Book review: IF HE HADN’T CHEATED, by Carmen Rosales

The book opens in raw despair: a woman unraveling after the ultimate betrayal. With a wedding planned, a venue booked, graduation on the horizon, and dreams of conquering the world, everything collapses like a house of cards when she discovers her fiancé in bed with another student.

The fallout is brutal. She drops out of college, numbs herself with booze, drugs, and strangers, and lives in a loop designed to erase memory and feeling. Yet every morning, she still checks her phone—hoping for a call, a message, anything—and finds nothing. The cycle begins again.

Then, by accident, she dials her ex’s best friend. He hears her break down in the street and rushes to her side. Against her protests, he becomes her reluctant savior. Slowly, their history unfolds: he was her first choice, but he didn’t want commitment. She settled for someone else—and paid the price.

The narrative weaves between past and present, showing her destructive spiral alongside his quiet determination to pull her back from the edge. What struck me most was her flicker of self-awareness: even in the darkness, she knows she wants better. She insists she doesn’t need help, but what she truly craves is hope. Knox offers that—just enough light, just enough push—for her to rediscover her strength.

I’ll admit it: cheating romances are my forbidden pleasure. I love watching heroines claw their way back from devastation, and this one is among the darkest I’ve read. I admired her resilience and the love she eventually finds. Still, the book wasn’t perfectly structured. The backstories felt hazy, Luna’s family was absent, and the timeline wavered—sometimes the betrayal seemed fresh, other times years old.

Even so, the emotional intensity kept me hooked. It’s messy, it’s painful, but it’s also about survival, hope, and the complicated ways love can heal.

Purchase links

FREE in Kindle Unlimited

Amazon: https://amzn.to/4p5P1Fd

Add If He Hadn’t Cheated to Goodreads: https://tinyurl.com/ihhccrgr 

About the author

Carmen Rosales is a best-selling Dark Romance and Latinx author. She loves to write in different genres of Romance and erotic horror under her alter ego, Delilah Croww. Beyond her writing, Carmen is a devoted mother who loves spending time with her loved ones. Join her VIP list at www.carmenrosales.com

Book review: THE ART OF STARTING OVER, by Heidi McLaughlin

Beautiful story, angsty as all heck, but full of hope and growth.  Devorah learns about her husband’s cheating from a vlog her best friend published, declaring their love for each other.  Disbelieving, she went to his place of work, he’s not there, then went to her best friend’s home, and found them in bed, in fragante delicto.  And the worst thing? Neither of them were repentant, they were entitled and fully convinced they have a right to be together.  Never mind all the vows and codes they broke.

Brokenhearted, Devorah and her daughter Maren left their home in Chicago and moved to Devorah’s hometown, Oyster Bay, the small town she swore she would not come to live in again.  And there she found Hayden McKenna, the one who got away when they were teenagers. 

Hayden is also moving back to town, also brokenhearted, the difference that he lost his wife to a fatal car accident.  He tried to wing it for a while, raising his nine year old son, Conor, but found he needed his family and his hometown, to help and support them during their mourning.  

When Hayden and Devorah run into each other, they are in different parts of their mourning, but their companionship brings a lot of surcease to their pain, and in Hayden’s part, hope because she was the one who got away.  Notice a pattern here?

They were in love during high school but Hayden didn’t have the pants to declare his love because Devorah is his best friend’s little sister.  Now they are older and wiser, so this is his chance.

I loved the evolution of Devorah as she deals her heartbreak, from staying depressed in her bed, to starting to deal and find her groove. Love for her daughter made her move, and Hayden played a mayor role in helping her cope and overcome. I loved the small town feeling, the gossipy Cathys, the wonderful families, Hayden’s and Devorah’s slow burn romance, the kids with their resilience and their insta friendship.  It was at times a heartbreaking story, but also uplifting as we share Devorah’s evolution. Very heartfelt and emotional, with just the right touch of steam.  This was a story of the heart, and I loved that the author respected that process. 

Purchase links

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3W19DBo

Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/40jZu5b

About the author 

Heidi McLaughlin is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of The Beaumont Series, The Boys of Summer, and The Archers.

In 2012, Heidi turned her passion for reading into a full-fledged literary career, writing over twenty novels, including the acclaimed Forever My Girl.

