The One That Got Away
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The One That Got Away Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Karina Halle (Author), Samantha Cook (Narrator), Jeremy York (Narrator),
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 964 ratings
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Ruby Turner was never meant to be mine.

When I first met her, she was a fresh, young American sports journalist trying to find her footing in a new life abroad. She was the one interviewing me for an article, yet I wanted to know more about her. She captivated me. But she went home with Marco that night. My agent. My brother.

And I did what I could to pretend I was fine with it. After all, I'm Luciano Ribeiro. As the captain of Real Madrid and Portugal's National Team, it's my job to be cool, calm, and collected, not easily rattled. Only what I felt for Ruby over time shook me to my very core. It made me do things I never imagined I would do.

It started with a stolen kiss in the middle of the night. It led to a passionate tryst. It created a burden of guilt that I had to carry, as Ruby came in and out of my life until she left for good, leaving her mark on me.

Now, seven years later, she's back. She was the one who got away. I don't think I'll let her go this time. But I might not have a choice. Because my heart still belongs to her. And her heart might belong to my brother.

Contains mature themes.

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  1. Listening Length
    11 hours and 6 minutes
  2. Author
    Karina Halle
  3. Narrator
    Samantha Cook, see all
  4. Audible release date
    January 26, 2021
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Tantor Audio
  7. ASIN
    B08T1GHT8W
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 11 hours and 6 minutes
Author Karina Halle
Narrator Samantha Cook, Jeremy York
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date January 26, 2021
Publisher Tantor Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B08T1GHT8W
Best Sellers Rank #326,456 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#1,320 in Sports Romance (Audible Books & Originals)
#7,334 in Sports Romance (Books)
#25,104 in Contemporary Romance (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
964 global ratings
Karina Halle BROUGHT IT in The One that Got Away
5 Stars
Karina Halle BROUGHT IT in The One that Got Away
“I don’t even want to fix you. I want to ride your broken wings.”Y’all, you are NOT READY for this book! Karina Halle BROUGHT IT in The One that Got Away. The angst, tension, SO MUCH HEAT I’m speechless!With a good amount of romantic suspense as well, The One that Got Away hit all the marks for me! Luciano has been an enigma since we met him in The Forbidden Man and now we know why! His epic romance with Ruby spanning a decade had me REELING! Their love for each other was fast but with so many road blocks before they could have their HEA.*This book reads as a complete standalone!
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Top reviews from the United States

AlohaD
5.0 out of 5 stars Messy. Angsty. Sexy. Heart in my throat PERFECTION!
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2020
Verified Purchase
"Do I believe in fate?
I don't know.
But I know fate believes in me."

I'll start out by saying that this is a complete standalone romance, but Luciano did appear in The Forbidden Man which released at the end of 2019 and we are finally getting his story! If you want to meet him, start there, but it is totally NOT necessary. Be prepared to be put through the wringer with this one! This second (and third and fourth...) chance romance will have your emotions all over the place. Hold on for this bumpy ride.

I'm going to keep this review fairly short. Luciano and Ruby's story is not easy and it is a bit messy. Ruby is an American in Portugal when she meets Luciano, the upcoming soccer star and his brother Marco, his agent. She is there to go after her goals of becoming a sports journalist and lands an interview with Luciano. You could feel the tension between them during their first meeting. It was tangible through pages. Even though she is a "happy go lucky" type of character, you can tell that 'like attracts like' and they have some sort of connection within the dark. But when life has handed you a lot of crap, you tend to go for easy when you can. And Ruby ends up going for easy when she starts dating Marco. AND I was so disappointed when she did! It frustrated me to no end! Couldn't she feel and see the connection she had with Luciano??!!

SO Luciano and Ruby's journey toward happiness is anything but happy and easy. It's complex. It's emotional. It's full of angst and sexual tension from their first meeting. And it doesn't end there. Their story spans a decade and had my heart in my throat more than once. I felt their pain and their issues. I understood each transgression but still hated it. And all the years in between? How had their pain and love pulled them forward?

This love story is an emotionally charged one that left me feeling a bit of pain and wondering what these characters did in the years between. It was real, raw, sexy AF and heartbreaking, all wrapped up into a beautiful messy bow. At times I had to put down my kindle and just breathe because my heart couldn't take it. I wanted to shake some sense into Ruby while hugging her the next moment. I wanted to be there for Luciano when he was broken by the ones who were supposed to love him most. But most of all, I wanted to see them happy, no matter how they got there.

Be prepared to work for this story. Be prepared to feel all the love and anguish these characters feel. Be prepared to see a soccer god in all his glory (because, dang....can I have him??). Be prepared for this ride that will leave you feeling like your heart can't take it anymore. It will be worth it. I promise.

"Then I don't want to do it alone. I want to be lost and stumbling with you."
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Mary
4.0 out of 5 stars "Lost And Found"
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2020
Verified Purchase
What a complicated, twisted, complex story and I enjoyed most of it. I might as well get this part out of the way because it's my least favorite part of the story, I really had a hard time with Ruby. Her choices and decisions rarely matched up with her dialogue and even though these moments were explained, she was just so darn flighty, I struggled to connect with her and at times her complete lack of regard. There were moments when I thought, here we go, yes this is the right choice, finally getting somewhere with her and yet she'd double down on the opposite. She gave me whiplash and I actually wasn't sure she would redeem herself. It certainly wasn't hard to like, love or fall for Luciano, he's almost the perfect tortured hero, with his family issues, his injury and just who he is, how he carries himself, I really felt for him and everything he was going through. I did enjoy the journey this story provided, I just wasn't expecting to be so frustrated.
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Book Addict
3.0 out of 5 stars Second chance Romance. Luciano is definitely worth waiting for
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2020
Verified Purchase
3.5 Stars

This book started strong and had all the things I’ve always loved about this authors writing. The destination location with the beautiful descriptive writing so you can picture yourself right there, the easy flowing writing and the build up to that first kiss from a hero in Luciano that makes you swoon.

