Review: Eric and Lena both broke my heart and healed it!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 11, 2013
We’ve already met Eric and Lena.  We know why Eric is broken, but now we get to see what it was that shattered Lena.  And as we learn what that was, we see how two broken people fix each other.Let’s start with Eric.  Eric knows pain, both physical and emotional.  He lost his mother to abuse and he has his own demons to battle over the pain his father inflicted on him.  But that is not where Eric’s suffering ends.  He lost the girl he loved to the same type of abuse.  And in the middle of meeting a woman that he suddenly wants more than any woman ever before, he is thrown right back into the pain of his past when Bree is at risk.Lena’s the sexy no-nonsense photographer that works with Bree.  She believes in a no-strings attached type of lifestyle.  But that isn’t how Lena always saw her romantic life playing out.  Once upon a time, Lena wanted the knight in shining armor to save her.  She thought she found that when Levi entered her life right before graduation.  He was the boy she liked since she could remember.  But they were worlds apart.  Levi’s family was wealthy, he was popular and well, Lena was the daughter of the town whore.  But for a moment she thought someone saw her for more than that.  She could not have been more wrong.  And one broken heart creates a lifestyle for Lena where she is in control and her heart is protected from ever being shattered again.But all that changes when they meet.  Eric can sense the broken in her – after all he plays the same game she does.  But for the first time in what feels like forever, Eric wants more.  Opening himself up to her is the only way to start to deconstruct her walls.Can I say how much I love companion novels?  I seriously love them.  I get to bypass the pages of connecting to the characters since I already have.  I knew that Eric was going to be passionate and I knew that he was going my heart hurt, like seriously put-me-out-of-my-misery hurt.Since I had already known most of Eric’s back-story from reading Save, Lena was the one that we got to focus on.  I was pulled back instantly to that insecurity that we all faced in our teen years, that feeling of the first boy that ever broke your heart.  And although we all experienced that moment differently – her story hit on all those emotions.  Seriously, these are the types of feelings that are so far gone that I was surprised to see how easily they resurfaced.  That in itself amazed me.Ella Col gives us that shining moment though.  Although Eric has a few times where he shows just how broken he is, there is one that stood out.  That moment was heartbreakingly painful to read.  Him purging all of those feelings, dealing with the battle of love and hate and the guilt that comes with it.I am not sure what we have to expect next from Ella Col, but I know that I will be ready to read it.  I can’t get enough of a good love story.  And although this was a short read and it played out alongside Josh & Bree’s story we get bits of the future, Lena’s past and some stolen moments of Lena & Eric.  Those moments that we saw glimpses of in Save when Josh and Bree would disappear into the other room and we would be left wondering just what was going on with Eric… well now we know.  And I absolutely loved it.