Review: All That We Never Were

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She's drowning in silence. He refuses to let her sink.

When grief leaves nineteen-year-old Leah Jones barely functioning, the last thing she expects is for her brother's best friend to become her lifeline. But Axel Nguyen isn't just offering a place to stay—he's offering her a way to survive.

From international bestselling author Alice Kellen comes a deeply moving, slow-burn New Adult romance about loss, healing, and the love that changes everything. If you're looking for a romance that will wreck you and rebuild you, with characters who feel as real as your own heartbreaks, this is the one.

Leah once had a future she believed in. Now, her world has collapsed. With her brother moving away and no one left to lean on, Axel steps in as the one person she never imagined would truly see her pain. Ten years older and used to building walls around his heart, Axel takes her in—not out of duty, but because watching her fade is more than he can bear.

Living under the same roof tests their limits. The comfort they find in each other grows complicated. Lines blur. Hearts stir. And the one promise Axel made—to protect Leah—starts to mean something he never saw coming.

Genre: fantasy

Publication date: July 2021

Mature content: yes

Review: I usually enjoy dual POVs, and overall I really liked All That We Never Were. The emotional side of the story worked for me, and I enjoyed seeing things from both Leah’s and Axel’s perspectives.

That being said, the very short chapters combined with the constant POV changes—and the frequent flashbacks to the past—sometimes made the story a little confusing and harder to follow than I would have liked. I found myself needing a moment to figure out whose perspective I was in or where we were in the timeline.

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I also had a harder time connecting with Axel. In particular, the way his feelings for Leah seemed to shift after seeing her naked didn’t completely work for me. It made the beginning of his romantic feelings feel more based on physical attraction than on the emotional connection between them, which made it difficult for me to fully get behind his perspective at first.

Still, despite those issues, I enjoyed the book and its emotional journey enough to give it a solid 4 stars. And, of course, I have now moved on to book 2 because I'm curious about the rest of Alex and Leah's story...

Happy readings!

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