Review: Return to You by Samantha Chase

Title: Return to You (The Montgomery Brothers, #4)
Author: Samantha Chase
Rating: 5/5 Stars (Real Rating: 900/5 Stars)
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Paperback, 384 Pages
Published March 2015
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Summary: James Montgomery has achieved everything he'd hoped for in life...except marrying the girl of his dreams. After a terrible accident, Selena Ainsley left ten years ago. She took his heart with her and she's never coming back. But it's becoming harder and harder for him to forget their precious time together, and James can't help but wonder what he would do if they could ever meet again.

I literally just finished this book ten minutes before writing this review, and I still cannot get a tight grip on my feels, so I'm just going to fangirl for a second. Please bear with me... ASEOFADROGHAEPOGPAEDHCAEITGE HWORHQPOEHFHWPQ#HRCEHW$HQWEOTH EVROHCGTAEHRFHPEOHTAOWERH EB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY AM I NOT MARRIED WHY DO I NOT LIVE IN THIS BOOK WHY AM I NOT MARRIED TO JAMES MONTGOMERY WHY DON'T I HAVE THIS FAIRYTALE ENDING WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHH I LOVED THIS BOOK AHHHHHHH!

(A GIF that Amber used in our Waiting on Wednesday post this week that I felt was necessary to recycle to truly show my emotions from this book.)

Okay. *composes self* If that paragraph above was any indication to you about how the rest of this review is going to go, we're in for a good time. I received a copy of this book at BookCon this past May from Sourcebooks - they literally unpacked boxes of them on the table and told us to have at 'em. And I did. The cover looked intriguing, and although I haven't read much NA/Adult romance (being that I'm a huge YA contemporary fan), I didn't know what to expect. To be entirely honest, when this book was the next one up in my TBR pile from BookCon, I was a bit hesitant. Just about every other Adult/NA book I've ever read (other than the Colleen Hoover books, which are exempt from everything because they're holy) never kept my interest. I had been having a good run with loving all of the books from my BookCon haul thus far, and I wasn't in the mood to be disappointed.

Looking back on that moment, I kind of wish I had punched myself in the face.

**IMPORTANT:** This book is the fourth book in The Montgomery Brothers series. YOU DO NOT NEED TO READ THE FIRST THREE BOOKS TO READ THIS ONE. There are vague character references, but nothing that would hinder your understanding of this book. Reading this book first wouldn't affect you at all - I never even heard of the series when I started this book. (Needless to say, however, I will be reading the other three books as soon as possible because this book was great.)

It's now been about half an hour since I've finished this book and I'm still fidgeting and squirming and giggling with happiness and fangirl feels. Let it be known that books do not ever do this to me. The relationship between Selena and James in their younger years seemed absolutely perfect and swoon-worthy - the kind of relationship that every teen girl wants - and when they meet again ten years later, things are super rocky. Ten years ago, a horrible tragedy occurred (which I will not spoil for you, but I will say was absolutely tragic), and through a series of misunderstandings, both Selena and James thought that the other was at fault - even though neither of them had anything to do with it.

So the story is basically that Selena gets suckered into coming back to New York to help plan her ten year high school reunion - even though ten years ago, after the horrible tragedy, she fled to North Carolina and left everyone behind and vowed to never return. When she arrives, she ends up face to face with James again, and things take weirder and weirder turns from that point on.

Okay, so now my thoughts about the book. Holy. Freaking. Cow. I am still so shaken up emotionally from this book - my fingers are literally flying across the keyboard because I have so much to say. From the perspective of a seventeen year old teenage girl, I can say that the romance in this book made my heart swoon. Even through all of the years and pain that tried to separate Selena and James, when they meet, sparks fly while words clash. It was a balance of both - not instalove, which I liked. Selena and James were both bitter and hurt from the tragedy ten years ago, but the love and attraction that they had for one another when they were eighteen was still there.

Okay, now here are my opinions about the ending of this book. There are minor spoilers - skip to the next paragraph if you don't want it spoiled for you! The ending of this book had me making literal sighing and swooning noises - I even kept texting Amber because I had to take periodic breaks from reading because my excessive swooning was causing me to lose focus. Even though the story is a work of fiction, the ending between Selena and James is something that I think every girl wants in life - that love, that family, and that happiness. As happy as this book made me, it also made me feel a tiny bit depressed because of the fact that I wanted the ending Selena got. The fact that I was reading about it and not experiencing it firsthand was kind of a bummer. BUT I STILL COULD NOT STOP SWOONING.

The only part about this book that bummed me a little bit was the epilogue. A majority of it I really enjoyed, but in the beginning of it I felt like all of the important things I wanted to read more about were brushed over quickly - the things I was looking forward to reading. However, the ending of the book still left me feeling happy and giggly and super, super jealous. :-)

All in all, Return to You is a fantastic story about true love, lost love, overcoming tragedies and finding one another again. I enjoyed this book from the first page all the way up until the very last word - and I'm very impressed and satisfied with Samantha Chase's writing. I definitely want to pick up the other three books in the Montgomery Brothers series and read those just for fun - although I still feel like Return to You will officially always have a special place in my heart. Seriously, if you don't have this book on your TBR, add it right now! I would give this book 900 stars if I could. I loved it!

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