Book Review: Release by Aly Martinez

Release

by Aly Martinez

Release Date: January 5, 2019

Source: Author

Goodreads

Growing up, Ramsey Stewart branded my soul in ways time could never heal.

At twelve, he asked me to be his girlfriend. 
At thirteen, he gave me my first kiss. 
By sixteen, we’d fallen in love, planned a future together, and had our eyes set on the horizon. 

Love never fails, right? 
But for Ramsey, it did. 
Love failed him. 
I failed him. 
The entire world failed him. 

At seventeen, Ramsey was convicted of killing the boy who assaulted me. 

Move on, he wrote in his first and only letter from prison.
Start a new life, he urged. 
I don’t love you anymore, he lied. 

There was no such thing as giving up on Ramsey. Love may have been our curse, but he was mine—then, now, and forever. 

So here I am, twelve long years later, waiting for a man I don't even know to emerge from between the chain link gates.

Going into this one, I decided to not even read the synopsis and go in blind. When it started, I enjoyed how the author decided to show us how the two characters met and how their friendship bloomed over their childhood. All you knew in the beginning was that the guy was in prison and had cut off communication from the main character. We get to see Ramsey and Thea learn to really trust each other when they're young, become best friends, and then become lovers. The relationship in this was very strong and this book was as much about their development as it was about their second chance in the future. 

I was surprised that their past took up about half of the book. Normally, when a couple shares a past that's important, the author usually gives us about 20% of the book on the past. Instead, we didn't get to see Thea and Ramsey trying to understand their relationship when he's released from jail until halfway through the book. That being said, I wish we got more of them in this stage of their relationship. I felt like we watched them in agony over how to be together again and, once they were, it was just over. If we got more of them trying navigate the world actually being together, I would have loved this even more. 

I will say, there were definitely some surprises thrown into this book that I was not at all expecting. I was very invested in Thea and Ramsey's relationship and would recommend this if you want an emotional second chance romance!