A review by livethroughbooksblog
Endlessly Yours by Carrie Ann Ryan

emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

 Brooks made his wife a deathbed promise that he'd move on and find love. He may have made the promise but in his heart and mind he never intended on really fulfilling it - she was his first love, and to him, his only. But life has a funny way of showing you a different path. On the anniversary of her death, he was drowning his sorrows and met a woman with similar pain. It was supposed to be just once and it was, until that same beautiful soul walked back into his life. Now he has to decide if he can truly open up his frozen heart to love again, to fulfill the promise he had made.

On that fateful night when Rory met Brooks, she was grieving, and could see that same kind of pain in his eyes. The time they spent together was really just grief meeting grief, but left an indelible mark on her (and him). She never thought she'd see him again, until she does - years later. She's struck up a friendship with his sister-in-law and other Wilders, and life is looking up, even if there's a hole in her heart caused by her estrangement from her sister and nieces. Then the unthinkable happens, and now she's got to open up her whole world, her home, her life, to those nieces. Thank God the Wilder clan has drawn her and her nieces into their fold, that they've got support. Especially in the strong, but distant, arms of Brooks, the man she had that unforgettable, but grief-filled night with. She knows in between them there's a ghost in the form of his first (only?) love, his wife, but maybe, just maybe, she (and the girls) can help fill that void with their love.

I knew Brooks' story would be a doozy, and boy is it. How can one not make a promise your dying spouse is begging you to make? And how can you really fulfill that promise when your heart is still with your first love? Thank God he met Rory, and that her own grief called to his, but her even bigger heart outshone both their grief. And then the girls...they were the catalyst, because without them, I'm not so sure Brooks would have ever been motivated enough to reach out, to support Rory, because he was still in so much pain. He, Rory and the girls make a beautiful found family and though they experienced pain and grief, their love was stronger than all the hurt. I'm seriously bummed the Wilders are done falling in love, but if they had to end, there couldn't have been a better story to end with than with Brooks, Rory, and their girls. 
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