Mini Review: Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson

Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson

Published: March 6, 2018

Publisher: William Morrow

Format: via audiobook

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis

Growing up, Kate Priddy was always a bit neurotic, experiencing momentary bouts of anxiety that exploded into full-blown panic attacks after an ex-boyfriend kidnapped her and nearly ended her life. When Corbin Dell, a distant cousin in Boston, suggests the two temporarily swap apartments, Kate, an art student in London, agrees, hoping that time away in a new place will help her overcome the recent wreckage of her life.

Soon after her arrival at Corbin’s grand apartment on Beacon Hill, Kate makes a shocking discovery: his next-door neighbor, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered. When the police question her about Corbin, a shaken Kate has few answers, and many questions of her own—curiosity that intensifies when she meets Alan Cherney, a handsome, quiet tenant who lives across the courtyard, in the apartment facing Audrey’s. Alan saw Corbin surreptitiously come and go from Audrey’s place, yet he’s denied knowing her. Then, Kate runs into a tearful man claiming to be the dead woman’s old boyfriend, who insists Corbin did the deed the night that he left for London.

When she reaches out to her cousin, he proclaims his innocence and calms her nerves--until she comes across disturbing objects hidden in the apartment and accidentally learns that Corbin is not where he says he is. Could Corbin be a killer? What about Alan? Kate finds herself drawn to this appealing man who seems so sincere, yet she isn’t sure. Jet-lagged and emotionally unstable, her imagination full of dark images caused by the terror of her past, Kate can barely trust herself, so how could she take the chance on a stranger she’s just met?

My Thoughts

I was really excited about this read seeing how Peter Swanson has become one of my favorite authors but sadly this one just fell a little flat for me. In Her Every Fear we have Kate who is recovering from something tragic from her past and her parents decide maybe she needs a break and maybe she should exchange places with her cousin in the States for a while. Corbin her cousin has his own demons from his past he is trying to escape but the timing of the swap isn’t the best for him and soon he finds himself having to prove his innocence.

While I found this novel interesting there were some things I just couldn’t believe in. I found myself getting confused at times with the characters and other times I just wanted to know what was going to happen. I liked Corbin as a character and found his storyline very interesting but Kate wasn’t my favorite. I found her just repeating her mistakes and just wanted her to find her way. This novel will definitely draw you in but at times I found it dragging. I’m still a huge fan of the author but this one was an okay read for me in the end.

Mini Review: 25 Days Til Christmas by Poppy Alexander

25 Days Til Christmas by Poppy Alexander

Published: October 8, 2019

Publisher: William Morrow

Format: via audiobook

Rating:3.5/5

Synopsis

Kate Potter used to love Christmas. A few years ago, she would have been wrapping her presents in September and baking mince pies on Halloween, counting down the days and hours to Christmas. But that was before Kate’s husband left for the army and never came home. Now she can hardly stand December at all.

Kate can’t deny she’s lonely, yet she doesn’t think she’s ready for romance. She knows that her son, Jack, needs a Christmas to remember—just like Kate needs a miracle to help her finally move forward with her life. So she’s decided if there isn’t a miracle on its way, she’ll just have to make her own.

As Kate’s advent countdown to the best Christmas ever begins, she soon realizes that even with the best-laid plans, you can’t plan for the unexpected. For when the path of the loneliest woman in town crosses with that of the loneliest man, these two destined hearts might find a way to save the holiday for both of them.

My Thoughts

When I think of Christmas I think of it as magical, inspiring and the season when all things are possible. In 25 Days Til Christmas, Kate is a single mother who just wants her child to have a great holiday season, but she knows that it will be tough seeing how she is just trying to deal and make ends meet after the death of her husband. So she is just trying to make it the best Christmas for her son while both of them miss her husband so much.

Daniel is a lonely man who has recently lost his only family, his sister she was his everything and now he is in this world alone simply going through the motions. While he and Kate haven’t actually met they have seen each other in passing but one faithful day they actually met and soon they become friends and if fate has its way maybe something even more.

