THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY is about the value of friendship, living life, and taking chances by two-time Rita Award winner Roni Loren. (You may already be familiar with her Loving On the Edge series.)

This first in a new series leavens what could be a dark story fraught with psychological trauma with humor and grit. Liv Arias' pressure cooker career leaves her little time and space to grow, while Finn Dorsey's undercover job puts his life on the edge of disaster every single day. All the characters around whom the series is based are bound by the memory of a school shooting. How they are still working to rebuild their lives twelve years later creates an intricate and engrossing tale.

Although my normal reading list includes perhaps three fantasy or science fiction books for every contemporary novel, I flat out loved THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY. Roni Loren is a gifted writer who creates marvelously three-dimensional characters whose every move and decision ring with truth. Perhaps it is her masters degree in social work or her years spent as a mental health counselor that provide those details, but however she does it, she has won a new fan, in me.