Book Review: Redeemed

I finished the Dirty Air series by Lauren Asher with Redeemed a few days ago and I think this one might have been my favorite of the series!

This novel follows Santiago Alatorre and Chloe Carter. This was different from the previous books, because while the characters in the other books did have obstacles to overcome it wasn’t quite like Santiago’s situation in Redeemed. How his story differs is that we got to know Santi from the previous 3 books and he was always happy-go-lucky, upbeat, and fun. But in the beginning of this novel, he is in a terrible accident during a race and is severely injured. The rest of the novel takes place 3 years after the accident – after surgeries, rehab, therapy, etc. He is now living in Lake Como and pretty reclusive.

Chloe is from New York and grew up in and out of foster care due to her mother’s negligence. Now she’s in her 20s and after taking a genetic test hoping to find some other relatives out there, she finds a paternal match in Italy. After an accidental encounter between Chloe and Santiago on his property, the two are forced to pretend they’re a couple when Maya, Noah, and their young son, Marko, show up unexpectedly to visit.

The two decide to keep up their ruse to benefit each other and because they actually enjoy each other’s company. Santiago’s family thinks he has a girlfriend and is finally moving on from his horrible accident and that maybe she can encourage him to get back to racing. And Chloe will be next door to the man she believes is her father and can hopefully get to know him and tell him who she is.

Santiago and Chloe end up helping each other in more ways than they originally bargained for. Chloe helps Santiago accept his new life and want to live again and Santiago gives Chloe friendship and love and a sense of home that she’s never had.

I truly loved this book and Santiago and Chloe. Like I mentioned earlier in the post, it was a different kind of book in this series and it was really emotional to see the Santiago we knew from the previous books be a shell of himself after his accident. And because of that, it was really amazing to watch him come back to life with Chloe.

The epilogue was really good and the extended epilogue was the perfect wrap-up to the series with all the couples and their families.

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