Everything we Left Behind

Everything we Keep, Book #2

By Kerry Lonsdale

ISBN# 9781477823972

Author’s Website:  http://www.kerrylonsdale.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

This book picks up where Everything we Keep left off.  James has woken up from his fugue, not remembering the last six and a half years that he has lived as Carlos.  And, worst of all, he doesn’t remember his own kids!

James takes Jullian and Marcus to California, but quickly realizes it’s a mistake.  The woman he has loved for most of his life is married with a child now and can’t handle being near him.  He doesn’t trust his own family, and his brother, Phil, who caused the dissociative disorder, is set to be released from prison in a handful of days.  They all suspect that Phil will come after James once he realizes he’s still alive.

James decides to take the boys to Hawaii to stay with their aunt, Natalya, for a while.  This proves most difficult since Carlos had an intimate relationship with Natalya, and now he doesn’t remember her.  Julian is really struggling, thinking that James doesn’t truly care for Marcus and him.  But right as things start to improve in the relationship between James and his boys, he must race back to California (leaving his sons behind) to deal with Phil before he does something to hurt James and his new family.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Everything we Keep, but it left me excited and scared to read this installment.  I was worried that the peace that Ian, Aimee, and even Carlos had found would be shattered.  And, for Carlos/James, that was the case.  He was shattered knowing that he could never be with Aimee again.

“Dying is a whole lot easier than coming back to life.” 

I thought this was a decent read, but not nearly as good as the first book.  I struggled with the constant flashbacks, especially when the flashback included a flashback.  I would have much rather this book had started with Carlos’s past and worked its way to the present, it would have been much easier for me to follow that way.

My heart completely breaks for those that James/Carlos’s dissociative fugue affected.  Obviously it was hard to see James’s life go on without him and leave him out in the cold.  The fact that he lost the love of his life for something outside his control was hard.  But even sadder was knowing that he forgot his own sons and their mother!  How hard it must have been for Julian and Marcus to see their father, but their dad not remembering who they are.

I didn’t want Ian and Aimee to be broken up, but part of me kind of wished Aimee and James could have found their way back to each other.

James’s mom drove me crazy!  She was so hard on him as a kid, not allowing him to follow his passion.  Then, to find out that she actually had the same passion when she was younger!  And, she encouraged such interests in his son.  I thought it was pretty crappy how she went about inserting herself in his kids’ lives.  But in her shoes, who knows what I’d do?

This is an enjoyable read that anyone that likes a good tearjerker will enjoy!

I thought this book would be the last of the series, but there is another one planned, one that appears might reconnect Ian with his mom!  I can’t wait to see how it all plays out!