I loved this story of two souls who you know need each other. They both have been through tragedies recently and both need someone who knows what they experiencing and together I feel like they can help heal each other. This story is so pure and you can’t help falling in love with these characters and rooting for them to come together and be that spark of happiness they both need in their lives. This is one magical read that will have you believing in the magic that is the holiday season.

Review: Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson

Published: July 30, 2019

Publisher: William Morrow

Format: via Edelweiss

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis

Amy Whey is proud of her ordinary life and the simple pleasures that come with it--teaching diving lessons, baking cookies for new neighbors, helping her best friend, Charlotte, run their local book club. Her greatest joy is her family: her devoted professor husband, her spirited fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, her adorable infant son. And, of course, the steadfast and supportive Charlotte. But Amy's sweet, uncomplicated life begins to unravel when the mysterious and alluring Angelica Roux arrives on her doorstep one book club night.

Sultry and magnetic, Roux beguiles the group with her feral charm. She keeps the wine flowing and lures them into a game of spilling secrets. Everyone thinks it's naughty, harmless fun. Only Amy knows better. Something wicked has come her way--a she-devil in a pricey red sports car who seems to know the terrible truth about who she is and what she once did.

When they're alone, Roux tells her that if she doesn't give her what she asks for, what she deserves, she's going to make Amy pay for her sins. One way or another.

To protect herself and her family and save the life she's built, Amy must beat the devil at her own clever game, matching wits with Roux in an escalating war of hidden pasts and unearthed secrets. Amy knows the consequences if she can't beat Roux. What terrifies her is everything she could lose if she wins.

My Thoughts

In Never Have I Ever we met Amy who lives a pretty ideal life, she married a man who loves her, stepmom to a teen and new mother of a baby boy. She has a good circle of friends and one night during book club the new neighbor makes her presence known. Roux is unlike any of the other moms on the block, but she came to play and Amy is her target. Unknown to anyone else Roux has a secret about Amy that could truly blow up Amy’s life but little does Roux know that Amy isn't one just to lay down and be exposed.

Amy has made a new life for herself after years of running from her past. She did something in her teens she isn't proud about and someone else took the blame for it and she hasn't gotten over it. She has made it her mission to help and protect the ones she hurt and although she wants to do right she doesn't want her past to claim her present.

Roux has come to town with the sole purpose to ruin Amy’s life. She has something that Amy has and she wants it now. However, Roux has no idea that Amy is doing a little background check of her own and soon she discovers who Roux really is and the devastating secret(s) Roux has. Roux is sick, twisted and a master manipulator but she has met her match with Amy who isn't backing down and wants Roux to pay for all her wrongdoings.

Never Have I Ever is pure genius, this book had me on my toes from the first page. I love the banter between Roux and Amy and how they always one-upped each other. Just when one thought they were winning the other comes back with something stronger. This is a game that at the end no one really wins, but the reveals are masterpieces. Joshilyn Jackson has outdone herself with this novel of twist and turns and with each revelation, you are bound to be amazed. If you want an honest to god amazing read look no further than this jaw-dropping story.

Monthly Wrap Up: May

Hi, Y’all! May wasn’t a very good book month for me I don't know what it is but I just haven't been reading much these last few months. However, Summer is here and usually, this is when I read the bulk of my books so wish me luck! Here is how my sad month of May went.

Books Read

23. The Favorite Daughter by Patti Callahan Henry

24. The Friends We Keep by Jane Green

25. Surfside Sisters by Nancy Thayer

Reading Stats

5 Stars - 0

4 Stars - 2

4.5 Stars - 1

3 Stars - 0

2 Stars - 0

1 Stars - 0

Genres

Fiction - 3

Pages Read - 1,056

Books via Publisher

The Islanders by Meg Mitchell Moore

The Last Book Party by Karen Dukess

Valencia and Valentine by Suzy Krause

Summer Hours by Amy Mason Doan

The Good Sister by Gillian McAllister

Bone Deep by Sandra Ireland

Last Summer by Kerry Lonsdale

Thank you William Morrow, Lake Union, Putnam, Gallery and Henry Holt Co for all the amazing books!

