Sometimes, you have to choose you…

Synopsis

Don’t play the game, change it…

I was born into privilege. I had it all; the house, the car, more money than I knew what to do with. But it came at a price. Duty. An arranged marriage for the sake of the family empire to a woman who couldn’t bear to look at me. As I stood at the altar, the weight of that burden became too much. So, I did the only thing I could. I ran.

To another country and unintentionally straight into the arms of another woman. Jade is strong, independent, and a single mom. And brick by broken brick she dismantles the wall I’ve built up around my heart. But where once I had everything, now I have nothing. No home, no job and no idea what the future holds. All I do know is, Jade makes me feel more alive than I’ve ever felt before.

But there is always the risk my past could catch up with me. Because the weight of my family’s expectation is likely to cause me to crash land and send my world up in flames. Can I save myself and Jade before that happens?

My review

Owen has it all, wealth, privilege and status. However, he also feels that he has lost everything. Due his own mistakes, he has lost his girlfriend to his best friend, yet he also now knows that they were meant to be. But as his parents have organised an arranged marriage for him, it feels like he has lost his soul. Even with the support of his best friends, on the day itself, Owen cannot go through with the wedding, even if the union would preserve his family’s empire. So Owen runs, to another country, with the help of his cousin. Now Owen has the time to think about what he truly wants to do with his life. Yet when he meets Jade, everything changes. Because Jade is a strong, independent woman, who for sure doesn’t need a man by her side. Her only priority is her little girl, while being the first female military pilot. However, attraction is too hard to resist, and Owen starts to feel more alive around Jade than he ever has been before. But no matter how much he would love it, he cannot turn his back on his past, as it quickly comes back catching up on him, and not in a good way. So where does Owen’s future and happiness lay?

Being the third book of the series, Owen has made previous appearances. And I have to admit, he wasn’t my favourite person… So even if I wasn’t all that happy with him, as I read the previous books, it felt somehow my duty to give Owen a chance too…

And even if I disliked him previously, I wanted to know who Owen truly is. Is he truly such a selfish man that he appeared to be in the other books? Of course that couldn’t be true, so I was ready to keep an open mind to let Owen show his real colours to me.

Boy oh boy oh boy, how wrong I was about Owen! Yes, he has made mistakes in the past, but haven’t we all? Yet I cannot deny that he has tried to please everyone around him, especially his parents, even if they for sure don’t deserve it!

Owen rather quickly makes it clear what kind of man he is. He never had the approval of his parents, yet he is ready to sacrifice his own happiness in order to save his family’s empire. If his fiancée was just a nice, kind or at a stretch, a tolerable person, I would have loved to read if this arranged marriage had a chance to succeed. But it’s clear that Evangeline is just an utter b*tch…

Seeing Owen running away may seem like a cowardice act. But I saw it more like Owen finally having the b*lls to stand up for himself, and choose for his own happiness.

When he first meets Jade, I was a bit afraid that it would turn out to be that kind of story where there is a strong physical attraction, and then the main characters suddenly realize that they are in love, without many in depth moments or growth as a pair.

However, this wasn’t at all the case!

Firstly, Jade is just an amazing woman! She is doing the impossible, not only is she a beast as a military pilot, but she is also an amazing mother to Poppy. Combining a demanding job and being there as a single mother, with a truly absent father, to a little girl, it’s not something I can see just anyone do. But that is Jade, a force of nature, wanting to do her best at just everything.

However, no matter what a force of nature Jade is, she is also a vulnerable woman. She has doubts about her own abilities, which are so unfounded! But there are also struggles at her job. And that bit truly angered me, seeing how people are using their rank for their own personal gain…

And secondly, Jade and Owen are just so right for each other. Yes, there is an age difference, with Jade being a few years older than Owen. And while she is the more mature person, as she has been through different things than Owen, together they elevate each other to a higher level.

Jade is Owen’s first supporter of figuring out who he is, what he wants to do with his life. She doesn’t care about his money, his wealth, his family. She cares about Owen for who Owen is. All the rest, she doesn’t care about it. She sees how Owen is around her and Poppy, and she sees this great man, even if that man is still trying to figure out who he is.

And Owen is just the same with Jade. Yes, he finds her the most attractive woman, and he cannot resist her. But he also supports her and admires her for what she has already achieved. HE is an awe of how she is able to make everything work.

And let’s not forget that the way he is around Poppy. I can assure you, my ovaries just exploded seeing that interaction! 😊

Owen grows so much in this story, thanks to Jade and Poppy. He sees himself doing things he never imagined doing, he sees a role for him in a lifestyle he never thought of.

Unfortunately, Owen’s past catches up with him. And I was shocked to see not only he has to face his own family and their tricks, but also the ugliness of other people around his family. The way they are twisting Owen’s hands, truly truly angered me. And in this particular bit of the story, I didn’t fully agree with the direction of the story, because I think I would have handled it completely differently…

Yet with this storyline, we see that family isn’t always about sharing DNA, but that family can be found in the best friends that you have, and their loving families. And I was happy to see that whatever Owen missed from his own family, he could find it always with his friends, no matter what.

I didn’t expect to fall for Owen, but I did, head over heels! We not only see someone standing up for himself finally, but also redeeming himself. We see how finding a special connection with someone, can make a change for the better in your life. That person can give you all the answers you were searching for, give you everything that you have missed in your life, and can even give you what you never thought of or were expecting to have.

I loved reading this story, showing us how people can change, how people can mature, how people can support each other, how people can be there just for each other. But most important, how people can find the courage to not only go for their own happiness, and how people can slowly let love in their hearts, no matter how terrifying that may be. Because love can not only find you when you least expect it, as it will be worth of everything that was on your path to get there.

I found this the perfect end of a wonderful series!