The One That Got Away by Karina Halle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A Love That Withstands The Tests Of Time
On the very first page of The One That Got Away we are told that Ruby Turner loves to do things that she shouldn’t do. She tells us this and reminds us that, “History has been made and lives forever altered because someone broke the rules and crossed a line, just to see what would happen.” This sets the stage for everything that happens in the ensuing 13 years, in her life, in her relationships with Luciano Ribeiro and his family. Every choice she makes leads them on their twisty angst-filled journey. However, not all can be placed at her feet. Much has to do with the twisted family ties of both Ruby and Luciano.
When Ruby first meets Luciano for her interview with him for her sporting blog they have an instant connection neither of them wants to acknowledge. She chooses to date his brother Marco as she later admits he is the “safer bet” and she won’t risk her heart with him. There’s no danger of falling in love with him for Ruby. Even so, Luciano and Ruby become closer. Ruby and Luciano share the same parental neglect, hatefulness and detachment that makes them see a kindred soul in one another.
“We’re the same. That’s why I know you and you know me. You may be a famous footballer here and I may be nothing at all, but we are the same.”
After Marco breaks up with her and sends her on her way with a plane ticket to Barcelona, Ruby and Luciano find their way to one another beginning the passionate, angst-filled off-and-on journey of their relationship for the next decade.
“I feel like I’m this swirling, tumbling galaxy, always moving, always searching, and he’s the sun. He stays in place, bright and burning and powerful, while I spin around him to no avail.”
Luciano’s stepfather is horrible to him (and to Ruby) in such brutal ways that the ultimate reason for it might seem a little anticlimactic to some, but if recent events have taught us anything it should be that people can have no good reason to be hateful and evil.
Luciano is such a good man. Passionate, charming, gorgeous, kind. I’ve been looking forward to his story since reading him in The Forbidden Man. Especially knowing that Karina Halle’s muse for him was Oscar Isaac. I really enjoyed the Oscar Isaac movie The One That Got Away provided my imagination. Luciano’s unwavering love for Ruby was beautiful; his passion was heart-stopping; his sorrow was so heartfelt.
Ruby is a self-described hot mess. She’s trying to figure out her life after she loses everything she was working towards in an accident. She’s drifting and escaping her family. She’s unsure of herself. She makes mistakes. She gets taken advantage of. She guards her heart a little too much. She struggles and makes missteps. She’s a very real character. She finally has to pay the price and face everything and in the end, she gets her reward.
I cried several times reading this book but the majority were happy tears. The trials that Ruby and Luciano go through are daunting but that only gives their happily ever after that much more satisfaction.
“We’re raw and messy and lost and found but what we’ve always been is real. What we’ve always been is us.”
Finally, I’ve been to Portugal and this book really made me miss it. The wine (the wine!), the seafood, the grittiness and grace of Lisbon. Karina has given us three books this year that have personally helped me to travel to other places in my mind. I’m so grateful.
The One That Got Away is:
✔ Second Chance Romance
✔ Complete Standalone
✔ Sports Romance
✔ A love spanning years
✔ Forbidden love
✔ Angst! But worth it
WRITING STYLE: 5/5
PLOT: 5/5
WORLD-BUILDING: 5/5
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 5/5
ROMANCE: 5/5
HEAT: 5/5 !!!!