ARC’s via NetGalley/Edelweiss

The Chain by Adrian McKinty

Someone We Know by Shari Lapena

Summer at Firefly Beach by Jenny Hale

That’s it for my May Wrap Up please feel free to share your wrap up I love to check out all things bookish!!

Review: Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson

Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson

Expected Publication: March 5, 2019

Publisher: William Morrow

Format: via NetGalley

Rating: 4.5/5    

Synopsis

Hen and her husband Lloyd have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen (short for Henrietta) is an illustrator and works out of a studio nearby, and has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder. Finally, she’s found some stability and peace.

But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband’s office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago. Hen knows because she’s long had a fascination with this unsolved murder—an obsession she doesn’t talk about anymore, but can’t fully shake either.

Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college when she became so consumed with proving a fellow student guilty that she ended up hurting a classmate?

The more Hen observes Matthew, the more she suspects he’s planning something truly terrifying. Yet no one will believe her. Then one night, when she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot, she realizes that he knows she’s been watching him, that she’s really on to him. And that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape.

My Thoughts

I’ve become a huge Peter Swanson fan recently and I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on so when I heard he had a new book coming out I couldn't wait to read it. It seems like his books just get better and when I finished his latest read… WOW is all I could say… this one blew my mind!

In Before She Knew Him we met Hen and Lloyd who recently have moved out to the suburbs and decide one night to join the neighborhood block party to be nice and be neighborly but soon they become friends with the only other couple who don't have kids, Matthew and Mira and realize they are actually next door neighbors. They soon have dinner together and while having a tour of the house something in Matthews office soon catches Hen's eye a simple trophy that makes something click in her head. She soon becomes obsessed with this trophy and remembers it from the newspapers a few years back connected to a murder. She then becomes convinced that Matthew is a murderer and makes it her mission to prove it. She starts to follow and spies on him trying to get any evidence to prove that she is right and not having another manic episode like she has in the past.

Years ago Hen began having manic episodes and it got so bad she was asked to leave school after an altercation with a fellow student. She soon became consumed with all things murder related and when a few murders happen nearby she studied them as if it was her job. However, with the help of family and Lloyd she balanced her meds and got her issues under controlled but after meeting Matthew and connecting things about him she now thinks he is the one behind everything.

Matthew sees himself as a savior of sorts. He had a horrible childhood, to say the least, and we learn in time his past has a huge play in everything that has happened. He survived his upbringing and now is a loving husband to Mira but he has some dark secrets that he has kept to himself...that is until Hen came around. Ironically he isn't scared of Hen because he thinks they are kindred spirits of sorts, after seeing her dark and disturbing art and learning of her obsession with crime and murder. They soon strike up a sort of understanding of and he begins to tell her things he has never told anyone before. We learn why he does what he does, he tries to make excuses for his actions and no matter how he wants to validate these things they are criminal, disturbing and simply horrifying. To get into the mind of this man who can do such unbearable things and then lay in bed with his wife and teach kids the next day is so bizarre, how he can compartmentalize his actions is beyond words.

This book had me from the very beginning. We get to two souls who seem so different but in time we see how they connect in a way we never saw coming. I found it dark, creepy and at some points horrifying but all in a great way. The story was fascinating and with its twist and turns especially the plot twist towards the end there are some amazing jaw-dropping moments. I would call this my favorite Peter Swanson by far and I highly recommend this sinister of a novel.

Review: The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

Published: June 26, 2018

Publisher: William Morrow

Format: audiobook via Overdrive

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road.

One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, "None of what’s going to happen is your fault". Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: "Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world."

Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined.

