Review: Come Back to Texas by K.K. Hendin

Rating: ★★★★★ stars
Date published: August 17th, 2014
Publisher: self-published
Synopsis: Everyone thought we’d be the ones who made it through high school. The ones who’d get married and stay married forever. The example of how young love can work. 

We thought so, too. 

Too bad life had other plans. 

It’s been three years since Hayley and Nate broke each other’s hearts. Three years, and a lot has changed. Hayley’s a freshman in Bushwick University, and the only things keeping her sane are stress baking, and her a cappella group, Twelve Beats in a Bar. 

Nate’s a Marine, stationed in Afghanistan. The only thing that’s keeping him sane is the last picture he has of him and Hayley, and the hope that maybe when the hell of deployment is over, he can find her again and apologize. 

One explosion will change everything. 

When a bomb kills all of Nate’s unit, leaving him missing a leg and eyesight in one eye, he’s sent back home to Texas. Texas, where he loved Hayley more than he could possibly imagine ever loving anyone else. 

With seemingly endless amounts of free time and needing something to distract himself, Nate starts making YouTube videos, imploring Hayley to come back to him, and come back to Texas. 

Hayley’s life is wrapped around the Beats, making sure she doesn’t flunk out of biology class, and babysitting Ohio’s smallest monster, Brandon. She doesn't want to admit it, but she misses Nate more than anything. 

It’s too bad she doesn’t know just how much he misses her, too…

What I Thought:

I had a feeling this book was going to leave me in tears, and it did.  However I had no idea how connected I'd feel to Hayley and Nate and how connected they were to one another. The two of them truly fit the definition of soul mates.  

I read this book fairly quickly.  I loved the flashbacks.  It really allowed me to see the bond Hayley and Nate had and how their love story unfolded.    I also loved that chapters were told in alternating points of view.  My heart hurt for both of them; for the words they left unsaid and those said as well.  It was painful to seem them regretting and missing each other the way they did.  One of the most painful and poignant scenes was a dream sequence; it left me in tears.  

I thought Nate's method of processing his feelings for Hayley to be brilliant.  I also found the way he handled himself to be beyond mature.  He'd faced so much loss in this life and the setbacks he faced could've destroyed what was left of him.  Instead he fought all that back and focused on Hayley and his recovery.  I'm so glad Hayley had the support system she had with the Beats.  Life wasn't easy for her either.  I could not believe how much of a harpy her boss was and that child was just evil!  

I'm really looking forward to reading the next book, A Different Kind of Fine, and seeing how Hayley and Nate are handling their reunion and everything that's come their way.  K.K. Hendin has written a beautiful story.  I can't wait to read the other books in the series about the other Beats members. 

Purchase Links:

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About the Author

KK Hendin's real life ambition is to become a pink fluffy unicorn who dances with rainbows. But the schooling for that is all sorts of complicated, so until that gets sorted out, she'll just write. Preferably things with angst and love. And things that require chocolate.  She's the author of NA contemporaries HEART BREATHS, ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG, and the TWELVE BEATS IN A BAR series (COME BACK TO TEXAS debuts August 18th).
She spends way too much time on Twitter, and rambles on occasion over at www.kkhendinwrites.blogspot.com.

*Thank you to the author for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated for them in any manner.*