Where We Started Summary, Characters and Themes
Where We Started by Ashley Muñoz is a dual point-of-view romance centered around emotional scars, second chances, and the legacy of belonging. Told through the alternating perspectives of Callie and Wes, it explores the impact of a shared but broken past and what it takes to rebuild love and identity amidst grief, betrayal, and deep-seated loyalty.
Set in the gritty world of a motorcycle club, the novel blends heartfelt introspection with the tense dynamics of found family. It’s a story about how two people tethered by childhood memories, miscommunication, and the choices of those before them attempt to chart a new path together—starting with the ruins of what was left behind.
Summary
Callie returns to Rose Ridge for her estranged father’s funeral after years away. She stays on the outskirts of the event, feeling distant and unresolved about his death and the complicated relationship they shared.
Her father, the former leader of the Stone Riders Motorcycle Club, left a divided legacy—one she’d long tried to outrun. Among the mourners is Wes, now president of the club and someone deeply rooted in both her past and her pain.
Unexpectedly, Callie learns she and Wes are joint beneficiaries in her father’s will. Wes receives money and operational assets, while Callie inherits the club’s land and clubhouse.
This decision reignites tensions between them. The situation grows more complex when Callie discovers Wes was the one who had been mailing her letters on behalf of her father over the last three years.
She had mistakenly believed they were from Wes himself and never opened them. Hurt and confused, Callie faces a man she once trusted with her heart, only to find herself caught in a battle over property, purpose, and emotion.
Wes views her return as a disruption to the life he has rebuilt around the club. Meanwhile, Callie, haunted by memories and unresolved longing, begins to explore what this inheritance might truly mean for her.
Back in Washington, D.C., Callie finally reads a letter from her father, revealing his remorse and granting her permission to do whatever she wishes with the club—keep it, sell it, or burn it down. This contradicts the narrative Wes has been pushing: that the club must remain untouched.
As she travels back to Rose Ridge with her best friend Laura and loyal dog Max, she finds herself blocked from local lodging, likely due to Wes’s influence. Unfazed, Callie storms the clubhouse, determined to assert her rights.
She receives a warm welcome from Red, a maternal figure within the club, and a few others who haven’t forgotten her roots. Tensions flare between Callie and Wes as she decides to stay with Sasha, a longtime ally of her father.
Old wounds reopen, and flashbacks reveal the protective bond Wes had for Callie since childhood—a bond complicated by affection, trauma, and expectations. Their shared past includes moments of intimacy and sacrifice, tangled with the expectations placed upon Wes by his strict upbringing and the lure of the MC lifestyle.
As the story unfolds, Callie begins revitalizing the clubhouse and reimagining it as a community space. She wants it to be a place of healing rather than control.
Despite initial resistance, Sasha and Killian, a club brother, support her vision. Wes, meanwhile, struggles between his role as president and the feelings he’s never buried.
He’s aware that rival gangs are threatening the club’s stability and realizes the infighting only makes them more vulnerable. A turning point arrives when Wes and Callie share a night of passion, only to be reminded the next morning of the emotional scars they carry.
As violence brews with rival gangs, Callie discovers more of her father’s letters and gains clarity about his hopes for redemption through her. Wes finally chooses to support Callie’s plan, risking division in the club.
Betrayals from within emerge, but Callie confronts them head-on, proving her capability as a leader. Eventually, the club splits.
Wes steps down, naming Killian as interim president, and backs Callie’s leadership. The repurposed clubhouse opens as a community center aimed at helping at-risk youth.
Wes proposes to Callie in a quiet, heartfelt moment, and she accepts, ready to move forward not as victims of their past, but as architects of their future. Two years later, in the epilogue, their new life flourishes.
Callie runs a successful business. Wes mentors young offenders.
Their community has grown into something positive and healing. It shows that even the most fractured beginnings can lead to something whole.
