(Brother’s best friend, forbidden love, military, small-town, second-chance romance.)

A promise written on a coaster.
A lost night in a dark room.
Grayson Cole was my brother’s best friend.
He was all of my firsts.
Then he went away…

Drew Harris was just a kid, a senior in high school, my best friend’s little sister.
They said she was too young to know her feelings. I was too old to have them, so I left to join the military.

Four years passed. Loss, injury, angry words I can never take back.
I’m home, but I’m not the same.
Neither is she.

Now she’s a woman with flashing blue eyes, long blonde hair, and gorgeous curves.
She’s the same sweet smile, the same sassy mouth…
I could never say No to her before.
I should say No for her sake. She deserves better than what I’ve become, scarred and damaged.

“They told me to stay away from you.
I went away to try… God, I tried.
Now everything has changed. I’m back, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make you mine…”

(A full-length, STAND-ALONE CONTEMPORARY romance about first love, redemption, and finding your way home. No cheating; No cliffhangers.)

 

 

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Review

4 stars!

I loved this book. It contains a lot of my favourite tropes, effortlessly combining brother’s best friend, military, forbidden and second-chance-romance themes to create a beautifully heartfelt, emotional love story that completely captured my heart.

Andrea ‘Drew’ Harris and Grayson Cole met when she was four and he was eight, and he carried her away from a snake encounter. From that moment on, he was her hero, and she cherished him from afar as Gray and her older brother, Danny, became best friends and he became a fixture in her life. It wasn’t until Drew was 16 that he actually looked at her the way she had always dreamed, and for one summer they were everything to each other. But they had to keep their feelings a secret – both from Danny, and from Drew’s entitled father who would not approve of his ‘princess’ seeing a boy from the wrong side of the tracks.

A year later and Gray and Danny are leaving to serve a four year military tour overseas. Gray promises to come back to Drew, and in the meantime, she is off to college to get a degree in psychology. They remain in touch and their flirtatious messages are fantastic, until Gray drops off the radar. And when he returns, he is not the same man he once was.

“Come back to me, Grayson … I’ll be waiting for you.”

This is such a great second-chance-romance. Drew and Gray love each other deeply but life and circumstances have pulled them apart. From the moment they see each other again you can feel the connection between them, you know they belong together, it’s just a matter of them working through it all to make it happen.

Despite the changes in Gray, his feelings remain strong, he’s just so damaged by all that he’s been through that he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and he’s terrified of hurting the person who means the most to him. He’s battling with so much, and my heart ached for him.

“I dreamed about you every night.” My confession makes her smile.
It’s the truth. It’s the only truth I know – if she’s in danger, I’ll carry her out. If she’s crying, I hold her until she stops. If she wants me…I can’t tell her no.

 

 

And Drew is just fantastic! She has a huge heart, and she’s so strong. She doesn’t hold back in letting Gray know that she wants him, and she fights hard for her man and for the future that she wants with him.

“You left me. I was right here, and you left like you forgot all about us.”
He moves in closer, heat in his tone. “I remember every detail of us.”
“Prove it.”

The situation is intense and the emotions are high as Drew and Gray figure it all out. They don’t have an easy road and they have their ups and downs, making mistakes along the way, but we know where it’s heading, and I loved watching them work hard to figure it all out.

This is my first read by Tia Louise, and I really like her writing. She’s written a gorgeously heartfelt and emotional love story and has created strong characters in Drew and Gray, with a great collection of side characters (I’m really excited to read the upcoming book for Drew’s hilarious best friend, Ruby). The ending does have its moments of cheese, but the epilogue left me with a big smile on my face, and I really enjoyed this one!

4 stars.

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

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Excerpt

“Your daddy’s right.” Gray looked at me with tortured blue eyes that contradicted every word he said.
“You’re so young. You don’t know what you want.”

I only kissed him again, crawled onto his lap again, put his hands on me
and made us forget my disapproving father, my overprotective brother. Neither of them had been therefor me the way Grayson always had.

“I know what I want…”

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About the Author

Tia Louise is the USA Today best-selling, award-winning author of When We Touch, the “Bright Lights,” “One to Hold,” and “Dirty Players” series, and co-author of the #4 Amazon bestseller The Last Guy.

After being a teacher, a book editor, a journalist, and finally a magazine editor, she started writing love stories and never stopped.

Louise lives in the Midwest with her trophy husband, two teenage geniuses, and one grumpy cat.

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