Back to Life by Danielle Allen

Reviewer: Kaylene

 

Rating: 5 Stars

 

Synopsis

Sahara Lee has spent the last ten years living with the guilt of a tragic accident and its aftermath. That night irrevocably changed the outgoing, fun-loving college freshman into an introverted, workaholic with no social life. Sahara isolates herself from everyone and everything that reminds her of home in an effort to forget what happened. Using art as a substitute for love, Sahara throws herself into music and art as a way to feel something other than the guilt that haunts her. She accepts her lonely existence as penance for the role she played in the accident. That is, until she meets Tyree Barker, the good looking entrepreneur with baggage of his own.


Blindsided by a legal loophole, Sahara is suddenly forced to confront the past she’s been running from. Juggling the guilty feelings of her past and the unexpected feelings of her present, Sahara’s future becomes complicated as she heads down a path of forgiveness, love, and heartbreak…and not in that particular order.


Back to Life reminds you that living and existing are two completely different ways to go through life. Grief will break you but guilt, guilt will destroy you. And once that happens, what can bring you back to life?

 

Review

 

This book was captivating from the beginning.  Sahara is lost in her own world of pain and hurt after an accident destroys her life.  The accident takes away her father, and destroys her relationship with her best friend Emily, and the love of her life Emmanuel.  After the accident she moves far away from the only family she has ever known, her best friends family.  Ten years pass by with her merely existing, and being closed off from everyone. She finally meets Tyree, a wonderfully compassionate man who steals her heart.  Time catches up with her and she is faced with her past again, when she must face her best friend  and the man she grew up loving.  Needless to say, without going into too much detail that Emmanuel and Tyree face off when she has to decide who she wants to be with. The ending tore me up and now I have book hangover.

I enjoyed the book and gave it five stars. This book was well written, and the author slowly revealed the secrets of the book. There were some minor editing issues throughout the book.   I also found at times there was a frustrating amount of explanation, way too much detail. There was also a cliffhanger ending, which will force me to stalk the author now to find out when the next book in the series comes out.   However, overall I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend this read to others. 

 

I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.

 

 

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