Reason to Believe by Rebecca Yarros is live!

This is the first full-length novel in the Legacy series, a beautiful, emotional friends-to-lovers romance that had me smiling, crying, and falling in mad love with these characters and their story.

 

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Blurb

From USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros comes a brand-new small town, older-brother’s best friend standalone romance.

“I’ll take them!”

That’s what I tell the social worker when my pre-k student and his baby brother need an emergency foster placement. I’ll do anything to keep the brothers from being split up. But my apartment’s flooded and there’s only one house I can take them to on such short notice…his.

Knox Daniels, my older brother’s best friend, offers his new place without hesitation. He’s not moving back to our tiny town until next month—that’s when all our hotshot firefighters are returning for their one and only chance to rebuild our fathers’ fallen, iconic crew.

It doesn’t matter that I’ve been silently in love with Knox since we were kids.
It can’t matter that we pretend that reckless prom night kiss never happened.
It won’t matter that my feelings for him could destroy his lifelong friendship with my brother and threaten the certification of their hotshot crew.
Because I’ll be out of his house long before he gets back.

Except Knox just walked in…a month early.
And the icing on this awkward cake?
He’s gorgeous as always and I’m covered in baby puke.
He takes one look at the boys and tells me we can make this work—
We can temporarily fake a relationship to keep them from being separated by the system.

Suddenly, everything matters.

 

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Review

5 “As necessary as air” stars!

Oh, my heart, what a read! The first full-length novel in Rebeca Yarros’ Legacy series, this is a beautiful, emotional friends-to-lovers romance that had me smiling, crying, and falling in mad love with these characters and their story.

There are two novellas which precede this book, and I’d recommend reading those first as they give you a great introduction to the series – in particular, read Point of Origin (it’s free), which gives the background to the series about a bunch of hotshot firefighters returning to their home town of Legacy, Colorado to rebuild their parent’s hotshot crew after they all died protecting the town from an inferno. It’s an emotional set-up, and Point of Origin provides all the details in full (plus it’s a sensational second-chance-romance that you don’t want to miss!).

In those prequel novellas, we meet Harper and Knox, and from those brief glimpses alone, we know that there is something between them. Knox is the best friend of Harper’s older brother, Ryker. Knox and Ryker are both part of the rebuilt hotshot team, and they’re preparing to move their lives back home to take up their fathers’ legacy. Harper has been in love with Knox for as long as she can remember. From a glimpse in their past we get to see what he also has feeling for her, but following a promise made to Ryker he has agreed to never act on those feelings. So, he’s stayed away, and they’ve both been secretly in love with each other, and unsettled without each other ever since.

Back in the present, Harper runs her own pre-school, and she is caught up in the life of her most beloved student when his mother suddenly dies, leaving him and his baby brother alone. Devastated for the little boys, she immediately jumps in to foster them, and when she asks Knox if she can stay at his empty house – which is much more child-appropriate than where she is staying – he doesn’t hesitate to say yes. And then he comes home a month early, moving into his new home and putting him firmly in her and the boy’s lives. And here’s the kicker – in order to keep the boys from being sent out of town and separated, Harper and Knox need to prove that they’re in a committed relationship and providing a stable home.

It’s a wonderful set-up, which immediately brings in some of my favourite tropes – fake relationship, forced proximity, and a sense of the forbidden, because Ryker is still very much a part of their lives, and he wants his best friend nowhere near his little sister. But underneath it all are these two soulmates who have loved each other from afar for years, finally getting the chance to be together – even if not in a way that either of them imagined it – and the ride from there is absolutely beautiful.

There is so much emotion between Knox and Harper, I could feel it, and we get to watch everything unfold between them in beautiful detail. They don’t hide their feelings, they acknowledge it, they talk about the things standing in their way, and they try their best to deal with it all. What happens between them isn’t defined, it just naturally shifts and changes and they go with it, and my heart pounded for them every step of the way as they finally get a chance to act on all of those feelings.

“I have always wanted you I will always want you. You are in my fucking bones, Harper. Wanting you is part of who I am.”

It’s not all easy though. They’re both adjusting to brand-new parenthood, with the added stress of not actually being legal parents, Ryke’s open disapproval is brutal (and so annoyingly unfair!), and Knox is tasked with getting his new team up to standard so that they can become a certified hotshot crew and live up to the legacy of their parents. There’s a lot going on, and it’s a rollercoaster ride that is both heart-poundingly swoony and heartbreakingly emotional.

I felt so much for these characters – for what they’ve been through, for the profound impact their pasts have had on their lives, and for what they’re trying to deal with in the present. Knox’s career choice is not an easy one, and it puts pressure on the people left behind, but his steadfast dedication to his crew and his new family, and Harper’s acceptance of the danger and the stresses that come with it, are beautifully written.

“I can’t promise you that I’ll always be here when you need me … But I promise that no matter where I am, I’ll be yours.”

Their love and commitment to the boys in their care is absolutely beautiful, and their love for each other is so gorgeous to watch as they slowly let is happen and embrace all that comes with it. There is drama, and my heart actually ached while I sat there reading with tears running down my face, but it makes sense with the story, and allows for wonderful character growth, and I adored watching these two work through everything and finally find where they wanted to be.

“I love you,” I said it just because I could, because it feels so good to finally give myself permission. Because I knew he wasn’t ready to love me, but desperately needed me to love him. Because saying it made me feel stronger, invincible.

I love these characters, and I love this world that Yarros has created. I so hope that she continues the series with books for the other hotshots, because there are so many amazing stories waiting to be told, and Knox and Harper’s beautiful romance has set a wonderful tone for this heart-pounding, exciting and gorgeously romantic series.

“There’s no one else in the world who can love you like I do.”

I loved this book so much. 5 stars.

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

 

Legacy

 

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About the Author

Rebecca Yarros is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of over fifteen novels, including Great and Precious Things and The Last Letter. “A gifted storyteller” (Kirkus), she is also the recipient of the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence for Eyes Turned Skyward from her Flight and Glory series.

Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for almost twenty years. She’s the mother of six children, ranging from kindergarten to law school, and is currently surviving the teenage years with three of her four hockey-playing sons. When she’s not writing, you can find her at the hockey rink or sneaking in some guitar time while guzzling coffee. She and her family live in Colorado with their stubborn English bulldogs, two feisty chinchillas, and a Maine Coon kitten named Artemis, who rules them all.

Having fostered then adopted their youngest daughter who is nonverbal and on the autism spectrum, Rebecca is passionate about helping children in the foster system through her nonprofit, One October, which she co-founded with her husband in 2019. To learn more about their mission to better the lives of kids in foster care, visit www.oneoctober.org.

To catch up on Rebecca’s latest releases and upcoming novels, visit www.RebeccaYarros.com.

Connect with Rebecca:

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