FOUND UNDERNEATH (Finding Me #2) by K L KREIG

“…bad memories take up too much space and you need that space for good memories.”

We were so excited to be back with Willow and Shaw, wanting to find out how their love affair would end up after a fake and quite rocky beginning. Two very strong characters, each with several skeletons in their closets and individual crosses to bear. Nothing is always as it seems and sometimes what will be, will simply just be, no matter how much you don’t want it to or can’t picture it. What you may assume may be so far from the reality, and what tests your very being may bring upon a reaction you least expect. From others as well as yourself.

“I love you, but I’m not sure that’s enough.”

It did take us a while to get back into the swing of things with these characters; we felt it moved quite slow and felt quite repetitive nookie wise. However, that’s not saying we didn’t enjoy this book, as we sure did. We loved Willow and our hearts still broke for her, yet we celebrated her feistiness, her strength and her compassion. We understood her reluctance to open up and her actions of self-preservation. When such personal tragedy and an almost forced loneliness is your day to day, how does one live with that or even come to terms with life without bearing the scars and having it affect relationships with others?

‘He fits me. He sees me. He makes my blood boil, my heart sing, and my soul crave something I haven’t in a long, long time, if ever.’

Shaw is a formidable man with an enigmatic presence. He knows who he is and what he wants and whilst life can be mapped out with joys and needs met, it’s the unexpected that throws everything off the rails and into the back seat. Yet Shaw is still there for anyone who needs him. His fake relationship is anything but, as he knows that Willow is the one he wants, despite the secrets tainting this pure almost aggressive love affair.

‘I want her body. Her soul. Her divinity. Her love and devotion. I want to dominate her mind, rule her soul, eat her cries every morning for breakfast.’

There is no doubt that we felt the tangible need and attraction Willow and Shaw had for one another. Their passion and desperation was vividly written with beauty, heat and humour. By the end there was no question and the secrets threatening their love were believably met with maturity and empathy.

‘For those few stolen moments, I let him in all the way. I let him see that I don’t want anything between us but real and reckless, no matter if it hurts one, or both of us, in the end. That it’s too late and I’m already madly in love with him.’

We have a love/hate relationship with this new popular wave of duets. We love them as they’ve taken away the dreaded ‘middle book filler syndrome’ from trilogies but also because more time is given to fleshing out characters. Where we may falter is when a certain time has passed we need to reconnect with characters or we feel lost for a certain percentage of the book. Sadly this happened for us here. Having read the initial short story and book one in in quick succession and absolutely loving it, we felt the wait and the slow repetitiveness disconnected us somewhat and the story moved off in a bit of a different destination. This is an honest and personal opinion and most likely won’t affect any other readers, saying this- we have enjoyed this series for sure.

‘The truth is we control very little in this life. And accepting that, finding peace within after we’ve mourned and closed ourselves off for a while so we can heal is the only control we do have.’