Loved And Lost by Stephanie Kusiak

Blake Fortnier and her wife Rachel Kaplan are a ‘together forever’ couple. Soul mates, madly and deeply in love. They have been together for fifteen glorious, love filled years, until tragedy tears Rachel from Blake forever. Or is it?

Blake is numb, shocked beyond reason, insane with grief, until one day a miracle occurs. Blake is given the opportunity to relive her life.

But can Blake live her life differently and alter the course of her destiny and in turn Rachel’s? She is certainly going to try her hardest, come what may.

This is Stephanie Kusiak’s debut novel. But, it most certainly doesn’t read like one. In fact, it is far better than some books I’ve read by well established authors. It’s well written, well edited and the storyline is written in a true master storyteller style. Wonderful.

I have to say, I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would. I don’t usually enjoy books unless they have the standard ‘happy ever after’. But this story is simply superb.

The whole book is written from the first person point of view. So, it is very easy to follow the storyline. The book is too long to read in one sitting, but is a page turner from start to finish. So, I was kept up a couple of nights because I couldn’t put it down.

Both Blake and Rachel’s characters are multidimensional, loveable and very easy to get to know. Their love radiates in waves from the pages. The roller coaster ride of emotional grief stemming from Rachel’s death was like a tidal wave washing over me. Absolutely heart breaking.

The fact that Blake got the chance to re-live her life, travel through time and so maybe alter the consequences and outcome of Rachel’s death had me turning the pages at break neck speed to find out what happened.

I’m not going to add any spoilers into this review, suffice it to say, this is a must re-read for me and a sequel would be most welcome. In fact, I’m looking forward to anything else Stephanie writes in the future.