Read More Sleep Less Blog: Lovely Trigger by R.K. Lilley

Lovely Trigger by R.K. Lilley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

★★★★★ 5+ WONDERFUL, TOUCHING SECOND CHANCE STARS.

"Some of the sweetest moments in life come from second chances."

If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would... No amount of stars will ever be enough to express my love for this series. Tristan and Danika's story is one that will definitely stay with me for a very long time and it will from now on reside on my all-time-favorites shelf.

'The saga of Tristan and Danika' -
The battles and the victories.
The defeats and the triumphs.
The tragedies and the trials.

I laughed, I cried, I swooned, I wanted to punch certain people in the face and others I wanted to give a hug. I went through so many emotions while reading this series and even though book 2 left me heartbroken, by the end of Lovely Trigger my belief was restored and I once again felt like I could finally breathe.

WARNING: this review contains SPOILERS for those who have not read book 1 & 2 in the series.

Lovely Trigger starts off with Danika and Tristan each going their own way. After the accident at the end of Rock Bottom, Danika made the decision to stay far away from Tristan because bad things happen when they stay together. She's decided to move on with her life and focus on her career. Tristan, after leaving rehab, still struggles with his bad habits but he's determined to become a better person.

He wants Danika back, and even though she wants nothing more to do with him, his feelings for her have never changed.

"How can you still love her so much? She won't even talk to you."
"Because that's how love works. It doesn't die, even when you don't feed it. That's just the way it is. I wouldn't change it, even if I could. Loving her has become part of who I am."

Over the course of six years, we follow Danika and Tristan's journey that occasionally overlaps. Whenever they meet though

"Love doesn't let you walk away clean. Love is messy. I don't have to tell you, of all people; Love takes a fucking piece of you before it's done."

The author had done an incredible job at making the story detailed enough without ever making it too long or ever becoming dull. The fact that it was written in dual POV also helped me understand the characters and what they were going through much better and so I was glad for those alternating POV's.

"We needed to become best friends again. Yes, that's was how I would do it. I needed to become so essential in her life that she couldn't conceive walking away.
I meant to break her.
Needed to break her."

T & D still have the best chemistry whenever they're together. Despite everything that happened, being friends comes natural to them and it was fun seeing them fall into old habits. Tristan still loves torturing and challenging Danika with his bets, nicknames and magic tricks and the fact that they so easily pick things up where they left off when it comes to their friendship, shows just how perfect they are for each other.

"In my whole life, there are only two people that I've ever called my best friend." My eyes filled from his raw tone as much as his words. "You and Jared."

Slowly but surely, their friendship evolves into something more, but Danika still keeps a tight lid on her feelings. She's afraid of opening up and making herself vulnerable again. Her trust in Tristan was destroyed, which is perfectly understandable considering what happened, but Tristan is determined to restore what they had. The fact that he fought so hard to win her back made me love him even more than I already did. <3

"I am the guy who has been in love with you for over six years. I am the guy that has thought about you every day. I miss you every day. What happened - what we lost - breaks my heart, but it doesn't change anything. I still want to marry you, and I still want you to be the mother of my children."

Still, their journey towards happiness is not an easy one and they have much more obstacles to overcome. Tristan and Danika are both such strong characters and the fact that they've both overcome so much and still try to make the best out of the hands they've been dealt made their story all the more admirable and powerful. Of course, there were also some less favorable characters in the story such as Twatalie who still kept showing up, Mona, Dahlia, Danika's dad...but overall the side characters helped make the story even better and it was fun catching up with James and Bianca, Lana and Akira and Frankie and Estella throughout the years.

I couldn't have wished for a more perfect ending to this EPIC saga... Once I started reading it, I could NOT put it down until I reached the very end. And let me tell you, losing a few hours sleep over it was 100% worth it. The only downfall is that now that it's over, I feel a huge book slump coming up...what will ever compare to the magnificence of this story? (That might sound a bit over-dramatic, but I'm actually serieus, lol.)

Overall, R.K. Lilley has done an amazing job and even though I already loved her work based on the Up in the Air-series, I have now become an even bigger fan!!!

♫ "Somewhere, in the great expanse of space,
There is a home where souls reside,
Yours and mine were joined together,
I have not moved from that place,

God help me, I'll never move from that place." ♫