14 November

❀ ARC REVIEW ❀ ALL THAT WE ARE BY MELISSA TOPPEN

They say everything happens for a reason- that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. For the longest time I didn’t think that was true. I had stumbled around in the dark for so many years that I didn’t think I would ever find my way out. But when I finally did, it came in the most unexpected way.

Miles Hollins had been my brother’s best friend for as long as I could remember. We didn’t like each other much growing up. Or rather, we couldn’t stand each other. But after ten years of being gone, a lot had changed.

He wasn’t the same boy I remembered. I wasn’t the same girl either. So much had happened.
I moved away and got married.
Miles joined the military.
We both returned home broken in our own way.

I struggled to find my place in my new life. Miles struggled just to get through the day. But together we slowly began to heal. I quieted his demons and he gave me a sense of belonging. For a while that was enough.

But this is real life, and in real life nothing stays perfect forever. In real life not every story ends with a happily ever after. Sometimes the scars we carry are just too deep.

I promised him I would fight.
He promised me I would lose.
I’ll do everything in my power to prove him wrong. Because it’s when you find the one thing you can’t live without, that you truly find yourself.

All That We Are is a standalone contemporary romance.

‘ALL THAT WE ARE’

Is a full length, contemporary romance novel by Me;Melissa Toppen. Spoken in ‘Dual Perspectives’

In this we meet Harlow and Miles. These two have history that goes way back to a time when Miles was Harlow’s brothers best friend, they detested each other. But that was then..

Twenty nine year old Harlow has returned home with her tail between her legs licking her wounds after her failed marriage, temporarily moving into her brothers apartment until she can get back on her own two feet. And in the process she's hoping to find herself. During her marriage she was stripped down to nothing, powerless and under the thumb of a controlling husband. A trophy wife. Something to stick on a mantle and pull down to show off when necessary but never more than that.

Miles steps in and offers Harlow a job at his tattoo establishment he owns sorting out his books.

Miles was tortured by his past in the military who came home from the war a changed man. I originally got into tattoos as a way of therapy. It helped calm my mind after I returned home from my second tour in the Middle East. Chased by demons, tortured by dreams, he's always steered clear of relationships and attachments but being under the same roof day by day a spark ignites between them that neither are unable to ignore.

Easy to get into, beautifully written with many swoon worthy moments. The chemistry between these two lit up the pages.

Melissa is a Reader's Choice Award Winning and Bestselling Author of New Adult and Contemporary Romance. She is a lover of books and enjoys nothing more than losing herself in a good novel. She has a soft spot for Romance and focuses her writing in that direction; writing what she loves to read.