There was a moment in the first half of this story that I was afraid it was going to go down a path I didn’t like. I had just read another story where a character lied, and kept lying, to her love interest and I realized I really dislike that trope. While Cody was withholding some very important information from Lexi, the author was kind enough to not drag it on through the whole book. Let me tell you, the tension I was starting to feel (not in a good way) was relieved as soon as I realized the focus of the story wasn’t going to have a huge veil of deceit over it the whole time.

I found the trajectory of Cody’s and Lexi’s relationship to be very interesting. Especially once I started to understand why Cody did the things he did and how he ended up leaving everyone and everything behind. He’s lucky Lexi even gave him the time of day, but at the same time it was obvious that they had unfinished business.

While I did feel a connection between these characters, I never really felt the spark. I’m not sure why that was since I found them to be great for one another. I enjoyed that Cody fell into a comfortable patter with Lexi’s son almost immediately. It didn’t feel forced or fake and was actually very sweet. Yet I still never got the warm-fuzzies with these two.

That being said, I enjoyed this story and appreciate that the author didn’t make Cody out to be a jerk who was being a jerk just because he could be a jerk. Cody had some deep-seated issues that needed to be dealt with, and even he saw how skewed his thinking was once he started dealing with his real life. Not just in regards to Lexi, but also his siblings and his father.

When it was all said and done, I enjoyed this storyline and the characters. I just didn’t feel the emotions I would have liked to feel the way I normally would. I enjoy this series and adore this author’s historical fiction so I’ll be reading more for sure.

**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**

You can find more of my reviews at All In Good Time.

Solid Romance. I came into this when I saw that Lane had another new book publishing, not realizing that it was book 3 in a series... and not caring that it was romance, rather than the historical fiction work I had previously known her from. Having come from her historical fiction work, I can tell you that she is equally adept in either world, with the overall writing equally superb while remaining within the "lines" of the various genres. Having read quite a few romances from other authors over the years, I can tell you that I'd easily stack this one up with any of them - if you like the romance genre generally, you're probably going to enjoy this one. And having come into it without having read the prior two books, I can tell you that this is one of those series that is only loosely-ish coupled, following several siblings as they find love. Because of that, it can indeed work as an entry point in the series - and you're most likely going to be drawn in enough to want to read them. Very much recommended.