My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️

Title: Wrecked (The Westin Legacies, #1)

Author: Bree L. Mina

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 466

Publication Date: 8/18/26 (paperback deluxe)

Publisher: Simon Maverick

Categories: Dark Romance, Second Chance, Survival, Contemporary

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from Simon Maverick in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Simon Maverick for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Fate is a fickle thing.

It can lead you down a path of pain, or it can take you on a journey toward happiness.

There is no equity in the unpredictable.

Fate is inevitable.
Not everyone is destined for a happy ending.
Not every story will work out in the end.
Not every love is meant to survive.

Some believe we are in control of our destiny. That we determine the outcome of our lives, the people we love, and the path we walk.

But I didn’t choose to survive a plane crash.
I didn’t choose to be trapped on an island with the man who once crushed my soul.
I didn’t choose to reopen my heart to a love so powerful that the end of it would be unsurvivable.

I didn’t want to fall in love with my sister’s fiancé. To feel the insurmountable pain that followed my rescue. Or let go of a man that would own my heart until the day I die.

But I am no longer allowing fate to decide my future.

This next path is mine.

*Please note this book is a romantic tragedy. The conclusion of this book is the conclusion of this story. There will not be a cliffhanger. This book does not end with an HEA; however, the events of this book inspire the story in book two. Book two will have an HEA*

Content Warning: violence, death, suicide, physical abuse, sexual assault, rape, child abuse

This book is titled so appropriately because by the end of this that’s how I felt – wrecked! Heed the warning in the blurb, this isn’t story doesn’t have a happy ending, it is a romantic tragedy.

Elli and Nate have loved one another since high school. She was a sophomore and his tutor. He was a senior and the captain of the football team with a powerful and rich father. A father that abused him. This story goes back and forth from the past to the present…the past where Elli and Nate are so in love with one another, to the present where he is engaged to Elli’s sister, Katie. Yes this story is as messy as it seems. But ultimately it’s about two people so in love that are torn apart because of Nate’s evil dad, and they find their way back together after some crazy event. They have so much to confess and emotions to work through but they eventually get there. And the chemistry between is undeniably spicy, though there was a questionable spicy moment during a traumatic event.

This is a dark story so please check the trigger warnings. I don’t even know if I liked Nate even though I felt bad for him being manipulated and abused by his father – but just the way he went about pushing Elli away (for her sake), really sucked bad. This is a second chance romance wrapped up in a love triangle. The cheating trope is one of my least favorite tropes even though he had an explanation for everything. I don’t even know how Katie, his fiance could still want him after knowing he loves her sister. I feel like they all needed therapy! By the end of this book I was emotionally drained, I didn’t cry, but I was just sad for everyone involved in this story even if it is fictional.

Final Thoughts:

This story is for the ones that like a tragic romance with some dark themes – check the triggers. Was I engrossed with the love triangle drama? Totally. I had to see how it played out and boy did it end in the most unexpected and sad way. This one will not leave you happy in the end, but I’m still curious to see what happens next in the story. Can there be a happy ending eventually? I’ll be reading book two to find out.

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