Sunny Shelly’s Review: The History In Us, by L.B. Dunbar

I wish I liked The History In Us more than I did. I’m a bit torn between rating this 3 or 4 stars. I just didn’t connect and fall in love with Katie and Levi as characters. Usually, I’m a sucker for a good angst-ridden story, but I felt like I was pushing myself to finish, and not necessarily because I needed to read just one more chapter.

That said, there are a lot of things that I really loved about the story LB Dunbar tells here. I love that they know each other from their hometown and meet as grown-ups in a graduate class miles and miles away. How a promise Katie made to him when she was just a young girl stayed in his subconscious, without Levi even realizing it, and helped him pull through a life-or-death situation. I love how Levi thinks he’s paying penance for his military actions because of his son’s condition until Katie shows him how much of a blessing little AJ is to his life. Katie and Levi are both broken and dealing with abandonment issues, which gives them a common ground. But where Katie has come to terms with her emotions, Levi is so emotionally stunted to the point where I just wanted to slap some sense into him because he couldn’t get out of his own way when it comes to Katie.

The History In Us is a standalone, even though Levi and Katie are both characters who appeared (as children) in Dunbar’s previous series. But I did not find that not having read those books left holes in this story for me. The storytelling flowed nicely between the alternating POVs, and the use of flashbacks worked seamlessly to add to Levi and Kate’s shared history.

I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.