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Rating 4.5

At the heart of this one is the story of Celestial and Roy. They are a young married couple with so much ahead of them. I would not say they had the perfect marriage or knew what marriage is really about in the beginning. They had money, good jobs, a promising life together, and then it was all shattered.

This is a in-depth story told from the point of view of both Celestrial and Roy and their friend, Andre. It also includes letters between them interweaving them into the story. Celestrial comes from money, her parents have money. Roy does not come from money, his parents seem to struggle. But Roy pushes himself in college and finally has a good high paying job. On a trip to see Roy's family, Celestrial and Roy decide to stay at hotel overnight. During this time, Roy is accused of rape - no spoiler here. He didn't do it, but is sent to prison for 12 years. His crime itself is not central in the story. It's never discussed other than he is sent to prison. And here you see how this impacts the marriage of Celestrial and Roy. It is such a wonderful, character driven novel. You see the struggles they face while Roy is incarcerated. You see from both points of view. You get the back story of their lives and how they met. Then, after years of his lawyer fighting his case, the lawyer being paid for by Celestrial's parents, he is freed. After 5 years away, he's ready to return home, to his wife, to his previous life. But that's just it...it WAS his *previous* life. Everything is different now. Celestrial has found comfort in the arms of their friend Andre. And after all this time, no one is the same person.

I really enjoyed this one. I listened to the audio version and the narrators did a wonderful job. I felt that Roy and Celestrial were telling me their story. I was so immersed into this one and kept listening to more and more cause I had to hear how it would end, but I didn't want it to end. I was initially drawn by cover love, then I was sucked into by the wonderful story. I did not know who this author was but you can bet I'll be reading more by her. Why not a 5...well, I'm stingy. But the very end, the epilogue just went off the rails a bit for me. And one other item kinda threw me off. Finally, I would not read this one again. Don't get me wrong, I really liked it and would suggest to anyone to read. It's just, I know what happens. I'm so glad I read this and I'm sure I will be thinking of it for some time.