male lead struggles with family issues and other things that would spoiler to much of the story for me to recount. But his pain is visible, feels real and is def. justified. He wants to correct past mistakes but along the ride he actually gets drawn-in deeper and deeper. His actions are well meant and come from deep inside his heart but instead of making things better the situation is getting worse and it seems as if there is no way out.

Maren – The female lead finds herself in a situation that requires her to search for unfinished business and the only thing that comes to mind is her history with Dallas. So when out of nowhere he suddenly appears at her door she takes the chance to find closure. Only closure is not all she finds and she is drawn deeper and deeper, revisiting history. But will she also find herself in a repeated history ?

My thoughts on the story. In a for me “perfect” plot there would have been more power in the struggle for forgiveness. And more power would have also been in that lets say “dark cloud” that was floating above the relationship. Finally when it came near the end I felt that things went to fast suddenly which did not fit the pace of the story until then. But even with/without all of that that my heart felt like it was breaking at their struggle alone. I could understand both sides.

The story was a powerful one and I feel so far it is my favorite one from this author. I can fully recommend it and I am pretty sure that it will find many lovers.