Em & M Books

I really liked this book – there was a lot going on, but the overall story was good. Evan and Jesse have a very brief history so there is an element of a second chance, which I enjoy, and there is also a bit of mystery thrown in which allows us to really get to know the characters. And I’m a sucker for sports romances, so there were a lot of things I really liked about this book.

Both Jesse and Evan are carrying around some issues from their past. Jesse turned to alcohol as a way of helping him grieve the loss of his brother. Evan has closed herself off after breaking free from an abusive relationship. To say these two had some issues to overcome is an understatement. When they meet up 10 years after their very brief affair, they are not the same two people who shared a crazy 48 hours together. Neither one of them are good at communicating or sharing so a lot of things that may have been talked out right away are left unsaid and/or unknown to each other which causes a lot of angst between them.

One thing that seemed to slow the reading down a bit was that there were too many things going on at once. The overall story of Jesse and Evan finding their way back to each other was good, but there were many sub-plots going on within and between their two families which seemed to bog me down a little. I liked the abusive ex story line, but some of the other things I think could have been left out or reworked to keep the pace up.

Overall, I think this was a great debut novel for the author it definitely has me curious to see if there will be any other books that deal with Jesse’s brothers.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.