We briefly met Luciano in The Younger Man ( re titled The Forbidden Man) and I loved the idea of being back in the soccer world which is where it all started for me in reading this authors books. In Spain with Mateo and Love in English. ( and yes we do get a little bit of him here too !!! 🙌) This book however starts years before Luciano makes it to Real Madrid and the captain of Portugal.

Luciano and Ruby meet in Portugal when she interviews him for her blog. I wasn’t a Ruby fan per se but the attraction and chemistry between them was undeniable and palpable. The writing in the first 70% was classic Karina and I couldn’t get enough of their every touch, interaction and exchanges. The scene in the bathroom at the bar was HAWT!

I must admit I didn’t understand Ruby’s decisions about dating Marco,( Lucianos brother) when she clearly had feelings for Luciano from the beginning, but I could let it slide in the first instance, knowing that her time in Portugal was finite. I could even live with her leaving and not touching base for 2 years, however the altercation that is the catalyst for her leaving again just didn’t work for me. That was drama for drama sake. Then to make matters even worse for me was when I started Part 3 of the book and it was 7 years later!!!

I was not happy and immediately thought why would you do this!!

Yes this is a second chance romance, but made way too hard and torturous, and the road to their HEA took way too long for me. It was driven by poor decisions made by Ruby that I didn’t feel were true to her character. It made me sad that they wasted all these years apart when there was really no need.
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Top reviews from other countries

Cliente Kindle
4.0 out of 5 stars Loved Luciano!
Reviewed in Brazil on September 25, 2020
Verified Purchase
I DNF the other book, The Forbidden Man, so I was a bit skeptical about this one, but the blurb really got me interested.

I enjoyed The one that got away very much, especially, Luciano. He’s sweet, focoused, a nice guy. For Ruby, I can’t say the same. And she seems to be the main problem for those who didn’t like the book. It’s very hard to relate with her character, since she makes some really questionable decisions, especially about Marco. We don’t see her character growing through the years. When she’s 30yo, she acts as when she was 22yo.

Even though I’d a hard time accepting her attitudes, I enjoyed how the story developed. Luciano really saves this book! As a brazilian, I loved the quotes in portuguese and how they were correctly translated. Karina Halle has a nice writting, fluid, with the right amount of descriptions.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars OMG!! So bloody good
Reviewed in India on November 3, 2020
Verified Purchase
The genre is familiar and the story line but OMG the treatment, the characters are so good damn good. Brilliant writing,the emotions so strong and literally falling off the book. Loved loved the story. Ruby and Luciano beautiful souls.there's hope for us yet
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Gala Loncke
5.0 out of 5 stars My new favorite author!!!
Reviewed in Canada on November 25, 2020
Verified Purchase
This book was so moving, so well written and so intense that I actually had physical manifestations while reading it! My heart raced, I was sweating and I binged it and barely slept 😂 Yes, it’s that good.
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AK
1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the while...
Reviewed in Germany on January 2, 2021
Verified Purchase
I usually like Karina Halle’s stories, but this is hands down one of the worst storylines I’ve ever encountered: completely unrelateable with one dimensional characters and no twist to the plot whatsoever - I even skipped pages ever so often, because they were neither necessary to the plot nor interesting to read. Sorry Karina, major disappointment :(
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LuLu.N
4.0 out of 5 stars Prepare for a wild ride!!!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 21, 2020
Verified Purchase
“𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙚.”

This book was an emotional rollercoster of epic proportions!
We get Luciano and Ruby who seem destined for each other from their first encounter, they both feel it, but wrong decisions and outside factors come between them and the result is a beautiful mess♥️
Ruby frustrated the hell out of me but I guess that was the point. In the end you can't help but feel for her and understand her actions because of everything she's been through and all the losses she suffered. I guess I wanted to pull her hair out just because she made Luciano suffer so much. He really is the perfect man and the hell she puts him through all those years seems pointless at times.
To be honest I loved this switch in characters. It's always the heroine who suffers in romance books because the hero can't get his head out of his a**, but this book felt real and raw. Even if the road to their hea was extremely bumpy I enjoyed it immensely.

"𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙚’𝙧𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙩, 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙡𝙚.
𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙖𝙨 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙙, 𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧, 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨.
𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧."

There were some heartbreaking moments written in such a way that I got goosebumps and tears in my eyes. The intimate scenes...well they were so freaking hot that I was breathless. Luciano is definitely a devil😳🔥🔥🔥but so sweet at the same time that he melts your heart!!!
Karina Halle really delivers on angst in this book, but she also manages create this beautiful story that spans years and is a statement that true love and soulmates exist!

"𝙒𝙚’𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙖 𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙩, 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙣 𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨, 𝙩𝙧𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙡.”
“𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤 𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚. 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙮𝙤𝙪.”
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