A sexy romance that includes a moving peek at post-traumatic stress and survivor’s guilt but tempers intense emotionalism...
Two wounded souls leverage a gym flirtation into a lighthearted fling, but when their feelings intensify, they must decide if the time has come to break through their grief and guilt to embrace love and happiness.
Gavin Donnigan (brother of Landon from A Sure Thing, 2016) has been working as a trainer and self-defense instructor for the nine months since he returned home from the Marines. It’s easy work he enjoys, but more important, it’s giving him the space he needs to heal from his physical and emotional injuries. Zoe—aka the pretty girl at the gym who wears Pink Yoga Pants but shoots Gavin down when he asks her out—is mourning the death of her twin sister, Aubrey, and doesn’t want anything to do with the hot trainer with a reputation as a player. Yet one day, after Zoe asks Gavin to give her some private instruction for a missed self-defense class, she decides to take a page out of her spontaneous sister’s playbook and accepts his invitation for a date. Then, after he surprises her by taking her to a beautiful garden and doesn’t try to get her into bed, she takes a second look at her preconceptions and likes the character she sees beneath the man’s gorgeous exterior. So begins a courtship that both parties try to tell themselves doesn’t really mean anything, but when Zoe realizes she’s in love with Gavin, it forces him to face some deep trauma. Failure may mean losing the one woman he wants but isn’t sure he deserves, though Zoe won’t give him up without a fight.
A sexy romance that includes a moving peek at post-traumatic stress and survivor’s guilt but tempers intense emotionalism and sensuality with sweet and comedic elements.Pub Date: July 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3188-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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