Heidi’s first novel, Forever My Girl, has been adapted into a motion picture with LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions, starring Alex Roe and Jessica Rothe, and opened in theaters on January 19, 2018, and is now available on DVD & Digital.

To stay connected with Heidi visit www.facebook.com/authorheidimclaughlin or heidimclaughlin.com

BARRON’S SECOND CHANCE, by S.T. Moors

The cheating trope is my guilty pleasure and this book was done just right! I hurt when Barron cheated on Eden and rejoiced when she blocked him out off all her accounts. When she got a fantastic opportunity to model, in New York, no less, it was like a very well-deserved slap to Barron and the skanky girl he cheated with.

Both Eden and Barron were seventeen and about to start their Senior year in high school. They had been together since they were fourteen, their mothers were best friends. Peer pressure and his cousin Simon’s ill-fated counseling caused Barron to cheat. It was very humiliating for Eden in school!  She was a beautiful, very tall girl, radiating goodness from within. Even Barron was clear he made a huge mistake, but as is often the case in life, Eden found her destiny in the middle of her devastation. 

Fast forward seven years, another summer, and Barron was about to be schooled!

I loved how the author developed the action, loved that she wrote Eden as a wonderful young woman with strong temper and a healthy dose of confidence. She’s a successful super model, and Barron is also successful with restaurant he opened in their home town.  There’s such a thing as soulmates but there’s a lot of work to be done in repairing trust and achieving forgiveness. Both Barron and Eden are wonderful characters and it’s a joy to read about the reconnections among the families, the friends. Barron actually had to woo, not only Eden, but also Ryan and Sofia, Eden besties who were also his until the rift. They chose sides and Barron had to do a lot of groveling.  

My little heart was rejoicing as Eden took Barron through his paces, but also felt for Barron’s uncertainty and despair. You could say “serves him right” but his actions came from immaturity. He needed to learn his lesson and he needed to redeem himself. Well done by the author, she treated them with dignity and kindness.

Purchase link

https://amzn.to/46smE9m

About the author 

Wife. Mom. Bibliophile.

I love reading and writing romance. My books are a mixed bag - angst, insta-love, paranormal, contemporary, full length, novella...and everything in between. But always with a HEA. 

Follow her on Amazon: https://amzn.to/40PMyTj

RAINFALL, by Alison Rhymes

Seattle Blades #1

Cillian & Isla

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

There’s no better author writing stories dealing with cheating like Alison Rhymes!  She manages the subject with humanity, compassion, and dignity.  What for many readers would be a trigger or negative content, in this author’s hands, the story shows the mistakes people do, not out of a desire to hurt, but immaturity, human error, miscommunication, and even in an earlier book, a mistaken sense of protection.  She doesn’t show cheaters who are evil, just human persons who lost their way, but want to make it right.

This story has a lot of heartbreak, but also a lot of redemption, guilt, regrets, memories, a lot of love and a lot of snarkiness, but above all, a sense of a love lost and a deep regret that love was lost.  And of course, a surprise baby in the form of a four year old precious girl Sadie, who forces the togetherness they needed to fix their relationship.

When I finished the book, I had to re-read it, to savor it, to enjoy this magnificent love story that surpassed years of separation, Isla’s mistrust and Cillian’s stupidity born of insecurity and immaturity.  They were young and lost their way, and probably it all needed to happen to make them the perfect version of themselves for each other.  

You need to read this book with an open mind, sensitive heart, and tissues because it’s beautifully heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting, because humans can commit mistakes but they have the capacity to reconsider, repent, and make it right for the happiness of all involved.

Incredibly moving, beautifully human, deliciously steamy, and absolutely riveting!

Purchase links

https://mybook.to/RainfallAR

Add to Goodreads: 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199333513-rainfall

Vote for Rainfall: https://tinyurl.com/4ajw6wwh

Find more books by Alison Rhymes here: https://alisonrhymes.com

About the author 

Alison lives somewhere in the shadow of a Pacific Northwest Mountain, bordered by the Puget Sound, and not too far from the country roads she grew up on. 

When not writing, she can be found avidly reading, traveling with youthful wanderlust, or slowly turning the inside of her house into her own personal houseplant jungle. 

Content Warnings for Alison's books can be found on her website alisonrhymes.com

You can join Alison's newsletter to receive early news and bonus scenes: https://tinyurl.com/ymrrdtfc

Alison can be contacted at alison@alisonrhymes.com