REVIEW: Until There Was Us by Samantha Chase

Until There Was Us by Samantha Chase, the seventh book in The Montgomery Brothers series, is the story of workaholic Megan Montgomery. Two years prior she had an uncharacteristic one night stand with physical therapist Alex Rebat. Since then, she has thrown herself into her work but has never been able to forget Alex. Alex has never forgotten Megan either. Despite the fact she had stood him up when he had flown across the country to visit her, he’s excited when he discovers she’s moving to Portland to work for her cousin. But will he be enough to get her to change her workaholic ways?

I found Megan to be somewhat frustrating. For example, at one point after the wedding Alex had flown out to see her, she knew he was coming, but then she got so caught up in her work she forgot to meet up with him. She wants her father to be as proud of her as he is of her brothers, and she feels the way to do that is through her work. I felt bad for her that she felt she had to basically sacrifice her life and her happiness to make her father happy. It felt like she wasted too much of her life trying to live for someone else rather than herself.

Alex is a genuinally nice guy. Despite what happened with Megan, he still wanted to try to work things out with her. He’s determined to show her that there’s more to life than work, and he’s patient as she struggles with finding a life-work balance.

We get to see Megan’s cousins in this book, and it was good to see that they, too, wanted to see Megan have more of a life. Zack refuses to let her work the crazy hours she worked at her previous job. They’re also protective of her and weary of Alex starting a relationship with her, even though they’re all friends with him and and know he’s a good guy.

Alex was briefly introduced in the previous book, as he was Zach’s physical therapist. Still, you don’t need to have read the previous books in the series prior to reading this one; it works well as a standalone.

I would recommend this to fans of the second chance trope.
 

Book Info:

Publication: May 1, 2018 | Sourcebooks Casablanca | The Montgomery Brothers #7

Megan Montgomery has always been the careful type. Except…one time at her cousin’s wedding when she threw caution to the wind and had the steamiest hook-up of her life. But that was two years ago— why can’t she stop thinking about it? So when Megan accepts a job at her cousin’s company, she does everything she can to avoid Alex—knowing he’ll shake up her carefully crafted world.
Alex Rebat’s been living a good life. He loves his career and friends, but like Megan, hasn’t been able to stop thinking about their passionate encounter. And once Megan moves to town, Alex makes it his personal goal to show her that maybe it’s time to start taking a few more risks…