Forsaken by Sierra Kincade is the first book in her new Deep Connection series. First, I can’t even tell you how excited I was when I found out Kincade was writing a new book. If you have not checked out the Body Works series by her, you need to correct that immediately. I loved every minute of those books which leads me to the fact that regardless of whether you have read those or not, you should DEFINITELY check Forsaken out.

The story focuses on the main characters of Marsella and Jake. Marsella is the daughter of a man who, in my opinion, is a pretty crappy father (that is me being somewhat forgiving). She has worked extremely hard to show to him that she deserves to take the lead and run the family restaurant. On the night that Marsella, her brother, sister and father get together to celebrate her brother’s birthday at the restaurant, Marsella ends up realizing two things. First, her father will never give her what she has earned. Second, a bit later, she discovers that her father has been using the restaurant to cover up some not so legal things he has been doing. Immediately Marsella’s life is turned upside down because as soon as her father realizes their restaurant is being swarmed by police, he hands her a ledger and tells her to run.

Jake is the other character in this story and I admit it, I kind of loved him. He has some secrets and he is one of several people looking for the ledger that Marsella had when she ran. The thing about Jake is that he is the one who helped her run so now, two years later, he is definitely doubting whether he made the right decision. He isn’t sure he should have trusted her but when he finally finds her…working as a waitress no less, he can’t help but be drawn to her again. He knew her before she was on the run so he initially has a hard time reconciling the new Marsella with the old but eventually, he finds himself getting close to her. Of course, that is when all his secrets start to come out.

One thing I want to call out about Kincade’s writing is how well she builds the backstories of her characters. I loved how I got to learn more and more about each of these characters, their families and their motivations. Kincade does a wonderful job of developing their stories as well as pulling the reader into their lives. Also…she writes amazing sexy times scenes. If you have any interest in that at all (which you should…) you need to read!

As the story progresses, we get to find out what really happened to Marsella when she ran and it definitely wasn’t easy for her. Lucky for her, she ran into some fantastic people who helped her when she was at her worst. I really found both of these characters interesting and wanted to know more about them. Garrett is the man who saved her and Kenzie is his sister and ultimately becomes Marsella’s boss at the diner. They are all pretty close and protective of each other but Marsella has been very selective about what she tells both of them. They only know she was trying to get away from someone so they both made some assumptions on what that meant and Marsella never really filled in the blanks. We also get to find out what Jake’s story is and everything comes right back to Marsella’s family in the end.

I thought Kincade did a wonderful job of tying the story together at the end and I am excited to see where she takes the rest of the series. I loved the characters, the story, all the secrets, and of course, the romance. If you are looking for something that will keep you turning the pages to see what will happen next consider checking Forsaken out. After reading this book you will want to read all of Sierra Kincade’s books and trust me when I say…you should!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.