Review copy was received from Publicity team. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
After You by Erin Nicholas
Series: Sapphire Falls #8
on July 21, 2017
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Source: Publicity team
Goodreads
Amazon, Libro.fm
Only one thing has not gone according to Kyle Ames’s grand life plan.
Hannah McIntire.
She was his first love, the woman he planned to marry, the one that got away—all that romantic crap.
Two years ago, Hannah broke his heart. Which has been, well, not exactly fine, but he’s handling it because he doesn’t have to see her every day. In fact, Kyle had planned to keep up with the not-seeing-Hannah thing for at least a couple more years. Or a couple more decades. Or forever. But now she’s back in town to help her grandmother, Kyle’s patient and one of his favorite people, recover from hip surgery.
It’s only for six weeks. Surely Hannah can survive living in her hometown and helping her grandmother for six short weeks. If she doesn’t leave the house more than necessary. And puts on a show of being the same girl everyone remembers. And absolutely avoids Kyle Ames.
But that strategy evaporates the moment she sees Kyle again. And then things get worse—way worse. Kyle plans to also put on a show. To make Hannah’s grandmother happy, he’ll pretend he’s completely forgiven Hannah and wants her back. He doesn’t. But he and Hannah are the only ones who know that. And the pretend seduction quickly starts feeling far too real…and Hannah’s having a hard time remembering that she’s supposed to be resisting the whole thing.
And then there’s the not-so-tiny complication of falling in love with Kyle all over again. And the fact that he’s falling for her too. And that they’re both realizing maybe this time they’re doing it right.
I like Erin Nicholas’ books, so I signed up to be a reviewer for her. After You is the first book they sent me for review. It is from the Sapphire Falls series. I read Getting Out of Hand Last week to prepare but have not read the rest of the series. Yet. The people in the small town were not the same ones in the two books for the most part. There were names I recognized but the main couple from the first book wasn’t even mentioned. (And that’s fine). I didn’t feel confused having not read the other books, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had, and got more emotional connection and perhaps humor from the townsfolk.
This is a sexy, almost believable, second chance romance. I found this quite hot with sexual tension, more than many actual sex scenes. It was believable for them to be intimate since they grew up together, were engaged before and had a sexual relationship in the past. The way they parted in the past and their personal issues was mostly authentic. Now they have had time to grow up and mature. Still, they weren’t very honest with each other about their feelings, and their past until the end. Even then, I didn’t like how they don’t talk to each other very much about their lives, and their dreams for the future. In that sense, the story ended a little too soon.
I will likely read more to fill in my gaps. I didn’t find the humor as compelling as in the first book, but I know there is more of it in the series. Erin Nicholas knows how to give stories the sexy, funny and real people.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- Anne: 2017 New Release Challenge