My Thoughts

Talk about a wild ride! The Cabin at the End of the World was the most anxiety-filled book I’ve read in some time. The story opens with Wen playing outside in the woods while her dads are inside just enjoying their plugged free vacation. Then a man comes up to her and carries a conversation for awhile then tells her what happens next isn’t her fault and that her dads must do what he says. Next, we see four people trying to get into the cabin saying that the world will end if they don’t sacrifice one of themselves…soon.

They claim as time goes by and they don’t do as they say things will happen worldwide and they have proof when alerts start coming on the news to back up their claims. Is it all a coincidence or are what they saying is true? The next questions are why Wen and her fathers targeted? What is their connection to all of this?  As time goes by the things that happen are gruesome and horrifying but for me, this isn’t what makes this story scary, it’s the fact that this could happen to anyone. For me, it’s the everyday circumstances that can happen to anyone that scares me the most. It’s the real things in life that I find the most horrifying and believable.

As the story moves along it just got sadder and scarier for me. As a reader, I kept flip-flopping as to do I believe these people since some of what they are saying is happening or are they just some crazy people who randomly picked this family to terrify. Paul Tremblay gives us a book with so many questions and lets us be the one to try and figure out what to believe. My one complaint was the ending while I understood where he was going with it I still wanted more. This is one book that days later is still with me and for me, that’s a sign of a great read.

Mini Review: Boardwalk Summer by Meredith Jaeger

Boardwalk Summer by Meredith Jaeger

Published: June 19, 2018

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Format: via publisher

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

What happened on that long-ago summer? In this riveting novel from the author of The Dressmaker’s Dowry, an aspiring Hollywood actress makes a shocking choice in 1940, and seventy years later, a young mother sets out to discover what happened …

Summer, 1940: When Violet Harcourt is crowned Miss Bathing Beauty in her hometown of Santa Cruz, she’s determined to see herself on the silver screen. But Violet’s pageant victory comes with a price—cracks appear in her seemingly perfect marriage…and she quickly discovers Hollywood is not the glittering escape she dreamed of. So she makes a shocking choice, leaving her name in headlines and creating a mystery surrounding her fate.

Summer, 2007: Single mother Marisol Cruz lives in a charming seaside cottage that belonged to her grandfather, Ricardo, once a famed performer on the Beach Boardwalk. Drawn to the local history of her town, Mari discovers her grandfather’s connection to a beauty queen who died too young. She embarks on a journey that uncovers his lifelong secret—Ricardo’s connection to Violet…a story of tragedy and courage that will forever transform her.

My Thoughts

First off let me just say I loved and adored everything about this book! In Boardwalk Summer the narrative is told in dual timelines one in the Summer of 1940 and the Summer of 2007. We meet two women who are just trying to make their dreams come true while trying to be true to themselves. I really enjoyed the flashbacks to the 40’s I loved the way they spoke and everything just felt true to the time period. I was really intrigued by Violet’s story and the lengths she felt she had to go to get out of a bad situation. You really felt for her and as her story is revealed I felt her pain.

At first, you wonder how these two could be connected and as the story goes on the way these two stories are connected was seamless, you see how both these women are more alike than we realize. I loved this story so much and the writing was so beautifully done you could perfectly see and hear the sights of the boardwalk during the Summer, plus I liked how there was a little element of mystery thrown in. This is one book that takes you a ride and it's perfect for the Summer.

Blog Tour: Rainy Day Friends by Jill Shalvis

RAINY DAY FRIENDS

Following the USA Today bestseller, Lost and Found Sisters, comes Rainy Day Friends, Jill Shalvis’ moving story of heart, loss, betrayal, and friendship.

Six months after Lanie Jacobs’ husband’s death, it’s hard to imagine anything could deepen her sense of pain and loss. But then Lanie discovers she isn’t the only one grieving his sudden passing. A serial adulterer, he left behind several other women who, like Lanie, each believe she was his legally wedded wife. Rocked by the infidelity, Lanie is left to grapple with searing questions. How could she be so wrong about a man she thought she knew better than anyone? Will she ever be able to trust another person?  Can she even trust herself?

