Review: Say You'll Stay by Corinne Michaels

SAY YOU'LL STAY

by Corinne Michaels

Publication date: 6/20/2016

Format: Audiobook

Source: Audible

4.25 Stars

One word.

Stay.
It was all he had to do. Instead, he got on that bus and took my heart with him.

That was seventeen years ago.

I moved on. Marriage. Kids. White picket fence. Everything I ever wanted, but my husband betrayed me and I was left once again.

Alone, penniless, and with two boys, I had no choice but to return to Tennessee. He wasn’t supposed to be there. I should’ve been safe. However, fate has a way of stepping in.

This time around, the tables are turned. It’s my decision. Second chances do exist, but I don’t know if we can repair what’s already been broken.

Seeing as how I tend to inhale everything Corinne Michaels releases, and I’m up with all her more current novels, I’ve been diving deep into her backlist. Which brings me to the Hennington Brothers series and Say You’ll Stay. Corinne managed to get me teary-eyed in the very first chapter, so I knew I was in for an emotional story.

Presley and Zach grew up in the same small town in Tennessee and were inseparable. They had a first love that was the real thing and they knew it was forever - until it wasn’t. Presley followed Zach to college but when he was drafted to play professional baseball she was wasn’t going to keep following him across the country. From there, their dreams and their choices took them in different directions. For Presley, that meant marriage, children, and a burgeoning small business. Without warning her life came tumbling down around her. Her only option? Return to Tennessee with her twin boys and live with her parents until she could regroup and get her life back on track. What she didn’t count on was Zach being there, too.

I was instantly sympathetic to Presley and the situation she found herself in. She lost so much and was doing everything she could to make the best of her circumstances. Back in her small hometown of Bell Buckle, she found that she had relationships to repair, and that Zach was not going to rest until they’d come to terms with their past. Presley was keeping secrets and while I understood her motivation (in both cases), there was a reckoning that made my heart hurt for her all over again.

There was so much to love here. Presley’s sister-in-law/best friend was truly her ride or die and I loved their tell-it-like-it-is relationship. Presley’s childhood friend Grace helped strengthen her connection to home. The older women in town (including Presley’s and Zach’s mothers) were priceless with their scheming and meddling, and at heart they were all truly loving, kind, and supportive. And then there was Zach who, despite his circumstances, had never stopped loving Presley. His love for her was truly the forever kind and I loved that he was tenacious yet so patient, pushing her to give them another chance, but also giving her the time she needed to heal. His relationship with Presley’s sons melted my heart and seeing the boys slowly form bonds with Zach, their grandparents and their uncle was so rewarding.

Say You’ll Stay was touching and emotional, sweet and sexy, heartbreaking but also heartwarming. It was a great example of second chances, love after loss, and a love that was truly meant to be.

Tropes: second chance, small town, single parent, grief, HEA

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