“What would happen if you lost everything? If the people who were supposed to love you unconditionally were no longer there for you, how would your world change?

That’s exactly what happened to Madeleine Becker when her parents died when she was ten years old. Ripped from her home and everything that she has ever loved, she is forced to start all over again. The only way for her to move on is to build walls around her heart and keep everyone at a safe distance. Her logic: she can’t get hurt if she doesn’t fall in love.

That theory is blown to pieces when she meets Reid Connely during her freshman year at college. He is gorgeous and darkly mysterious. He understands Maddy’s pain all too well, but sharing his pain would mean breaking down the walls he put up around his own heart. Conflicted between loving Maddy and hiding his dark past, Reid starts to reevaluate his world. Maddy’s inner strength, snarky personality and breath taking beauty help Reid to make peace with his past

If you’re lucky, you’ll fall in love – truly, madly and deeply in love. But what happens when that honest and pure love isn’t enough to erase your fears? What happens when your past rears its ugly head and threatens your future? Maddy and Reid had that kind of love – the all-encompassing, Earth shattering, once in a lifetime kind of love. Then life happened. Old wounds that were thought to be long healed and scabbed over are ripped opened and they are forced to face the possibility that, maybe, they are not strong enough to fight their demons and embrace the light. Together, they found out what love is, but now they will each need to heal on their own before they can ever be together again. They must face their fears and beat down their pasts in order to find their way through this crazy uphill battle called love. They’ve let love in, but now, they need to find out how to Let Love Stay.

Let Love In

Let me just start out by saying that I absolutely loved this book! I can’t get enough of Maddy and Reid! It was an amazing read! Thank you Melissa Collins for writing this book! Let Love In is a sweet but also a sad love story. Maddy has suffered the loss of her parents at a young age and is reluctant to Let Love In. When she meets Reid during her freshman year at college she falls hard for him even though he treats her so horribly at first. She is drawn to him.  Reid falls for Maddie hard as well but it takes him a little longer to see it. Once they are together they tear through the protective walls they’ve built around their hearts. They each put in the effort to make things work even though they both have so many issues to work on.  Though their obstacles are few they are complex like Reid trying to find the courage to reveal his painful past to Maddy without losing her. She has trouble trusting him to not hurt her while she is so vulnerable to him.

Reid is a good guy. Initially he comes off as a bad boy but really he’s got a big heart.  He’s just looking for someone to love him. He wants someone that will be there for him through everything. He feels he has found that in Maddy.

Maddy is funny and a somewhat sarcastic. She doesn’t really make their issues more dramatic then they needed to be. I really liked that once she found the guy for her. She was able to open up to him and trust him after he saved her. Maddy’s best friend Mel, who is like her sister, plays a good supporting role in the story. I would definitely recommend this book. It was a great read!!!

Let Love Stay

Melissa Collins did a wonderful job in writing the next part in Maddie and Reid’s love story. I was absolutely taken away by the beauty of it. I actually read the book in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down.This story about finding love and holding on to it. This was a great second part to Let Love In where we see Reid and Maddy’s story come more alive. I enjoyed watching them grow closer and mature in this book. I truly admired these two characters they were broken, real, and full of deep love for one another. They gave everything to make it work and that is what real relationships take. I felt very connected to the characters in this book. Because I could feel all their emotions and I felt like I was going through the pain with them. Life isn’t easy and they sure had their troubles but they still loved each other at the end of the day. There was somewhat of a cliffhanger and I was hoping that they would have a happy ending. Now Maddy has dropped the bomb on Reid, she’s pregnant. He gets scared and takes off to figure things out. Maddy gave him a pretty hard time about his issues and should have let him process it before making him leave. Now Maddy and Reid are a part and they are miserable without one another. In order to find their way back to each other they have to come to terms with their past. Now it’s all up to them to decide if love will be enough to make it through. This book was wonderful and full of emotions and love and heartache but in the end I still loved the characters and the story. I felt like I was with them through it. If that makes any sense. I would definitely recommend this book!