Buy: Amazon | Apple Books | Nook | Kobo | Google Play | Audio | Paperback
Blurb
From New York Timesbestselling author Penelope Ward, comes anew standalone novel.
It was the summer of my life.
I’d met the guy of my dreams.
Unfortunately, he was the son of my uppity employer—and very much off-limits.
But Gavin was a rebel. He knew his mother would disown him if she found out about us; in his eyes, we just had to be careful.
He never treated me as his mother did—like hired help.
Instead, Gavin put me on a pedestal and loved me harder than I’d ever been loved in my life.
What a summer it was.
Until it all ended—badly.
I was never supposed to see Gavin again.
That didn’t stop me from thinking about him every day for ten years.
I knew little about his life now, just that he was an entrepreneur living an ocean away.
When a twist of fate had me working again in the very place our love affair started a decade earlier, I knew it was only a matter of time before I might see him again.
But I wasn’t prepared.
What if he hated me?
What if he loved someone else now?
I wasn’t prepared for all the unknowns.
And most of all, I wasn’t prepared for today to be the day he came back.
Review
4.5 stars
I’m always excited to start a new Penelope Ward book, and she absolutely delivered with this one! A fantastically fun and intense NA love story that becomes an angsty and emotional second-chance-romance, this book brings all the feels with characters that I adored, and I loved Raven and Gavin’s story!
Gavin is 21 and enjoying summer at his family’s estate in Florida before heading off to law school. Surrounded by wealth and privilege, his life seems perfect, but he is somewhat controlled by his parents, who want nothing but the best for him in all things. 20 year old Raven is from the ‘other’ side of town from Gavin. Her mother has been his family’s housekeeper for years, and she is working alongside her for the summer to help out.
When Gavin and Raven meet, there are sparks there from the very beginning. They just ‘click’, and their attraction to each other zings off the page as they talk and hang out. Gavin’s mother is far from impressed to see her eldest son spending time with ‘the help’, so they keep their relationship a secret, falling for each other hard and fast over the course of the summer, until it all ends horribly and they are both left with broken hearts (*sniff*).
Part two of the book moves us ten years later, and Raven finds herself back at the place where it all began, now as a nurse and caring for Gavin’s ailing father. Gavin now lives in London and they haven’t seen each other since everything fell apart all those years ago. Until suddenly… he’s there.
I’m not going to go into any more detail than that, because you need to read the book and experience the raw intensity of the emotion and the unexpected path of Gavin and Raven’s reunion. It’s not what I was expecting, but I thought it played out beautifully, and I loved watching them find their way back to each other.
These two have such a fantastic relationship. Both in their 20s, and then in their 30s, they have this wonderful honesty about them. They talk about themselves, about their feelings, and about the challenges in their way, and it all feels so easy and natural. They have things to deal with, of course, but they do it mostly functionally, which I really appreciated. And the romance is gorgeous. These are two people who truly belong together, and watching them wade through their past drama and figure that out creates a wonderful story.
I loved the side characters, each who bring so much to the story. The relationship that Raven has with her mother is so beautiful, Gavin’s father has a really interesting storyline which contributes a lot, and Gavin’s brother… gold.
This was a great read. Fun, sweet, sexy and romantic with a bit of angst and drama and lots of feels. The audiobook is narrated by Andie Arndt and Sebastian York, and they tell the story beautifully.
I loved it! 4.5 stars.
About the Author
Penelope Ward is a New York Times, USA Today and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of contemporary romance.
She grew up in Boston with five older brothers and spent most of her twenties as a television news anchor. Penelope resides in Rhode Island with her husband, son, and beautiful daughter with autism.
With over one-point-five million books sold, she is a twenty-time New York Times bestseller and the author of over twenty novels.
Facebook | Facebook Private Fan Group | Instagram | Twitter
Check out our Penelope Ward Author Spotlight more great reads!