Review: Once Loved by Cecy Robson

Title: Once Loved
By: Cecy Robson
Series: Shattered Past #2
My Copy: Amazon.com
The BookWhisperer's Rating: 

Every memory Lety Tres Santos has from her childhood comes with a scar—some emotional, some physical. Her father is an abusive drug addict, and her mother enables his destructive behavior. College offers Lety a fresh start . . . until her father finds a way to ruin that, too. Now, after losing her scholarship to kick off junior year, Lety must somehow stay in school, pay tuition, and turn a deaf ear to the whispers that follow her. And she intends to do it all without Brody Quaid’s help.

Brody is a lacrosse star, a 4.0 student—and as a freshman, he fell hard for the beautiful and spirited Lety. But their relationship crashed and burned because he couldn’t break through the walls she’s put up around her heart. With Lety hurting more than ever, Brody strives to win her back and make her believe in real love and true partnership. That will mean opening up secrets locked away in his own past—and trusting someone more than he’s ever dared.

Lety knows how painful it can be to depend on the wrong man. She also knows how much Brody wants to do this the right way. But it takes more than sizzling desire to move on and build a future together.

At this moment, I am a little confused.  Going from finishing “Once Perfect” to “Once Loved,” it seems like this was written by a different author and the more I think about it, the more I realize that this is kind of a brilliant thing.  Each character should be individual but have you ever noticed how some authors write out different plots but keep the same characters but just change their names?  Robson wrote differently for Lety’s story and changed the whole outlook on the series.  At least, that is my explanation why things felt a little different.

I loved Brody from the minute that I met him in the first book.  Something about his wisecracking self won me over.  It was Lety that had me nervous in this book.  She was okay in the first book and starting off in the second, she made me want to shake some sense into for dumping Brody because she felt like laying all of her family’s grief on him would be too big of a burden.  She shoulder too much responsibly and never asked for help. But slowly, Lety earned my respect for being so headstrong.  She refused to let Brody just take care of her; she wanted to make it on her own.  She wanted to make something out of herself and you can’t not like a girl who has that dream.  Most importantly, she stood up for herself and her family against Carlos.  *Just read the book – things hit crazy town.*

While I didn’t enjoy it as much as “Once Perfect,” I did enjoy the book.