Characters
Callie
Callie is a deeply complex and resilient protagonist whose emotional journey defines much of the narrative arc of Where We Started. When she returns to Rose Ridge after years of estrangement, it is not out of nostalgia but duty, grief, and confusion.
Initially emotionally distant and harboring resentment toward her late father and his motorcycle club, she is forced into a direct confrontation with her past when she learns that she has inherited the Stone Riders clubhouse. This bequest sets off a transformation in Callie from a reluctant outsider to a powerful agent of change.
Her early interactions with Wes are tense, tinged with unresolved hurt and an undercurrent of unspoken affection. Throughout the story, she battles not just Wes’s distrust but her own internal conflict about legacy, identity, and power.
She refuses to let others define her—as merely a daughter, a former lover, or a liability to the club. Instead, she reclaims her agency by physically and symbolically rebuilding the clubhouse, turning it into a space for community healing and purpose.
Even in moments of emotional vulnerability, Callie never comes across as weak. Her journey is one of self-assertion, as she transitions from someone running from her pain to someone who builds from it.
By the end of the story, Callie emerges as a leader, entrepreneur, and partner who earns not just respect but genuine love and loyalty from those around her.
Wes
Wes is a brooding, passionate, and fiercely loyal character who embodies the dichotomy between tradition and transformation. His evolution throughout Where We Started mirrors the club’s own potential for change.
When Callie reappears in Rose Ridge, his world is shaken—not just by her presence but by the unresolved emotional and romantic history they share. Wes initially reacts with bitterness and defensive hostility, his anger masking deeper wounds of abandonment and betrayal.
His entire adult life has been shaped by his decision to choose the Stone Riders over everything else, including a traditional life path or reconciliation with his own family. His backstory is rich with emotional trauma—from a judgmental religious father to the pain of losing Callie—and these experiences fuel his initial resistance to change.
Yet Wes is not static. Through intense internal reflection, flashbacks, and confrontations with his present reality, he begins to see that his loyalty to the club does not have to mean clinging to its flaws.
His protective instincts evolve from controlling to supportive, especially when he chooses to back Callie’s vision. This emotional growth culminates in his decision to step down as club president and start a new chapter with Callie, defined not by power but by partnership and purpose.
By the epilogue, Wes is not just a reformed leader but a man deeply committed to nurturing a new kind of legacy—one rooted in community rather than chaos.
Sasha
Sasha is a pillar of quiet strength and integrity throughout the narrative. As one of the few club members who never turned their back on Callie or her father, she represents a bridge between the old and new ideals of the Stone Riders.
Her loyalty is not blind but thoughtful, based on values rather than hierarchy. Sasha offers Callie not just refuge, but also solidarity and strategic counsel.
She stands up to Wes and other skeptics, proving that allegiance to tradition should not come at the cost of justice or vision. Her presence reassures Callie in moments of doubt and symbolizes that sisterhood and loyalty can thrive even in male-dominated spaces.
Sasha’s evolution as a teacher of self-defense in the epilogue cements her role as a protector and empowerer. She turns pain into strength and stands as a living example of the club’s positive potential.
Killian
Killian is a secondary yet deeply impactful character who acts as a stabilizing force in the turbulent world of the club. Loyal to both Wes and Callie, Killian’s diplomatic demeanor and quiet strength allow him to serve as a trusted confidant to both sides of the ideological divide.
His character is marked by consistency, level-headedness, and a capacity for emotional intelligence that is rare in the testosterone-fueled atmosphere of the club. When Wes steps down, appointing Killian as interim president is not just a political move but a symbolic one.
Killian represents evolution without betrayal, loyalty without toxicity. He supports reform without scorning the past, making him a vital transitional figure in the club’s reinvention.
Red
Red provides a maternal and grounding presence in the narrative, embodying the heart of the club’s community. From the moment she welcomes Callie back with open arms, Red establishes herself as a beacon of compassion and continuity.
