The One I Left Behind by Piper Rayne is now live!
It’s the classic story—boy goes off into the world to fulfill his dreams and leaves the girl behind.
Not every boy returns home, and I wish Ben Noughton wouldn’t have come back to our small ranching town at all after he retired from playing professional football.
I figure it’s a quick layover for him. He always wanted out of this town and off his family’s ranch. I just have to bide my time until he turns his back on all of us again.
Then he takes on the coaching position for the high school football team and starts milling around too much, bulldozing the protective walls I’ve built around myself. But he goes too far when he takes my son under his wing to help him be the best player he can be. Leaving me to protect not only my own heart but my son’s too.
Because I promised myself a long time ago that I’d never be the girl in the rearview mirror again.
Download today on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and Kobo!
https://books2read.com/toilb
Audio with Duet Narration by CJ Bloom & Robert Hatchet
Goodreads: https://bit.ly/44SPHm5
Sunny Shelly’s Review: 5 Stars
The amazing duo Piper Rayne starts a new series at the Plain Daisy Ranch with The One I Left Behind.
After retiring from playing professional football for the San Francisco Kingsmen, Ben returns home to his small town in Nebraska where his family runs the Plain Daisy Ranch. Ben receives a hero’s homecoming from just about everyone in town — except for his ex-girlfriend, Gillian, and her son, 14-year-old Clayton. It’s been about 15 years since Ben broke Gillian’s heart and while he’s been out in the world living his best life as a pro athlete, she’s been behind in their small town, raising her son as a single mom. Being back home makes Ben realize just what he left behind, but is Gillian willing to trust him again?
This story was an easy, enjoyable read. It’s full of small-town goodness, but there is a lot of history between Ben and Gillian that is dealt with. There are also hurt feelings between Ben and his brothers, and Clayton is not very forgiving of his mom’s ex-boyfriend; I was happy to see those relationships get fleshed out as well! Narrators CJ Bloom and Robert Hatchett (a new-to-me narrator!) were quite entertaining as Gillian and Ben, and did a great job in bringing all of the intricacies of the relationship to life.
It’s totally worthing checking out the *free* prequel, One Last Summer, which is Ben and Gillian’s last day together before he heads off to Clemson for college… and they ultimately break up a few months later! I loved having that supplemental backstory going into The One I Left Behind! This book is also connected to the Green family and the Kingsmen series, since Ben was previously a supporting character in My Scorned Best Friend (Xavier Green) as well as the various Kingsmen books.
Now… counting the days until Jude and Sadie’s story….
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Sunny Shelly Reads 