Time for a sweet romance review!
For as long as I can remember, Lachlan West has been my brother’s best friend and the love of my life. Trouble is, he kissed me four years ago and then never spoke to me again.I was doing great pretending he doesn’t exist until I was assigned to write an article about former college athletes, and I learn that the sexy single dad is my first interview.Determined to wow my editor with an amazing sportsball piece—(have I mentioned I know nothing about sports?)—I head to Ember Falls, ready to face my fears—and the man I love.The grumpy quarterback turned fireman wants nothing to do with me or my article. Yet, somehow I persuade him to let me follow him around for a few weeks, and even if he said yes just to get rid of me, I’ll take it.But the longer I stay in his small town, the more complicated our story gets. The boundaries we set fall to the ground—along with our clothes.He holds me like I matter, touches me like I’m cherished and kisses me like he loves me.We both know I have to leave Ember Falls, and he’ll never follow—I only wish I could write a different ending to our story.
I absolutely love Corinne Michaels. I've read almost everything she's written, so this one was a given. I listened to it on Audio while I was on a road trip and I really enjoyed it. Like everything she's written, this book includes a sweet romance with an HEA. The characters are sweet, honestly, and Lachlan West is seriously swoony.
Tropes:
💖Second Chance
🏡Small town
👩🏻❤️👨🏻Forced Proximity
👧🏻Single Dad
🥏Sports
🧑🏻🚒Firefighters
The Characters:
Lachlan and Ainsley are adorable. Lachlan's a fireman who, previously a first round draft prospect, gave up football to take care of his little girl. Ainsley is Lachlan's best friend's little sister. While Lachlan is swoony, his story doesn't completely hold water. He could have taken care of his daughter much better on an NFL salary, but he's still sweet and lovable nonetheless. If you look at the choice he made with one eye closed, from far away, it sort of makes sense that he wouldn't want a career where he's away from home a lot.
Ainsley is a pretty believable character with a very believable job. A reporter for a small paper in New York City, Ainsley is sweet and a little naive. Ainsley and Lachlan fit together perfectly, even though it took them a hell of a long time to get together according to the book's timeline.
Rose is adorable!
Hazel and the boys are all great secondary characters that add flavor to the story. There's not one of them who're unlikable.
Carson Knight comes into the story at the end, but it would be a spoiler to say why. He's a fun character from another of Corinne Michael's stories. My biggest issue with how he appears in this book is that he's a little bit of deus ex machina because without him the story doesn't have the same perfect ending.
The Plot:
This book was really fun. It's a second chance romance, where they kissed once a long time ago while Lachlan was drunk and then Ainsley ran away and didn't talk to him again for four years. It seems a little unrealistic that they wouldn't have any contact again for all those years and it's not clear why she ran away never to return other than perhaps that she's embarrassed about kissing him after he declares it a mistake. But... he's drunk and that's not something she seems to take into account.
When she's assigned a "sportsball" piece about Lachlan and his friends, she travels to Ember Falls where she befriends the local coffee shop owner, Hazel, and reconnects with Lachlan and his daughter, Rose. The only thing here that might not make total sense is that Rose knows who Ainsely is, even though she hasn't seen her since she's two years old. Why does she know her? Because Lachlan and Caspian (Ainsley's brother) have told her about Ainsley. But... why?
Anyway, when Ainsley and Lachlan reconnect, it's almost like they no time has passed, they fall right back into their feels. Unbeknownst to the other, they're both in love. It takes a minute for that to come out but once it does the plot turns toward a lot of upset that they cannot possibly, on any planet, under any circumstances possibly be together. Um, why not? Because, they live 8 hours apart and he has a kid. In the end, they work it out with the help of Carson Knight (a mogul and character from another of Corinne's books), and get their happily ever after.
Ultimately, I really enjoyed this one as I do most of her books and I can't wait to jump into the second book in the series.
Rating:
❤❤❤❤ - Really fun read, would definitely recommend!
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