Publication: October 7th 2014 by Atria
Source: Purchased
Goodreads description: The top-selling, beloved indie author of Ten Tiny Breaths returns with a new romance about a young woman who loses her memory—and the man who knows that the only way to protect her is to stay away.
Left for dead in the fields of rural Oregon, a young woman defies all odds and survives—but she awakens with no idea who she is, or what happened to her. Refusing to answer to “Jane Doe” for another day, the woman renames herself “Water” for the tiny, hidden marking on her body—the only clue to her past. Taken in by old Ginny Fitzgerald, a crotchety but kind lady living on a nearby horse farm, Water slowly begins building a new life. But as she attempts to piece together the fleeting slivers of her memory, more questions emerge: Who is the next-door neighbor, quietly toiling under the hood of his Barracuda? Why won’t Ginny let him step foot on her property? And why does Water feel she recognizes him?
Twenty-four-year-old Jesse Welles doesn’t know how long it will be before Water gets her memory back. For her sake, Jesse hopes the answer is never. He knows that she’ll stay so much safer—and happier—that way. And that’s why, as hard as it is, he needs to keep his distance. Because getting too close could flood her with realities better left buried.
The trouble is, water always seems to find its way to the surface.
The premise of this book sounded so intriguing to me, and having already read this author’s Ten Tiny Breaths series, I automatically knew that I wanted to read her new series.
Burying Water was such an amazing book. The writing was fantastic, the story completely pulled me in and I flew through it in no time. The mystery is actually revealed pretty early on to the reader and the book alternates between Water’s chapters in the present as she tries to regain her memories, and Jesse’s chapters in the past as we find out what happened and the events that led to her current situation in the first place.
The story wasn’t the most original, but there were plenty of plot twists and I didn’t expect everything that happened. I did think that things were drawn out just a tiny bit and the book could have been shortened a little. Part of that was because I already knew the truth behind the ‘mystery’ of Water and her true identity. I was impatient for her to regain her memories and to find out what actually happened to her. But this story was so cleverly written with the way that everything all came together in the end.
The characters were also brilliantly written. Water’s resilience and determination were what I admired most about her. Jesse definitely wasn’t perfect but I loved him anyway. I loved how sweet and caring he was and how much he tried to protect Water. Viktor was also a horrible yet believable villain. He was pretty damn terrifying and it takes a great author and some superb writing to be able to make the terror feel so real for me.
I really liked the romance in this book. It was actually kind of a new experience for me to see Water and Jesse slowly getting closer in the present, while at the same time learning how their relationship began in the first place with the chapters from the past.
What I didn’t love was all the cheating that happened, and this book had so much of it. Normally I would hate the fact that a relationship began with an affair involving someone who was married, but the situation wasn’t as simple as that as I learned later on. It still didn’t justify it, but I just found myself wanting them to end up together. Their romance actually made an emotional impact on me because they had to overcome so much to be together and they still find their way back to each other in the end.
I was super happy with how the book ended. I liked that everything was all wrapped up and I wasn’t left wondering about anything. Most of all I loved that happily ever after, which is half the reason why I pick up a new adult or contemporary romance read in the first place. I gave it a 4.75/5 rating and I highly recommend this book if you’re a fan of new adult, especially if you have read K.A. Tucker’s previous series, Ten Tiny Breaths (or even if you haven’t).
