About The Book
Maxine Dawson is struggling to cope with her fiancé’s death, moving back home, and her best friend’s wedding. Cain Hazelton, a solitary man with a temper, only cares about his Grams. When their paths collide, Max and Cain unexpectedly find solace in each other. Max calms Cain; Cain helps Max confront her buried emotions. Facing their past may be the key to building a future together.
Buy The Book: https://amzn.to/3SCc4bl

My Rating

This is an adult romance that’s all about healing and overcoming grief. The book centers on Maxine, who is still grieving the loss of her fiancé, Ethan. She feels like she can’t move on, because doing so would betray his memory and her love for him. However, when her best friend, who also happens to be Ethan’s twin sister, is getting married in Orchid Valley, Maxine comes face-to-face with someone who might just give her a reason to open her heart again.

Cain is such a complex character because he has a lot of demons. He’s still dealing with grief from his mother’s passing years ago, his father abandoning him, and the loss of his grandfather. This book does include trigger warnings for self-harm, which plays a big role in Cain’s story, along with how he treated others during his late teens and early twenties. Still, I really loved his relationship with his grandmother and the growth he showed throughout the story.

Honestly, the romance between Maxine and Cain is super fast-paced and definitely insta-lovey. It’s the kind of relationship that probably wouldn’t happen in real life and felt a bit far-fetched. But for some reason, I didn’t mind it, which is weird because I usually don’t care for love-at-first-sight tropes. That kind of thing has to be done right, and I think the author made it work here.

I wouldn’t say the book was heavy on spice. Don’t get me wrong, there were a few spicy scenes, but nothing too intense. It was more of an emotional read. Even though they connected quickly and developed feelings for each other fast, the story was really about them helping each other grow and realizing there’s more to life than they thought.

Also, I loved that Cain was so supportive of Maxine’s love for Ethan. He didn’t want her to forget him or feel like she had to replace him. He even asked her questions about Ethan and promised to keep doing so, which I thought was incredibly sweet and really showed his true character.

“Believe me, life’s too short to get lost in your own misfortune.”

Now, I will say the story focused heavily on Maxine’s grief, so we didn’t get to see much of her personality. As for Cain, he had a lot of layers, and I feel like we got to know him much better, his thoughts, feelings, and growth. I wouldn’t call that a con exactly, but it was something I noticed while reading.

One actual con for me was Maxine’s best friend (Ethan’s twin sister). I found her way too hard on Cain, and she crossed the line more than once. Honestly, she was a pretty bad friend to Max at times. She did eventually own up to her actions and apologize, but it usually came after she’d done something awful.

What’s wild is that her older sister, who’s married and expecting, actually dated Cain in high school. She didn’t have nearly as much of a problem with him. Even though she knew he’d done crappy things and treated her poorly, and there was an incident involving him and Ethan that’s briefly touched on, she still gave him the benefit of the doubt. So yeah, I wasn’t a fan of the best friend, and that was probably my biggest issue with the book.

Overall, I’d recommend looking up trigger warnings before reading. If anything I mentioned is triggering for you, it might not be the best fit. But I really enjoyed the author’s writing style, the pacing, the romance, and especially the ending. The way the story wrapped up showed just how much the characters had grown. It’s not an all-time favorite, but I’ll definitely be reading more from this author.

In the comments, let me know if this book is on your TBR! Please give this post a like, and if you could share it with other readers, that would mean a lot to me. Before you go, make sure to sign up for my blog’s mailing list. It really helps the blog grow, and ensures you never miss a new post.

Until The Next Chapter,
Bunny