One and Only is the story of two people with major communication issues who desperately need a good marriage counselor. Instead they decide to fumble through things on their own. This makes for a painful, frustrating, but ultimately rewarding romance.

Pilar has been in love with Danny Valenzuela for most of her life. They met in high school, married soon after, and have two young boys. From the outside they appear to have the perfect life, but somewhere along the way things began to fall apart. Danny became a workaholic and began forgetting birthdays and anniversaries. Pilar never complained, and a crushing silence between them replaced laughter and friendship. When Danny forgets their anniversary for the umpteenth time, Pilar can’t bear it. Instead of railing at him for putting her last once again, she packs up his things and boots him out of their home.

Danny wants nothing more out of life than to make his wife and children happy. He loves them to distraction and believes the best way to prove his love is to provide for them. His own immature father deserted his mother and she became the sole provider for Danny and his siblings. Danny, a hardworking policeman up for promotion, has taken his wife’s love for granted for many years. He knows Pilar’s been acting withdrawn and unhappy, but figures everything will work out eventually – especially if he remains silent. When he arrives home and finds two suitcases lying beside the front door, Pilar stonily tells him to take his things and leave because they’re separating. Danny’s world is shattered.

Doesn’t sound all that romantic, eh? At the beginning, it certainly isn’t. Watching the end of this fourteen-year marriage is infuriating and painful beyond words, but in the end the story celebrates romance and commitment like any good romance should.

Most of the infuriating bits come from Pilar. She’s tired of empty promises and endless excuses and feels like a non-person in Danny’s life. She no longer feels loved or cherished. These would be acceptable reasons for separating if Pilar had bothered to tell Danny about her feelings and he continued to behave as if she didn’t exist. Instead she avoids confronting him for years (her mother told her a good wife is supposed to suffer in silence) and allows her feelings to fester. When Danny comes home on the night of her decision, does she tell him why she’s giving him the boot? No, she says she’s too tired to argue and angrily declares that he, as her husband, should already know. That might work if Pilar had married Mr. Cleo, the marvelous mind-reading man; poor Danny doesn’t even get a fighting chance. Worse, Pilar doesn’t consider what this will do to their two young boys, doesn’t consider sitting down with a marriage counselor, doesn’t acknowledge that it takes two to make a relationship work. She just wants Danny to go away and fast. Pilar is selfish, infuriatingly stubborn, and as clueless about relationships as Danny.

Danny also has much to learn, but at least he admits to his faults and changes willingly. Because Danny never realized what was going on in his wife’s head (blast those faulty psychic powers!) he is blind-sided by the separation. His world has been ripped out from under him, he’s an emotional wreck, unable to function at work. He spends the rest of the story doing everything in his power to win back the love of his wife. Danny’s emotions are raw and his patience, persistence and capacity to love make him a very sympathetic, sigh-worthy hero. His journey is painful and compelling and his happy ever after is hard-earned and ever so romantic.

Despite the rocky start and the almost overwhelming urge to haul the book against the wall a time or two, this turned out to be one of the most emotionally charged, satisfying love stories I’ve read in ages. These two characters are written with an incredible amount of emotion and their story leaps off the pages. If Pilar hadn’t been so aggravating for so long, this story could have been a keeper.

One and Only is a story about what can happen fourteen years after the “I do’s” are uttered. It’s a bumpy ride, but worth the effort if you’re looking for a rewarding romance that gives hope in the face of today’s godawful divorce statistics. I liked the smooth style, the realism and the growth of the characters enough to seek out some of the other books in this series, all of which received good grades here at AAR. I only hope they’re a little more loving and relationship-savvy from the start.