After the death of her father, smalltown librarian Sloane Walton decides it’s time to find her own happily ever after. Her neighbour, Lucian Rollins, is a hotshot mogul hell-bent on seeking vengeance and building an indestructible empire. Sloane and Lucian are enemies and yet, they share a secret history with each other. After Sloane’s attempts at online dating go awry, Sloane and Lucian develop a temporary truce and “enemies with benefits” arrangement. But, when old threats reappear, Lucian learns that it’s harder to protect Sloane from a distance. Can Lucian shed his hard exterior and convince Sloane to give him a real shot?
Things We Left Behind is the third and final installment in the Knockemout series; even though each book focuses on a different couple, the books should be read in order as the main action continues throughout the trilogy. Tropes include grumpy and sunshine, enemies with benefits, enemies to lovers, and forced proximity. Things We Left Behind is a spicy contemporary romance with dark and suspenseful elements that would be perfect for fans of books like Dark Succession by Katee Robert or Twisted Love by Ana Huang. Themes include secrets and lies, self worth, love and sacrifice, life and death, good versus evil or light versus dark, family, justice and injustice, and crime. Potential trigger warnings include wrongful incarceration, physical abuse and violence, cancer, death of a parent, and arson. Firstly, the plot reminded me of one of my current favourite songs, “Electric Touch (Taylor’s Version)”; if you’re also a fan of this song, you should definitely check out Things We Left Behind. I appreciated that I was able to jump right into the story, without a lot of preambles, because Lucian and Sloane were already introduced in Things We Never Got Over and Things We Hide from the Light. I also loved that all my favourite main characters from the Knockemout universe still played key roles in Things We Left Behind. I enjoyed Lucian’s morally grey personality and “touch her and you die” vibes. Sloane has some serious book loving energy, which I think a lot of readers will connect to. I liked Lucian and Sloane’s soulmate-like connection as it reminded me of popular paranormal romance novels like A Court of Thorns and Roses and From Blood and Ash. There are also some totally swoon-worthy moments involving a cherry blossom tree (which I believe are the flowers featured on the cover)! Things We Left Behind had a fair number of flashbacks sprinkled throughout the novel outlining teenage Lucian and Sloane’s history. Even though they were needed, I’m personally not a big fan of flashbacks and felt like they were a little drawn out for my tastes. But I do think that readers will enjoy finally figuring out Sloane and Lucian’s secret yet alluded to history. Lastly, I felt like some of the smaller plot twists were a little obvious, which was disappointing, but there was also a big twist that I didn’t see coming! Even though it wasn’t my favourite in the series, Sloane and Lucian’s enemies to lovers romance definitely did not disappoint. I would highly recommend Things We Left Behind to fans of morally grey love interests, suspense, and spicy “enemies to lovers” romances.
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