From award-winning and international best-selling author Melanie A. Smith comes a standalone steamy contemporary romance about life choices, love, and finding yourself in between.
Sometimes you need a bit of tough love to get where you’re supposed to be …
Mia Anderson has been living a life that was chosen for her. But her impending thirtieth birthday is the wake-up call she needed to stop wasting time on all the wrong pursuits. Just as she’s figuring out what she wants to do about it, her beloved grandmother falls ill and Mia drops everything to be with her. What she didn’t expect to find in her grandmother’s tiny mountain town is the courage to quit working for her father, supplied by a little tough love from her Gran. Now faced with an uncertain future, the last thing on her mind is finding love.
Nate Edwards is living a solitary life deep in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. He’s content, or at least he thinks he is — until the granddaughter of a good friend shows up and he starts having feelings he thought he’d never have again. But Mia’s future isn’t in Alpine Ridge, so acting on it would lead to nothing but heartbreak. Still, their connection is undeniable and circumstances continue to push them together, despite their resistance. Will Mia stick to her decision to carve her own path? And if she does, will it be with Nate? Or is he doomed to an isolated life?
Review:
Ooooh, I really liked this one! Mia and Nate are wonderful characters, and the way Mia’s grandmother (constantly, for literally years, even from beyond the grave!) brought them together was just… (insert chef’s kiss here!) perfect.
Mia and Nate actually have a lot in common–though they (and the reader) don’t actually realize it for much of the book. Gran knew, though, and that’s partly why she kept trying to get them together–and 100% of the reason why she knew they both needed “tough love.” (Yeah, that was a light bulb moment for me–Oh, that’s where the title comes from!)
They also both had a lot of obstacles in the way of an HEA together–Mia especially was at a difficult time in her life, and really didn’t want to (nor probably should she have) start a relationship until she figured things out. Fortunately, Nate is possibly the most patient and understanding man on the planet (truly–you have to see him interacting with Mia’s gran–it will melt your ovaries!) and he absolutely wasn’t going to rush her. They did have a few (OK, maybe more than a few–there was a bit of misunderstanding/miscommunication going on, which was frustrating yet believable) roadblocks on the way to their HEA, but when they got there? OMG, they GOT there.
So, so good. 😀
Funny thing–reading this on my Kindle, I completely forgot what the cover looked like until the morning I finished it, when I sent the file all the way back to the cover pic. Gazing at it (and fanning myself!) it was yet another Oh, yes–*that’s* why the cover looks like that! light bulb moment! The blonde, folks…it’s real… 😉
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.