One Step Closer

by Kahlen Aymes

I will say right off the bat that I am not generally a fan of “step” anything stories, but I am a fan of Kahlen Aymes so when I opened the book, I made sure I did so with a completely open mind.

While I accept that this subject matter might not be to everyone’s taste, what I uncovered was a story that I could connect with because taking the non-blood relationship that the main characters had in common out of the equation, this was ultimately a second chance at love story and what is there not to love about that.

I liked the fact that the author gave the characterisation time to develop, that the relationship was peeled apart, slowly revealed, the past uncovered in a series of retrospectives, glances to the past that showed not only how they had come to share a home but how that had impacted on them both.

The more I learnt about Wren and Caleb, the more I realised that fate had perhaps been playing them for longer than they perhaps could have understood. Their parents might have initially been responsible for bringing them in contact with each other, but I think this pair were always destined to be together, I believe that they would have found a way to each other no matter how long it had taken.

Caleb was her protector when it mattered most and despite the fact they hadn’t been in contact for so long, when they met up again following Caleb’s father’s death, I was keeping my fingers crossed that they might have a shot at connecting again.  

I hoped that they might have been able to work through the past, the pain and the anguish that has been holding them both tethered to the pain of what they had lost, left behind because no matter what they hadn’t ever managed to emotionally let each other go. They were tethered in a way that was involuntary, their hearts were invisibly connected and their souls were not ready to sever that connection, fate was telling them and me that it was time to write their final chapter, their ever after.

No-one writes a better love story than Kaylen Aymes, she is able to put what you need to read into the most beautiful prose and to ensure that when you have finished the story you will know that when it comes to love…it had left its mark!