Review: Never Let You Go by Katy Regnery (a modern fairytale #2)


Note: This ARC was provided by Rock Star Lit PR in exchange for an honest review.

Here, in the woods, clinging to each other every moment, they were Holden and Griselda, who had a unique history and deep emotional attachment. But out there? In the real world? They were Zelda and Seth. Jesus, the rest of the world didn't even know their real names. They lived two very different lives, where fairy tales and college and gray-eyed, sweet-smelling babies felt impossible.


Holden Croft and Griselda Schroeder were only ten when they first met as foster siblings and were later kidnapped by an abusive and mentally deranged man. They become each other's only source of light and hope as they struggle to survive the bleakness that surrounds them. Three years later, they make their escape, fleeing their captor and heading toward the Shenandoah River. But soon enough, they're being hunted and they spur one another on. Only one of them makes it across, leaving the other to wonder how fate could be so cruel as to separate them and take the only person that's ever mattered to them. 

Seth West and Zelda Shroder are living lives that they would never have wished for one another if they only knew of each other's existence. She's searched for him for a decade and he's mourned her for just as long. When their paths cross, the shocking realization of who they really are opens a long-closed door to the possibility of finding and spending forever with one another. With memories--both good and bad--and distant and more recent histories that demand to be brought out in the open, these two reunited soulmates must deal with their past and manage their present if they hope for a future...together.

Have you ever experienced having read a book that moves you so deeply that you think nothing could possibly equal it? That's what I went through after having finished The Vixen and the Vet by Katy Regnery. But then, I found myself so engrossed with the second book in the a modern fairytale series that what I once thought impossible no longer was. I'm still struggling for words to truly express how much Never Let You Go meant to me, making me apprehensive that I may not be able to convey what's in my head and heart. Suffice it to say that this novel took me on a journey and led me down a path that would sometimes veer directions I did not foresee, the author creating a map that kindred souls will be able to navigate once they fully entrust their reading experience to her. Believe me, it'll be more than worth doing so.

Life has never been simple for either Holden Croft or Griselda Schroeder, but whenever they were together, it seemed as if they were stronger, a more formidable ready to slay proverbial dragons for each other. Having lost one another for ten years broke them even more than the three years they spent under the demented watch of their kidnapper. Once they found their way back to each other, you would think that fate would take it much easier on them, but there were still hurdles thrown their way, hurdles that they sometimes overcame and hurdles that they sometimes stumbled from. Their story made me think of something that my father reminds me every now and again: We tend to take for granted the things that come to us too easily; we appreciate those that we had to work and struggle for. Such was the case for Holden and Griselda, two very broken individuals never thinking it was possible to be whole again until ten years later, but needing to understand that they couldn't fully rely on just that one person to make them whole, no matter how fervently they wish it to be true. They gave each other the inspiration and drive to want to be a complete person so that they're able to offer the best version of themselves.

Holden and Griselda were survivors when they were Seth and Zelda, but they were merely existing and not really living. When they embraced the people they once were, a spark was re-ignited, and while there were times it smoldered and other times it was in danger of being stifled, becoming Holden and Griselda provided them with the promise of something they denied themselves for so long: hope. This was a story about living the best life possible today without and that learning the lessons from yesterday can lead us to a more fulfilling tomorrow. You let go of the bad but hold on to the good. I know it sounds like something you would read in a self-help book, but it's something I try to remind myself every day, a mantra of sorts, especially when things aren't going so well, and it's part of what I took away from this novel. Cynics may think that a romance novel is simply a story meant to make you ooh and aah and make your heart pitter-patter. But when you've got something as special as Never Let You Go, you find yourself with a gift, one that inspires and reinforces just how wondrous true love is and that it is never really lost but merely waiting to pick up where it left off. If I could give this latest and very much deserving addition to my all-time favorites list ten stars I would. For all intents and purposes, I hope five-plus stars will do. ♥

Release Date: 12 June 2015

Date Read: 08 June 2015

Learn more about Katy Regnery here.

Purchase Never Let You Go on Amazon | B&N | Kobo.

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