Review: When I Should've Stayed (Red Bridge #2) by Max Monroe

When I Should've Stayed (Red Bridge #2) by Max Monroe is LIVE NOW!

Amazon: https://geni.us/Stayed_ebook

Universal: https://www.authormaxmonroe.com/stayedmaxmonroe

Tropes
👉Dual POV
🫶The One That Got Away
🥹He Only Wants Her
💍Still Married Twist
💋Lovers to Enemies
🏘️Small-Town Charm
🩷Yearning
❤️‍🩹Find-Their-Way-Back-to-One-Another
🔥Unresolved Tension
🗣️Angsty Conversations, BANTER
🫠Swoony Hero
💕Funny & Sweet Moments
😭Heavy Feels/Emotional

Important Note: This book can be read as a complete standalone. When I Should've Stayed is an interconnected standalone contemporary romance in the Red Bridge Series.

She thought they were divorced. He never filed the papers.
Now he’s determined to prove their love story isn’t over.

Josie: Before The Moment
There are ghosts at every corner. In the stolen kisses while I waitressed at the diner, in the town festivals in the square, in the many jokes about Betty Bagley and her pie at the Fall Farmer’s Market, and in countless nights spent watching Clay make drinks with that handsome smile of his plastered on his face while I sat on a stool at the bar.

It should all feel familiar and comforting, and yet, it makes it hard for the person I am now to breathe at all.

I wish I’d been stronger. I wish I’d been wiser. I wish I didn’t have to do this.
I wish.

Tonight will be a defining moment for the rest of my life.

I have to end it now…
…before it ends me.

Clay: After The Moment
When Josie and I said, ‘I do’, I thought it’d be us against the world forever. But I wasn’t expecting the world to be so against us.

I know I should’ve stayed that night, and I should have gone back a heck of a lot sooner.

Because I don’t know how to be here. I don’t know how to be anywhere.

Truth is, I don’t know how to be without Josie at all.

She might think we’re done, but I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure we’re not.

MY REVIEW

Josie and Clay should've been together still. But one decision, made in the heat of the moment, during an emotional crisis, and the two have been apart for far too long. Now, though, she's back, and Clay's gonna claim the only woman he's ever loved. She's not getting away this time. He should've stayed back then, now she's going to stay, if it's the last thing Clay ever does - convince his soulmate they belong together.

Whew, this one packs an emotional punch. Not nearly as much as its predecessor, What I Should've Said, but still is pretty heart-wrenching. Clay is quite honestly, the perfect golden retriever hero, and I hurt for him so much. He never knew why his Josie left, but as soon as she appeared again, boom, it was on and his persistence never wavered. Then there's Josie, oh Josie. Such a stubborn woman! I wanted to shake her many, many times, even as I felt for her. Her emotions got the best of her and she made a stupid decision that affected everyone, not just herself. But Clay makes up for her in all the best ways. And of course all the side characters are around to help make up for Josie's missteps, and my sweet Summblebee, gah, now I am crying! If you haven't read What I Should've Said, please do, but it's not absolutely necessary to still enjoy the sweetest, most determined Clay and the love of his life, Josie.