Desperate to make a fresh start, Lanie impulsively takes a job at the family-run Capriotti Winery. At first, she feels like an outsider among the boisterous Capriottis. With no real family of her own, she’s bewildered by how quickly they all take her under their wing and make her feel like she belongs. Especially Mark Capriotti, a gruffly handsome Air Force veteran turned deputy sheriff who manages to wind his way into Lanie’s cold, broken heart—along with the rest of the clan. Everything is finally going well for her, but the arrival of River Green changes all that. The fresh-faced twenty-one-year old seems as sweet as they come…until her dark secrets come to light—secrets that could destroy the new life Lanie’s only just begun to build.

ABOUT JILL SHALVIS

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold and visit her website, www.jillshalvis.com, for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

Connect with Jill

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BUY LINKS for RAINY DAY FRIENDS

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Chapter 1

Anxiety Girl, able to jump to the worst conclusion in a single bound!

Most of the time Karma was a bitch, but every once in awhile she could be surprisingly nice, even kind. Lanie Jacobs, way past overdue for both of those things, told herself this was her time. Seize the day and all that, and drawing a deep breath, she exited the highway at Wildstone.

The old wild-west California town was nestled in the rolling hills between the Pacific Coast and wine/ranching country. She’d actually grown up not too far from here, though it felt like a lifetime ago. The road was narrow and curvy, and since it’d rained earlier, she added tricky and slick to her growing list of issues. She was already white-knuckling a sharp turn when a kamikaze squirrel darted into her lane, causing her to nearly swerve into oncoming traffic before remembering the rules of country driving.

Never leave your lane; not for weather, animals, or even God himself.

Luckily the squirrel reversed direction, but before she could relax a trio of deer bounded across the road. “Run, Bambi,” she cried, hitting her brakes, and by the skin of their collective teeth, they all missed each other.

Sweating, nerves sizzling like live wires, she finally turned onto Capriotti Lane and parked as she’d been instructed.

It took a moment for her pulse to come down from stroke level. She’d been taught anti-anxiety techniques, but she’d never quite figured out how to make any of them work while in the actual throes of an anxiety attack.

It’s all good she told herself but because she wasn’t buying what she was selling, she had to force herself out of the car like she was a five-year-old starting kindergarten instead of being thirty and simply facing a brand new job. Given all she’d been through, this should be easy, even fun. But sometimes adulthood felt like the vet’s office and she was the dog excited for the car ride -- only to find out the real destination.

Shaking her head, she strode across the parking lot. It was April, which meant the rolling hills to the east were green and lush and the Pacific Ocean to the west looked like a surfer’s dream, all of it so gorgeous it could’ve been a postcard. A beautiful smoke screen over her not-so-beautiful past. The air was scented like a really expensive sea-and-earth candle, though  all Lanie could smell was her forgotten hopes and dreams. With wood chips crunching under her shoes, she headed through the entrance beneath which was a huge wooden sign that read:

Capriotti Winery, from our fields to your table…

Her heart sped up. Nerves, of course, the bane of her existence. But after a very crappy few years, she was changing her path. For once in her godforsaken life, something was going to work out for her. This was going to work out for her.

She was grimly determined.

Review: By Invitation Only by Dorothea Benton Frank

By Invitation Only by Dorothea Benton Frank

Published: May 15, 2018

Publisher: William Morrow

Format: via Overdrive

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

The Lowcountry of South Carolina is where By Invitation Only begins at a barbecue engagement party thrown by Diane English Stiftel, her brother Floyd, and her parents to celebrate her son’s engagement. On this gorgeous, magical night, the bride’s father, Alejandro Cambria, a wealthy power broker whose unbelievably successful career in private equity made him one of Chicago’s celebrated elite, discovers the limits and possibilities of cell phone range. While the mother of the bride, Susan Kennedy Cambria, who dabbles in the world of public relations and believes herself deserving of every square inch of her multimillion-dollar penthouse and imaginary carrara marble pedestal, learns about moonshine and dangerous liaisons.

