Everything We Give by Kerry Lonsdale

Aimee, Ian, and James are back with the conclusion to the Everything series, though James and his messed up family only have a small part to play in this installment. Instead, we get to learn Ian’s backstory, which, as it turns out, is equally messed up. He was raised by a mother with multiple-personalities and a distant father, so how he ended up so well-adjusted and successful is beyond me. But, he’s actually not okay inside and he needs to find some closure with his parents (who he hasn’t seen in almost 20 years since his mom got out of prison). But first, he needs to go to Spain, take some amazing photographs for National Geographic and confront his own ex. The whirlwind plots and steamy sex scenes continue in this installment, and it’s an entertaining summer read.

Everything We Left Behind by Kerry Lonsdale

This book takes us back to the majorly f-ed up Donato family, and if you haven’t read the first book, Everything We Keep, there is almost no point in reading this one, as it’s hard to pick up the threads of the plot – I even had a hard time in sections as I forgot some of the plot points from the first book. Long story short, it is five years later and James wakes up from his “fugue” state. He’s been Carlos for over six years, has two kids and a long-term girlfriend, but remembers none of it. He wants to go “home” to California and reclaim his former fiancée Aimee, and he uproots his family and discards his old life. But remnants of Carlos remain, and there’s some unfinished business with his cousin/half-brother Phil, who is about to get out of prison.

James needs to remember the circumstances surrounding his accident in order to know what kind of a threat Phil is to him, and he has to navigate the increasingly complicated web of his family: Aimee has moved on with Ian and has a child with him, his mother was pretending to be his neighbor for the last five years to get to see her grandkids, and he somehow fell in love with his dead wife’s sister. There’s plenty more sex in this iteration, and the book moves along at a fast pace, making it a worthy beach read. Oh, and there’s a hint at the end that there might even be a third offering in the future, though if James/Carlos changes personality again I might not be interested in the result.