Reclaimed

Reclaimed is one of those stories that I went into thinking it was going to be the normal YA with some angsty love interest stuff and small town drama. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned into something more.

All Jenna wants is to get out of Solitude. She doesn’t want to be like her mom and not have a choice so she is doing everything in her power to make sure she gets out of the small town and all of the baggage that comes along with it. On an October day she won’t forget, she meets Ian McAlister and even though she knows she will never see him again, she decides to spend the day at a diner with him.

Fast forward 7 months later. Jenna’s family dynamic has changed a bit. Her grandfather (Pops) has passed away and her mother is more interested in drinking away the pain than anything else. After finding out her mother has finally sold Pops’ house, Jenna is sent to collect some boxes and finds out that the McAlister’s are the ones who have bought the house.

Ian McAlister is described as “dark and disheveled” with blue eyes….sounds good, right? Unfortunately, he has a problem – Ian can’t remember things and seems to be forgetting more as the story progresses. When Jenna shows up on his porch, he doesn’t remember her. What he does know is that he is definitely drawn to Jenna and finds that she is slowly becoming the one thing he wants in his life. He feels like she is going to return things to normal. You see, something happened to him and it becomes very apparent throughout the book that not everyone is being honest.

As Ian and Jenna become closer, Jenna finds out that Ian has a twin brother, Luke. Luke has always lived in the shadow of his perfect brother and although he tries not to be, he finds he is also drawn to Jenna. Additionally, Jenna is drawn to Luke as well and although she likes both for different reasons, she realizes she needs to decide which one she likes more. Unfortunately, it will most likely hurt one of them.

There isn’t really much I can write in this review as I don’t want to give anything away. I have to stop telling the summary there for fear that I will mention something I shouldn’t but know that if you do start this book, you will most likely not be able to put it down. Every time I thought I had things figured out, I would get to the next chapter and realize I was off.

I will tell you that this was a story that grabbed me from the first page and I found myself unable to put it down. We are given the story from Jenna’s, Luke’s, and Ian’s points of view and Guillory did a wonderful job weaving the entire story together without making it feel like I was jumping all over the place. It was absolutely necessary to see the different perspectives to understand just what was going on and when it all clicked, it made absolute sense.

Another thing I liked was the way that Guillory built the relationships out. Between Ian and Luke we are able to see through the stories they share, that they were once very close. Being a twin myself I think I partially identified with the whole, “other half” thing. There are always times that you just want to be your own person but the great thing about being a twin is that you always have that one person you are super close to and Ian and Luke had that for most of their lives. It was so hard to read about how it changed and their differences created so much tension in their relationship.

Is that vague enough for you? Hopefully that doesn’t make you think I am stringing you along – trust me when I say that you wouldn’t want me to tell you what happens…you want to experience it as you read the story. Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting it to end up the way it did. I was completely invested in these characters and how their lives turned out – I applaud Guillory for taking this story to a place that wasn’t expected (at least by me) and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.