SYNOPSIS

Julian races to his nephew’s school performance and gets into a nonfatal car accident with Dahlia, who has returned to their hometown after a recent public break up.

They haven’t seen each other since college when Julian received news that his father died and dropped out to take over his company, pushing Dahlia away in the process. Dahlia’s return forces the two to reconnect since their families have been close since they were little. Julian’s mom urges him to let her work on one of his projects, to help her keep busy.

What could happen?

RECAP AND REVIEW

This is the first book in a standalone series. It’s a romance book in a small town about childhood rivals.

Julian is a hard worker. He stepped up and grew his father’s company, going from working directly on projects to taking the lead administratively. He gets along well with his mother and cousin, Rafael, but is cold and lonely, craving intimacy.

Dahlia is passionate about interior design and has found success, releasing a line and starring in a reality fixer upper show with her now ex fiancé. After the break up, she lost her tv deals, left San Francisco, and is working through her depression and internal self doubt, all while coping with the idea of possibly not having children.

The romance between the two read like a crush you’re kind of mean to. They’re competitive, have a lot of back and forth, and both still have their kiss from college in the back of their minds. Julian makes it clear with us how he feels from the beginning, though he acts like he hates her. With Dahlia, over time she accepts her attraction and feelings towards him.

This book is a slow burn. I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep with it, but I did get invested.

The decision around not having kids is a little complicated. I don’t know exactly what the DNA test showed, but I didn’t interpret that she’s infertile and using that word is a misrepresentation. She wasn’t trying to get pregnant with no success. Her ex’s family made her do DNA testing.

How I understood this is that she personally made the choice not to have kids because of a gene the doctors found from the testing. Julian mentions that the gene could be recessive, but she didn’t want to risk it. I don’t know if this storyline was explained enough for me to make a comment about my feelings around this. Some details were vague and it was a library book so I can’t reference it directly.

At the end of the day, they both either don’t want kids or want to adopt and either works for me.

I enjoyed the depression and anxiety representation, but otherwise I wasn’t drawn to Dahlia.

Julian wasn’t for me in the beginning. I found him to be too brooding and territorial when they had zero conversations about his interest in her. I know it was out of jealousy, and usually, I enjoy that, but I didn’t find it endearing this time. I liked him infinitely more when he stopped pretending he didn’t have feelings.

I like the two together. There were cute moments in the book and Julian was thoughtful in regards to Dahlia.

OVERALL

Overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars. There’s a lot of similarities between this book and the Dreamland Billionaires series. I thought this one was too long, but overall, I liked it and am looking forward to reading about Rafa.