Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paige Toon

Posted on 22 October 2022

Let me start off by saying that I love Paige Toon’s novels, I have all but one of them, and that particular omission is being corrected this month. I enjoy that combination of light-hearted and heart-breaking in a book, especially when it comes to stories that are building up to a big romance.

I am not going to spoil the story, any more than the summary does, because as with the majority of books by this author, I am going to be recommending it when it’s released, to my reading friends because it made my heart crack a little.

Neither of them expected to fall in love. But sometimes life has other plans.

When Wren realises her fiancé is in love with someone else, she thinks her heart will never recover.

On the other side of the world, Anders lost his wife four years ago and is still struggling to move on.

Wren hopes that spending the summer with her dad and step-family on their farm in Indiana will help her to heal. There, amid the cornfields and fireflies, she and Anders cross paths and their worlds are turned upside-down again.

But Wren doesn’t know that Anders is harbouring a secret, and if he acts on any feelings he has for Wren it will have serious fall-out for everyone.

Walking away would hurt Wren more than she can imagine. But, knowing the truth, how can she possibly stay?

Wren is devastated when she realises that Scott, the man she has been with for years, her fiance, is in love with someone he works with. Scott didn’t mean for it to happen, but you can’t control who your heart opens up to and unfortunately, it’s not Wren.

In need of an escape, she goes to visit her father and his family in Indiana. Though this visit will not be without its own wounds, she needs to get away from Scott, as every town is small when you really want to avoid someone.

Going to Indiana reminds her of old resentments, especially towards her dad’s wife and their daughter Bailey. Having gone through the pain of her parents’ divorce (something it seems she is still harbouring negative feelings about), she struggles to bury her anger at the woman her father left them for, and the child they had together, blaming them for many of the things that went wrong in her own life. However, after meeting their neighbours, especially Jonas and Anders, she realises that love doesn’t follow the rules.

Wren is falling for Anders and has even started to contemplate leaving her old life in the UK behind to start again with him in the US, but then a secret is revealed and everything is up in the air.

There are many things that Paige Toon does so well when it comes to her books, and at the top of the list is the way she combines a beautiful love story with moments that are emotionally devastating. This book is no different, I even noticed a few Easter Eggs in the story, harking back to previous books and though I was hovering between tears and laughter for a considerable amount of the tale, this made me smile.

When I read this I was reminded, a little, of Angie from If You Could Go Anywhere, there was something about her travelling away from her home in an effort to escape from the things that are permanent brain luggage. Both women who’ve been through the wringer emotionally, hurt by family and friends though neither intended it to happen.

Anders, what can I say about him? He’s not exactly the traditional romantic hero, but then I don’t think that he’s meant to be. He’s harbouring a lot of pain and initially doesn’t want to open up to anyone.

I loved Jonas and though he is not the hero of the piece there was something about him that made me want him to have his own story, he’s the classic rough and ready hero, a farmer who has been emotionally hurt and can’t commit.

I can’t read the cover of this without hearing the Paloma Faith song, but all told it’s a pretty good companion piece.

I will definitely read this book again, and as with the majority of Paige Toon novels I have read, I will be recommending it everywhere. So, if you love books that give you a little bit of heartbreak but have incredible payoff then run, don’t walk, to preorder this now.