Posted on  20/08/2024 14:17:34

My rating: 5 of 5 soulful stars!

Heartbreaking and uplifting at the very same time, this book inspires and teaches, makes you smile and most of all cry.

Tag won his first fight when he was eleven years old, and he's been throwing punches ever since. Fighting is the purest, truest, most elemental thing there is. Some people describe heaven as a sea of unending white. Where choirs sing and loved ones await. But for him, heaven was something else. It sounded like the bell at the beginning of a round, it tasted like adrenaline, it burned like sweat in his eyes and fire in his belly. It looked like the blur of screaming crowds and an opponent who wanted his blood.
For him, heaven was the octagon.



Until he met Millie, and heaven became something different. He became something different. He knew he loved her when he watched her stand perfectly still in the middle of a crowded room, people swarming, buzzing, slipping around her, her straight dancer’s posture unyielding, her chin high, her hands loose at her sides. No one seemed to see her at all, except for the few who squeezed past her, tossing exasperated looks at her unsmiling face. When they realized she wasn’t normal, they hurried away. Why was it that no one saw her, yet she was the first thing Tag saw?

If heaven was the octagon, then Millie was his angel at the center of it all, the girl with the power to take him down and lift him up again. The girl he wanted to fight for, the girl he wanted to claim. The girl who taught him that sometimes the biggest heroes go unsung and the most important battles are the ones we don’t think we can win.

Tag's story took me by surprise. It was so unexpected, so extraordinary and emotional that I found myself not being able to set it down. Because I simply had to know! I had to know how it will all end!

I was holding my breath for quite a while there, chanting breathlessly No, no, no, no, no....! And then, when the end came.... no it wasn't perfect. But it was so right and real and hearbreaking and beautiful.

This book broke my heart, tore it to pieces, then put it back together again, leaving it a little jagged and torn around the edges. But it was all so worth it!

Because I loved Millie and I wish I had her strength; because I loved David, with his superhero cape; and because I loved Henry, who's childish innocence would melt any heart.

The way to true happiness is to forge your own, even if your road isn't straight. Even if there are bridges to build and mountains to tunnel through. Nothing feels as good as paving your own way.


and sometimes

sometimes the biggest heroes go unsung and the most important battles are the ones we don’t think we can win.



If you're in a mood for a slow burn romance with amazing characters and a lot of feeling, do pick this up - I doubt you will regret it. But make sure to keep a stack of tissues at hand. You will most likely need them.



Happy reading! :)

Check out this book and more of Amy Harmon on www.authoramyharmon.com