5 Smooches
Synopsis
The top-selling, beloved indie author of Ten Tiny Breaths returns with a new romance about a young woman who loses her memory—and the man who knows that the only way to protect her is to stay away.
Left for dead in the fields of rural Oregon, a young woman defies all odds and survives—but she awakens with no idea who she is, or what happened to her. Refusing to answer to “Jane Doe” for another day, the woman renames herself “Water” for the tiny, hidden marking on her body—the only clue to her past. Taken in by old Ginny Fitzgerald, a crotchety but kind lady living on a nearby horse farm, Water slowly begins building a new life. But as she attempts to piece together the fleeting slivers of her memory, more questions emerge: Who is the next-door neighbor, quietly toiling under the hood of his Barracuda? Why won’t Ginny let him step foot on her property? And why does Water feel she recognizes him?
Twenty-four-year-old Jesse Welles doesn’t know how long it will be before Water gets her memory back. For her sake, Jesse hopes the answer is never. He knows that she’ll stay so much safer—and happier—that way. And that’s why, as hard as it is, he needs to keep his distance. Because getting too close could flood her with realities better left buried.
The trouble is, water always seems to find its way to the surface.
Review
“If you could start over fresh . . . free yourself from all the bad decisions you’ve made . . . would you do it?”
How do you review a book where the main character has amnesia and doesn’t even know who she is without giving anything away. I am a huge fan of K.A. Tucker’s Ten Tiny Breaths series and I was so excited and nervous about starting a new series by her. I love her work but what if this new concept didn’t compare to the first series? What if I didn’t love the characters like I loved the previous ones? I should have known better than to stress over KA’s work! She is an absolute amazing writer who is not afraid to take chances and risks. For me personally these risks completely paid off and while Burying Water was very very very different than the Ten Tiny Breaths series I loved it just as much.
“Now I don’t believe in fairy tales. Or at least not in the happily-ever-afters that Disney brainwashed us all with.”
For me the most ambitious part of this book was the fact that it is not only told with dual point of view but rotates between past and present with his POV being completely in the past and her POV being completely in the present. This being said that means you are learning about the amnesia at the same time you are learning about her connection to Jesse. It is less about figuring out the mystery by the end of the book but more about watching her learn about herself and try to discover who she is all the while you do know quite a bit. Now, there are still plenty of surprises.
“I can’t promise that I’ll like it,” ” I can promise you you that you will.”
I loved Jesse and Water but their story was so hard. I was tearing up from page one and on edge the whole time. You want them to be together but it is never that easy and Burying Water was so angsty and drama filled that I could not stop reading till I knew it would be ok. K.A. Tucker is honestly one of the most beautiful writers I have read and while there was a lot of internal dialogue in this book (something that in most books I don’t love) her writing is so smooth and breathtaking that not only did I not mind it I felt it fit the story perfectly and wouldn’t have changed one thing. I cannot wait to read more from K.A. in the future and highly recommend this one to everyone right now!
~miranda
