5 Stars
Publisher: Dragonfly Press
Date of publication: September 12th, 2018
Genre: Romance
Series: Welcome to Otter Tail
An Unlikely Setup—Book 1—review here
Can’t Stand the Heat—Book 2—review here
Life Rewritten—Book 3
For Baby and Me—Book 4 (review here)
Where you can find Life Rewritten—Amazon | Barnes and Noble
Goodreads synopsis:
Delaney Spencer erased every trace of Chantal – the wildly popular rocker she used to be. She’s a carpenter now. Her only connection to her old life is drumming in a local band.
Until Sam McCabe shows up in town. The sibling of her late lover and bandmate Diesel, Sam has been searching for her. For the sake of his brother’s children, he needs the unreleased songs she and Diesel created together.
Delaney wants to do the right thing and help Diesel’s adorable kids. But not if she has to reveal she’s Chantal. She won’t do it — not even for Sam.
My review:
In my experience, books later on in a series tend to kind of fizzle out. I can count on one hand how many times I have given a 5-star rating to the 3rd book in a series. Life Rewritten is among those elite few.
Be warned, have tissues nearby. This book is going to make you cry. I wasn’t expecting it and had to go scrounging for tissues. There are some pretty emotional scenes that will rip your heart out and put it back in.
The author did a fantastic job of showcasing how hard alcohol/drug addiction recovery is. You can never say that you were an addict or an alcoholic. You always are one. The fight to stay clean/sober is often exhausting. It was showcased beautifully here.
I knew that Delaney was hiding something but I wasn’t prepared to find out that she was a rock star in her former life. I was floored. Other than her singing and playing the drums, there were no clues about her past. From what was discussed in the book, Delaney’s alter ego wasn’t a very nice person when she was a rock star. Again, such a difference from the woman that I had grown to like through reading the series.
I felt for Sam. To assume guardianship of two young children when you don’t have any of your own is hard. Even harder is that those kids were damaged. I understood why he wanted those CDs. He was trying to protect the kids.
I felt for Rennie and Leo. Their mother was mentally unstable and an addict. Their father died in from an overdose. They were placed with their uncle, who they barely knew. Then they were uprooted and brought to Wisconsin. It had to of been terrifying for them. I wanted to reach through the book and hug them.
When the press found out where Delaney had been hiding, she was pissed. She had every right to be. She worked hard to keep her identity hidden. I was so mad at Jen and Maddie for their reactions. That almost sent her over the brink. Almost.
The sex scenes in Life Rewritten were emotional. Both Delaney and Sam didn’t want to fall for each other. Their sex scenes reflected that. They were some of the best written scenes that I have read to date. Not explicit but graphic enough to know what was going on.
The end of Life Rewritten was satisfying. I have never said that about the ending of a book before. I am not going to go into what exactly happened but I was thrilled with how it turned out. Let’s say that Delaney deserved it.
I would give Life Rewritten an Adult rating. There is sex (not graphic). There is language. There is mild violence. There are triggers. They would be the talk of past drug use and talk of past alcoholism.
I would reread Life Rewritten. I would also recommend this book to family and friends.
4 thoughts on “Life Rewritten (Welcome to Otter Creek: Book 3) by Margaret Watson”