Soon By Invitation Only zooms to Chicago, where the unraveling accelerates. Nearly a thousand miles away from her comfortable, familiar world, Diane is the antithesis of the bright lights and super-sophisticated guests attending her son Fred’s second engagement party. Why a second party? Maybe it had been assumed that the first one wouldn’t be up to snuff? Fred is marrying Shelby Cambria, also an only child. The Cambrias’ dearest wish is for their daughter to be happy. If Shelby wants to marry Frederick, aka Fred, they will not stand in her way—although Susan does hope her friends won’t think her daughter is marrying more than a few degrees beneath her socially. At the same time, Diane worries that her son will be lost to her forever.

By Invitation Only is a tale of two families, one struggling to do well, one well to do, and one young couple—the privileged daughter of Chicago’s crème de la crème and the son of hard-working Southern peach farmers.

Dorothea Benton Frank offers a funny, sharp, and deeply empathetic novel of two very different worlds—of limousines and pickup trucks, caviars and pigs, skyscrapers and ocean spray—filled with a delightful cast of characters who all have something to hide and a lot to learn. A difference in legal opinions, a headlong dive from grace, and an abrupt twist will reveal the truth of who they are and demonstrate when it truly counts, what kind of grit they have. Are they living the life they want, what regrets do they hold, and how would they remake their lives if they were given the invitation to do so?

My Thoughts

I don’t know about you but I’m a seasonal reader, during the Summer I usually want something light so when I saw By Invitation Only I thought this would be perfect for a Summer read, boy was I right! I really enjoyed this tale of Shelby and Fred who got engaged and now their families must come together to celebrate and as you can figure out nothing goes as planned.

When Fred’s Southern family invites Shelby’s Northern family for an engagement BBQ Shelby’s mom Susan is in for a culture shock she soon won't forget. Let’s be honest she is a plain snob if it doesn’t cost hundreds of thousands of dollars it isn’t worth her time unless it’s Fred’s uncle who she takes a good shining to. However Fred’s mom Diane refuses to let Susan look down at her and just wants to make her son happy and just wants to stay true to herself and her family. Meanwhile, Susan as taken over the wedding plans and making it all about her and her reputation, claiming to want the best for Shelby but honestly just wanting to show up to all her high and mighty friends. Susan doesn’t realize it but soon her world will be crashing down all around her and showing off will be the least of her worries.

Soon Shelby realizes that while she has grown up with all the privilege in the world she envies Fred because he grew up in a very close-knit family who enjoyed family traditions and would do anything for one another. They soon decide they want to just get married without all the hoopla and of course this doesn’t sit well with Susan. Disaster soon strikes on both sides of the family and everyone soon finds out what is truly important in life. These things make they stronger and closer as a family and they come together like they never would’ve imagined.

This was a truly great novel one that totally exceeded my expectations. I listened to the audio which was fantastic! As a person who loves her Southern reads this is how it should be done, it was true to how we are and it wasn't overdone and didn't make us seem like some joke like other novels can do. I truly enjoyed this novel that focused on family, it was heartfelt and funny at times everything I wanted and needed in a book right now. This is one book that I will be telling everyone to read this Summer, so if you need something that will make you laugh and something you really want to enjoy I highly recommend By Invitation Only you won't be disappointed.

Blog Tour: The Good Luck Sister by Jill Shalvis

ABOUT THE GOOD LUCK SISTER

After a difficult few years, Tilly Adams is ready for life to start going right. Though she has a case of first-day nerves teaching art at the local community college, she knows it isn’t anything a few snuggles from her rescue puppy won’t cure. Until she sees Dylan Scott again, her one-time BFF and first love sitting in the front row. Dylan knows he should’ve left well enough alone, but when he sees Tilly living her dream, he can’t help but make contact. Ten years ago, he left Wildstone and everything in it behind, including Tilly. He had his reasons, but now he wants her back in his life, anyway, he can get her. When Tilly agrees to design the logo for Dylan’s new helicopter touring company, it’s business only . . . until she finds herself falling into his arms once again. Can she possibly open her heart back up to the only man who’s ever broken it? But soon they’re both realizing the truth—love always deserves a second chance.

