Release: 1 (The Release Series)

Product Information

Release flits from 'Past to Present' seamlessly, allowing us a broader connection with these two characters. Eleven year Ramsey and his younger sister Nora were the newcomers to Clovert, moving just doors down from Thea after being evicted from their home.

There are two things in this world that Ramsey cares about. His little sister and a girl who stole his start from the moment he fell out of a tree. But when he goes to prison at the age of seventeen for doing something he felt was right at the moment, little did Ramsey know that he was going to spend the next twelve years without the love of his life and that one moment will change his loved ones. He broke my leg. He broke my patience. And eventually he broke my heart. But there hasn’t been a minute that’s passed that I haven’t loved him with every single broken shard.” You're mine, Ramsey. You can try to fight me. You can hate me. You can lie to yourself for the rest of your life... but wherever you are, however long you're there, you are always mine." Ramsey Stewart and Thea Hull meet when they're kids. Even though they're young, they're both having an exceptionally bad day. Both of them need a friend more than they're willing to admit, but Thea wants nothing to do with Ramsey at first. With time, though... he wears her down. But with that first kiss, Ramsey sealed our promises. Promises that would change us for the better, for the worse, and for everything in between.

Publication Order of Release Books

I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a book where I had less in common with the MCs, both in lifestyle choices and the way they thought and acted. I felt like an anthropologist observing an alien species and finding zero points of relativity. It was a strangely interesting story because of that. Furthermore, the ending was hurried and I think things could have been more cleared up between the main characters. And also, Thea's father was a hypocrite. I felt like he was more concerned with Nora and Ramsey than his own child who he didn't much fight for after she'd gone through a horrible thing. I really disliked him. Nevertheless, these were all subjective opinions. It was still worth a try. There are several elements I enjoyed about this story. Namely, how Thea and Ramsey connected at such a crucial time in their lives and experienced so many firsts together. Ramsey is such a noble character with a big heart, and while sometimes it is to his detriment, it makes him endearing. As for Thea, she is strong character, though some point she needs to realize she isn’t the only one suffering. However, Thea knows the value of friends and family. No woman deserves to be verbally abused. I couldn’t understand why the heroine was so pathetic and took his verbal abuse. He just should have stayed in prison. What kind of a man blames the woman/girl he loves for ending in prison? She did not tell him to kill the boy that raped her. To throw it in her face was disgusting, he deserves to be hit with a bat in the face.

Aly Martinez writes the best friends to lovers stories. They always have so much heart and give me so many feels. Some of her older books (Fighting Silence especially) are some of my favorite romances of all time. It's been a while since she wrote a book that gave me those same kind of feels, but Release did just that. I recommend this to those who likes: Aly Martinez, friends to lovers, second chance, coming-of-age, enemies to lovers, slow burn, emotional read, and a happily ever after. The chapters began with how they met and their friendship began and then how he went to the prison. As we healed, the secrets and lies of the past smoldered in the ashes, threatening to ignite again.I was surprised that their past took up about half of the book. Normally, when a couple shares a past that's important, the author usually gives us about 20% of the book on the past. Instead, we didn't get to see Thea and Ramsey trying to understand their relationship when he's released from jail until halfway through the book. That being said, I wish we got more of them in this stage of their relationship. I felt like we watched them in agony over how to be together again and, once they were, it was just over. If we got more of them trying navigate the world actually being together, I would have loved this even more. What is wrong with you asking her to bring you here today?” he snarled. “How many times do I have to scrape you off before you finally get it?” I’m over asshole heroes with a pathetic heroines. I don’t care how much of amazing a book or how mediocre the book really is. A coming of age, second chance, roiling angst filled story that will leave you breathless and aching for more. It's stuffed full with funny banter, laughter and love but be warned that the cry-fest it shall induce would dessicate your poor heart However, as much as I enjoyed this one - and I did - I also can't honestly say I loved it as much as other books I have read by her...thus why this is not quite a 4-star (which is still a really good rating, folks). There were just elements of the story that felt a little weak to me...small things here and there that felt little more rushed than I would have liked them to be, and certain character motivations weren't always 100% clear to me.