She represents a moral compass of sorts, someone whose authority is less about titles and more about earned respect. Red’s support of Callie is unwavering, but it is her ability to nurture while commanding respect that elevates her character.
Her appearance in the epilogue, holding a baby at the community celebration, underscores the theme of rebirth and regeneration. She has become a literal and symbolic matriarch in this reimagined version of the club.
Themes
Forgiveness and Redemption
Where We Started talks about the pursuit of forgiveness and the possibility of redemption. This theme reverberates through both Callie’s and Wes’s journeys as they return to Rose Ridge with emotional wounds from their past.
For Callie, forgiveness begins with confronting the abandonment and pain left by her father. Although he’s already passed, his letters and posthumous gestures force her to reckon with the ache of absence and the truth behind his choices.
As she discovers the clubhouse and land left to her, Callie is positioned not only to confront but also to reinterpret the legacy her father left behind. Redemption for her isn’t just about forgiving others—it’s also about forgiving herself for running away and abandoning parts of her own identity.
For Wes, redemption is steeped in years of regret, masked by anger and pride. His love for Callie is still raw, but so is his resentment for the way she left.
Throughout the novel, Wes must come to terms with the impact of his own decisions—the way he clung to the club, allowed bitterness to fester, and pushed away vulnerability. True redemption comes only when both characters stop seeking justification and begin offering grace.
Wes does this in stepping down as club president to support Callie’s leadership. Callie, in turn, recognizes that love doesn’t erase the past, but it can grow around it.
Their story asserts that redemption is not a clean slate but a complicated, continuous act of choosing love and integrity over fear and pride.
Identity and Self-Assertion
Another central theme of the novel is identity—how it is formed, fractured, reclaimed, and ultimately asserted. Callie begins the story as someone shaped by other people’s expectations.
Known primarily as “Preacher’s daughter,” her sense of self was long overshadowed by the presence of the club, her father’s decisions, and her history with Wes. Returning to Rose Ridge is not merely a trip to the past but a confrontation with the pieces of her identity that were never fully her own.
As she claims the inherited clubhouse and begins to transform it into a legitimate community space, Callie redefines who she is—not just to others, but to herself. She’s not just the daughter of a biker or Wes’s lost love; she is a woman reclaiming power and creating a legacy that is wholly hers.
For Wes, identity is tied to the club and the protective masculinity it fostered in him. His struggle is more subtle but no less intense.
Having come from a religious household where he felt misplaced and judged, he found belonging in the Stone Riders. But the club’s values, once comforting, now conflict with the emotional growth he needs.
Wes’s journey is about understanding that his identity is not fixed—it can expand to include vulnerability, tenderness, and evolution beyond the role of protector. Together, their arcs suggest that identity is not static or inherited.
It is chosen and reasserted through action, growth, and the courage to change.
Love and Loyalty
The novel also explores love as both a healing force and a source of conflict, tightly bound with loyalty. The dynamic between Callie and Wes is steeped in a love that never fully died, even after years of separation.
Yet this love is complicated by conflicting loyalties—to the club, to personal ideals, and to the versions of themselves they clung to in the past. For Callie, love once meant safety, but also sacrifice.
Her departure years earlier was an act of self-preservation, even though it broke both her and Wes. Returning challenges her to question whether loyalty to the people she once loved means returning to pain or rewriting that love on her terms.
Wes, on the other hand, sees love as duty. His loyalty to the club, and by extension to her father, was once a form of loving Callie in absentia—protecting what mattered to her even when she was gone.
However, that very loyalty becomes a barrier, keeping him from understanding what Callie truly needs in the present. Their eventual reunion is not just romantic; it is hard-earned, layered with scars and mutual reckoning.
The theme here is not romantic idealism but the kind of love that must confront reality and evolve. Loyalty, when unexamined, becomes a cage, but when redefined, it becomes a bond rooted in mutual growth.
The story makes clear that lasting love demands compromise, humility, and above all, the willingness to change without losing the core of who you are.