Chapter 1

“I’ve finished my free trial of adulthood and am no longer interested, so please cancel my subscription.” From The Mixed-Up Files of Tilly’s journal.

Tilly Adams sat in the vet’s office staring at the doctor in shock. “Say that again?”

Dr. Janet Lyons smiled. “I think Leo faked being sick. Probably so you’d stay home from work today.”

Tilly looked down at Leo. “You do know he’s a dog, right?”

All six pounds of him smiled up at her. About a month ago, she found him on a street corner hiding beneath a bus bench; wet, dirty, cold, hungry and matted. He’d been Dobby meets Gremlin meets neglected, abused Care Bear. Tilly had looked around for an adult and then had to remind herself that at twenty-five years old, she was legal herself. So then she’d searched for an adultier adult, but she’d been the only one in sight.

So she’d scooped the little guy up and had brought him to the SPCA, who’d said he was about five weeks old, a possible Maltipoo, which meant he came by his carebear look naturally. He was malnutritioned and suffering from mange. They’d said they’d do what they could, and Tilly had turned to go. That had been when she’d seen all the eyes on her from an endless row of cages … and she’d realized her care bear would soon be sitting in one too. Then she’d heard herself offer to foster him until they found him a forever home.

They’d found him one too. Tilly had signed the adoption papers last weekend in spite of the fact that just that morning he’d escaped his crate, eaten her favorite sneakers, destroyed her favorite pillow, and then yakked up the stuffing from the pillow.

He was a destructo of the highest magnitude and something else too. He had no idea how small he was. He went after her sister Quinn’s twenty-plus pound cat and her neighbor’s hundred pound black lab with the same fierce, fearless gusto. Turned out, the little guy had a bad case of small-man syndrome, which was how he’d earned his name.

Leo, short for Napoleon.

And now on top of Leo’s impressive chewing skills, his escape artist skills, and his ability to get up on her bed and yet still not understand why stepping in his own poop was annoying, he had a new skill.

He’d faked being sick.

Proud of himself, Leo smiled up at her. Smiled. An hour ago he’d been coughing and limping and acting all sorts of odd. Now he just kept smiling up at her while sending her meaningful glances at the open dog biscuit bin between her and the doctor.

Dr. Lyons laughed and gave him one.

“Dogs can’t fake sick,” Tilly said while Leo inhaled the biscuit whole before licking the floor to make sure he got all the crumbs. “Can they?”

Dr. Lyons scooped him up and gave him a kiss on his adorable snout. “Yours did.”
Tilly sighed. It was too early for this. She’d had a crazy late night. Not hanging at Whiskey River, the local bar and grill. Not at a club with friends. Not working on her designs for the upcoming graphic art showing.

Nope, she’d been on a serious stress bender -- a marathon of Game Of Thrones. She hadn’t fallen asleep until after two and her alarm had interrupted her in the middle of a really great dream starring Jon Snow.

Dr. Lyons handed Leo over. He immediately snuggled into the crook of Tilly’s neck and dammit, her cold heart melted on the spot and she hugged him close. “You’re sure he’s okay? He was coughing. And then he limped funny. And then he wouldn’t eat.”

“But he hasn’t coughed once that I’ve seen. And he’s not limping either. And you said all his food vanished while you took a quick shower.”

“Yes,” Tilly said.

Dr. Lyons waited for her to catch up.

Tilly sighed. “He really did fake me out.”

ABOUT JILL SHALVIS

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold and visit her website, www.jillshalvis.com, for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

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