Only One (Southern Comfort #3) by Kelly Mooney

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Synopsis:

Cole Lucca was destined to be in a uniform. A brilliantly talented quarterback, hand picked to play for his dream team, Alabama. He’s only ever loved Annabelle, but when she left she took his heart with him. He figured that she’d just forgot about him. That she ran off and never blinked an eye. Now after all this time, he was finally face to face with the only girl that he ever truly loved. Has too much time passed for him to take claim over her heart?

Annabelle Woods wants a future as an actress, and believes that California will make all her dreams come true. There was a time when she had left her heart in his bed, and never got it back. She wondered if she’d ever get the chance. After three years and thousands of miles, will she finally be able to reclaim the missing piece of her heart?

Maybe they’re both wrong. Maybe all of their dreams are right here at home…Or maybe the past should just be left in the past.

Secrets lead to destruction. Will destiny prevail?

Review:

**Spoiler alert - I will be talking about the plot in detail, including the ending, so don't read if you don't want to know what happens**

I was excited to read Only One. I am not sure why I didn't read it when I read the first two books in the series, but for some reason I didn't.  I was excited to read Annabelle and Cole's story, but man did Annabelle make me angry. I hated her so much. It has been a while since I hated a character quite as much as her.

In the beginning Annabelle was alright. Kind of stupid, way too proud, but I figured she is young she can make some mistakes. Hopefully she will grow up and learn something and it will be all good. Only she never did. She was just as much a stupid, spoiled little brat at the end of the book as she was at the beginning. Always hurting those who loved her because she couldn't use her brain.

Cole on the other hand was wonderful. I felt so bad for him. He was nothing but super sweet and kind and wonderful through the whole story. I don't know why he put up with Annabelle for so long. He must have really loved her to deal with all of her bs for years and years.

Alright so this is the story of Cole and Annabelle. Cole has loved Annabelle for as long as he can remember, but she has never loved him like that. He knew she was it for him, but she was never into him that way. His dream was to go to school and play ball for Alabama while she wanted to go to Hollywood and be an actress. They were best friends and nothing more until the night before school started. The night before Cole left. The one and only night Cole got to spend with Annabelle. She said she has always loved him but never wanted to go there with him since their families are like family. It would make everything so awkward if it didn't work out so in her mind it was best to do nothing. Only with him leaving she let him know how she felt.

Afterwards they did want to make a go of it even though they were on opposite sides of the country until one day Annabelle just stops talking to Cole seemingly out of nowhere. She just never spoke to him again and even though it broke his heart he had to try and move on eventually.

This story picks up three years after that fateful night when Annabelle finally comes back to town. She has not been home sine she left for Hollywood because...well I am not exactly sure why. She needs to be a huge superstar before she can go home because...if she isn't and she goes home she might just be happy? She might have the love and support of her family? I don't know. She doesn't make very smart decisions, she gets involved with her creepy agent who abuses her, but she can't leave as then she would just be a failure. Luckily her family loves her and sends her uncle to check in on her and take her away from her horrible decisions.

Cole has been trying to move on with another girl, a girl he brings home to meet the family when he finds out Annabelle is back. He goes to see her to get some closure as he doesn't even know why she stopped talking to him forever ago. And why did she suddenly stop talking to him? Because her catty friend told her that she saw him making out with some other girl. Yep, she just believed her jealous friend because it makes sense that Cole, Cole who has been in love with you forever, who would do anything for you, would just throw that all away when he finally has a chance with you. When Cole finds out he is understandably angry. I mean really how could she believe that? How could she not talk to him and see if there is any truth to the rumors? It made no sense.

Eventually they do work things out which is good. Cole is 100% in and hopes Annabelle is as well. He still worries that she will run again, will shut him out again, but he loves her. He can finally be with her, finally have what he has always wanted so he is hoping it will all work out. Things are good until someone starts threatening Annabelle. Her family members are these super awesome security people who are set to deal with things like this so they are on it. Only they don't really seem to be able to do very much. They think it might be the jerk agent she was living with, but he hasn't left LA so maybe he hired someone. Either way they are doing what they can to keep her safe.

Things are okay until she goes to the beach house one weekend with  her family and stays home one night waiting for Cole to come for a visit. Some bad guys break in and tie her up and are going to do not good things to her, but the police are on their way. The head guy tells her he will be back to rape her once they kill the jerk agent and she is understandably upset. You would think after something like that you might be a bit smarter and try to be safer. You might not just run off all willy nilly without telling anyone right? Well you wold be wrong. Why would Annabelle be smart? I mean after a few weeks when the guy didn't come back he probably just gave up right? I mean he wasn't caught or anything, and he did said multiple times he was going to have fun with her, but it is probably all in the past...she is a smart one. It was really annoying. She runs off to go visit Cole as a surprise and *shock* someone finds her and abducts her. Now here is part of the story that I just didn't buy at all. Her family members are these super security people, and yet they cannot find Annabelle in her car with her phone? They didn't put a tracker on her at all? Seriously? Someone is after your daughter/niece/whomever and you just said it's cool. Let's just track the bad guys as no one has ever tried to get her...okay. Really unbelievable. 

So even though this book until this point annoyed me, I still didn't really truly hate Annabelle yet. It was only after she was saved from almost being raped that I really wanted her to end up sad and alone. I know she was going through some things, but man. I did not get her. She made me so angry! She did one of the things I hate the most in a character - made decisions for other people. She pushed and pushed Cole away, was incredibly terrible to him, told him she would never be able to love him and yelled at him to just leave her alone. Again and again she broke his heart into a million pieces then was all poor me when he actually listened to her and stayed away. Was all boo hoo when he gave her the space she wanted. Man that made me angry.

Even worse was that she found out she was pregnant, but she wasn't going to/didn't want to tell Cole. Yep, cause he doesn't deserve to know he will be a father. And when Cole comes back all hopeful that maybe they can work things out for the sake of the baby what does she do? Destroys him again. She was so horrible to him, so cruel and vile, pushes him away and makes him go and it was just heartbreaking for poor, poor Cole. He is crushed and she does her boo hoo, poor me I am all alone. She actually gets angry with Cole for staying away! I was just like lady you need to get your head checked. I do not feel sorry for you AT ALL when you kept telling him you wanted nothing to do with him. Where do you get off being all poor me he left me when he only left because you are being so vile to him? Because you kept breaking his heart into a million pieces? Because you kept saying you wanted nothing to do with him? I don't feel for you. I don't. I really wanted her to end up sad and alone. I wanted her to give the baby up for adoption and have Cole adopt it. I wanted Cole to find someone else, someone who would actually love him and stay with him and treat him how he deserves, and have Annabelle just have to watch from the outside as he is happy with his family. She would have no one to blame but herself. People can only take so much before they actually give up. She could cry herself to sleep because she still "loves" him, and I would have loved that. I hated her so much I wanted her to be miserable. Cole was nothing but supportive of her and she just ripped him apart again and again. I really wish he would have been able to find someone else.

The end is supposed to be a happy ending, but I really didn't believe it. I didn't buy that Annabelle would actually stay around now. Why would I? She has not shown that she is someone you can count on for anything. Sure they got married, it would be a bit harder to run, but not impossible. In my mind I just see her hurting Cole again and again for years. Not a happy ending at all in my mind. Just because I didn't believe Annabelle. So I know this was long, but man I did not like this story. I know I said it before, but I hated Annabelle and she completely ruined the story for me. Oh well, time to move on to the next read.

Rating: ★