REVIEW: Don’t Let Go by Sharla Lovelace

In Don’t Let Go by Sharla Lovelace, Jules Doucette has spent the last two and a half decades putting decisions she was forced to make behind her, which isn’t easy when you still live in the same small Texas town in which you grew up. That decision her mother forced on her at age seventeen ripped her away from the only guy she’s ever fully loved: Noah Ryan. The fact that he left her to pick up the pieces has never fully made sense or let Jules feel settled in the years since.

‘Everything we used to be in another lifetime was still there, pushing and tugging and teasing. It wasn’t just my imagination. I’d seen it in his eyes as well. I had to stay away from him That was all there was to it.’

Still running her mother’s bookstore and now living in her childhood home since her mother’s passing, Jules is forced to confront those painful memories when Noah rolls back into town. The heat and the passion are still very much alive between them. However, much has changed for both Jules and Noah over the years, complicating their bittersweet reunion. When they realize that what they thought was the truth is actually far from it, they’ll both have to reevaluate their feelings and how to move forward from here.

“Jules.”
I saw everything in that one second, everything he couldn’t say, everything he’d ever felt.
“Don’t let go,” I whispered.
Noah blinked back emotion, and when his mouth sealed over mine again it was solid, real, like a promise.

What an amazing story! Don’t Let Go was an absolute emotional roller coaster while Jules dealt with the return of her ex-fiance to their hometown and the subsequent awkward love triangle. Cue the drama, the laughter, and the tears.

Loved. It. This was truly a story that had every emotion I could think of, and it had me in its grip from start to finish. Author Sharla Lovelace did a fantastic job of creating characters that were flawed, fallible and perfectly human. Jules especially. She had such a fun way about her. This was a narrative, and her ‘voice’ came across as brutally honest, whether it was describing her thoughts or her actions. Even when Jules was interacting with her friends or family, those scenes seemed to flow effortlessly and with a level of intimacy that rang true.

I really thought the way Jules handled her ex, her first love Noah, coming home was realistic. They didn’t see each other grow up into adulthood, so they were kind of stuck back at age seventeen whenever they were in close proximity. It seemed pretty natural to me that there would be a period of time in which they both had to adjust to seeing each other as adults, as well as with the consequences from decisions they made as teens. I know Jules and Noah’s second chance at romance will not make everyone happy, nor will their almost teenage-like hormonal reactions, but I personally was hooked on that chemistry and the passion that never stopped.

The secrets and revelations that came out over the course of this novel were sometimes shocking and sometimes heartbreaking, but they all added to the complexity of the situation Jules, Noah, and everyone else around them found themselves in. The love triangle between Noah, Jules, and Shayna was a pretty complicated thing itself. I confess I wanted to rip my hair out a few times when you could see a character creating more of a mess, but that just added another layer of believability to the story. It wasn’t perfect and it took some time to sort things out. Once all was said and done, though? Pure magic. I was crying and sniffling through the entire epilogue with a big old smile on my face.

This contemporary romance was chock full of sentiment, Texas charm & sass, acceptance, and most of all Love. If you take this bumpy ride with Jules, I hope you come to appreciate her touching story as much as I did.

Book Info:

June 30th 2015 | by Montlake Romance |

Noah Ryan and Jules Doucette had spent every moment of their lives together, first as childhood best friends and later as young lovers. The two had their future all planned out—until one unspeakable decision tore them apart.

Twenty-six years later, Jules is living her life by someone else’s plan. She’s running her mother’s store, living in her mother’s house, following her mother’s rules, and keeping the secrets her mother made her bury.

Then Noah comes home, and any sense of order and structure flies out the window. Noah’s return does more than just stir up old memories—it also forces Jules to see her life in a whole new way and uncover secrets even she didn’t know were hidden. But can the power of first love triumph over years of pain and lies?

Revised edition: This edition of Don’t Let Go includes editorial revisions.