I was really looking forward to reading something by this new-to-me author. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity when I was invited to participate on the blog tour for this one. I had been under the impression she wrote strictly LGBTQ stories, so it surprised me a bit when I learned this was a male/female story. I guess it could be said she writes mostly LGBTQ, but not strictly.

While I found this to be a very lovely story, I felt something was missing. I totally bought into the love and attraction between Mia and Luke, but I didn’t feel the connection the way I wanted. I also felt as though there were aspects of this story that weren’t fully fleshed out. It was almost as if this was an introductory novella to a series instead of the first of the series. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the read and am interested to read more by this author.

Mia and Luke have a lot to talk about, yet they go much of the book avoiding talking. Once they do finally tell each other some truths, there is a glimmer of the chemistry I was looking for. And, quite honestly, there is one of the greatest lines I’ve read in a “baring of the souls” scene. Mia didn’t just need to know that Luke understood her animosity and its reasons, she needed to say the words out loud.

“It’s not enough that you know…you have to let me say it.”

Oddly enough, while it would seem Luke was in the wrong in their past relationship, he was the one I attached to and liked the most. Mia had so many walls up, even with her brother, that it made it difficult for me to get to know her and feel an attachment. It came eventually, though.

With the little hints we get of Mia’s brother Gus and Luke’s brother Billy, I have a feeling the next book in this series will be even more enjoyable.I was really looking forward to reading something by this new-to-me author. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity when I was invited to participate on the blog tour for this one. I had been under the impression she wrote strictly LGBTQ stories, so it surprised me a bit when I learned this was a male/female story. I guess it could be said she writes mostly LGBTQ, but not strictly.

While I found this to be a very lovely story, I felt something was missing. I totally bought into the love and attraction between Mia and Luke, but I didn’t feel the connection the way I wanted. I also felt as though there were aspects of this story that weren’t fully fleshed out. It was almost as if this was an introductory novella to a series instead of the first of the series. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the read and am interested to read more by this author.

Mia and Luke have a lot to talk about, yet they go much of the book avoiding talking. Once they do finally tell each other some truths, there is a glimmer of the chemistry I was looking for. And, quite honestly, there is one of the greatest lines I’ve read in a “baring of the souls” scene. Mia didn’t just need to know that Luke understood her animosity and its reasons, she needed to say the words out loud.

“It’s not enough that you know…you have to let me say it.”

Oddly enough, while it would seem Luke was in the wrong in their past relationship, he was the one I attached to and liked the most. Mia had so many walls up, even with her brother, that it made it difficult for me to get to know her and feel an attachment. It came eventually, though.

With the little hints we get of Mia’s brother Gus and Luke’s brother Billy, I have a feeling the next book in this series will be even more enjoyable.

**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.

Merged review:

I was really looking forward to reading something by this new-to-me author. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity when I was invited to participate on the blog tour for this one. I had been under the impression she wrote strictly LGBTQ stories, so it surprised me a bit when I learned this was a male/female story. I guess it could be said she writes mostly LGBTQ, but not strictly.

While I found this to be a very lovely story, I felt something was missing. I totally bought into the love and attraction between Mia and Luke, but I didn’t feel the connection the way I wanted. I also felt as though there were aspects of this story that weren’t fully fleshed out. It was almost as if this was an introductory novella to a series instead of the first of the series. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the read and am interested to read more by this author.

Mia and Luke have a lot to talk about, yet they go much of the book avoiding talking. Once they do finally tell each other some truths, there is a glimmer of the chemistry I was looking for. And, quite honestly, there is one of the greatest lines I’ve read in a “baring of the souls” scene. Mia didn’t just need to know that Luke understood her animosity and its reasons, she needed to say the words out loud.

“It’s not enough that you know…you have to let me say it.”

Oddly enough, while it would seem Luke was in the wrong in their past relationship, he was the one I attached to and liked the most. Mia had so many walls up, even with her brother, that it made it difficult for me to get to know her and feel an attachment. It came eventually, though.

With the little hints we get of Mia’s brother Gus and Luke’s brother Billy, I have a feeling the next book in this series will be even more enjoyable.I was really looking forward to reading something by this new-to-me author. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity when I was invited to participate on the blog tour for this one. I had been under the impression she wrote strictly LGBTQ stories, so it surprised me a bit when I learned this was a male/female story. I guess it could be said she writes mostly LGBTQ, but not strictly.

While I found this to be a very lovely story, I felt something was missing. I totally bought into the love and attraction between Mia and Luke, but I didn’t feel the connection the way I wanted. I also felt as though there were aspects of this story that weren’t fully fleshed out. It was almost as if this was an introductory novella to a series instead of the first of the series. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the read and am interested to read more by this author.

Mia and Luke have a lot to talk about, yet they go much of the book avoiding talking. Once they do finally tell each other some truths, there is a glimmer of the chemistry I was looking for. And, quite honestly, there is one of the greatest lines I’ve read in a “baring of the souls” scene. Mia didn’t just need to know that Luke understood her animosity and its reasons, she needed to say the words out loud.

“It’s not enough that you know…you have to let me say it.”

Oddly enough, while it would seem Luke was in the wrong in their past relationship, he was the one I attached to and liked the most. Mia had so many walls up, even with her brother, that it made it difficult for me to get to know her and feel an attachment. It came eventually, though.

With the little hints we get of Mia’s brother Gus and Luke’s brother Billy, I have a feeling the next book in this series will be even more enjoyable.

**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.

Forgive the Low Star Reviewers, For They Know Not What They Do. Apparently I had a *completely* different experience with this book than most of the other ARC readers, because while this thing wasn't mind blowing in the slightest, it was a solid romance with a crap ton of sex, characters who both despised and loved each other, and a solid concept for at least a short series. Really, it was fairly standard ish romance - which is all that I really expected here. If you're looking for LGBT romance, this isn't it - and never claims it is, despite the author being more well known in that space. If you're looking for sweet or clean or tidy... this isn't that either. There is a lot of hard core, rough, passionate, hate filled sex - because that is the space these characters are in after the way life has treated them over the last decade, and the last thing either of them wants to be dealing with is the one that got away all those years ago. And yes, there is an out and proud gay brother - and another brother whose sexuality is less clear in this text - who will be the foci of the next book in the series. Which alone merits reading this series, as *extremely* few authors have the balls to combine different sexualities into the same series - or even write books outside a set sexuality. I've actually already started the other book, since I'm also reading it early - for a blog tour, in fact - and so far it continues in the same tone as the others.

Ultimately, I would've read this one from the hate filled reviews alone - just because when a book gets *so* heavily panned, I find myself reading it for myself just to see if indeed the hatred is warranted. It wasn't in the most personally-famous case of me doing this (reading DIVERGENT trilogy because ALLEGIANT got this same level of hatred over its ending), and it isn't in this book either.

This book, and so far this series, is a refreshing change of pace in so many ways, and is therefore very much recommended.