WHEN WE WERE RECKLESS (Lost Stars #3) by EMERY ROSE

‘Love could heal you, or it could destroy you. What was braver, or more foolish, than offering up your heart to someone and saying, ‘Take it. It’s yours. Treat it with care. It’s fragile and breakable.’

If you haven’t added the Lost Stars Series by Emery Rose to your TBR’s yet, we highly recommend immersing yourselves in the love lives of the McCallister brothers! We’re consumed by this series – these McCallister men certainly make a meal out of finding their soulmate, but when they do…they give everything they have making us swoon, cry and melt along the way.

When We Were Reckless is the third book in the Lost Stars Series, and it had it all – forbidden love, unrequited love, age gap, slow burn, brothers best friend’s little sister, sexual awakenings, and emotional growth – and we ate up every morsel of angst, heartache, love, and friendship.

‘He was my friend and my soul mate. He was everything I’d always dreamed he would be.
Unforgettable. Irreplaceable. The love of my life.
If only I could be his too.’

So far in the series, we’ve met Jude, Brody (their cousin), and now 27 year old, Jesse McCallister, the Moto Cross champ who finds love with Quinn Cavanagh, the 18-year-old little sister of his best friend Mason. Every book has captivated us from start to finish with When We Were Reckless being no exception. And you know what? We can’t contain our excitement for their brother, Gideon’s book!

Quinn Cavanaugh, has had a crush on Jesse McCallister since she was a little girl, and nothing has changed in 18 years. Jesse’s back in Cypress Springs, licking his wounds after an abrupt end to his Moto Cross career and a breakup with his girlfriend leaving him feeling lost and emotionally drained.

‘Fuck my life. Fuck her for making me fantasise about her. Worry about her. Want to do everything in my power to protect her.’

Quinn is biding her time over the summer before beginning her College life at UCLA – and Jesse returning home. Being in the same vicinity as him unsettles her and brings back to the surface those feelings of unrequited love she’s held for Jesse throughout the years, and so begins their story.

‘Unrequited love. Was there anything more painful?’

Emery Rose perfectly captured the beauty and pain of first love and unrequited love. She captured the torment and passion of closure and moving on, and she created a story where the path to true love wasn’t just rocky but paved with boulder-sized obstacles that sent our hearts on a roller coaster of emotions.

‘Love makes you reckless. All logic and reason flew out the window, and you let your emotions take the driver’s seat. You took your chances, pretending to be brave while you ignored the consequences. That’s how it was for me, anyway.’

We felt it all, the push and the resistance, the love and the anguish, in a story that gave us those ‘old school‘ vibes that reminds us why we love this genre. There’s nothing like torturing your heart, only to have it healed in the most wonderful way, and topping it off with an epilogue that was perfection!