Series: Bower Boys #2
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Release Date: January 31st, 2023
Add to Goodreads | Amazon.in (Available on KU)
For the last ten years, I’ve been living a lie in witness protection. But the drug cartel that put me there isn’t a threat anymore, so I can have my life back. I should be thrilled, right?
Wrong.
The last thing I want to do is go back home and show everyone how far I’ve fallen. I’m not the high-powered lawyer they all expect me to be. I’m just a guy who slings drinks and scowls at the world.
But then I hear about Max, my ex’s ten-year-old son. My ten-year-old son.
I have to go back now. Figure out how to be a dad. Face the love of my life. Make things right with Sadie and earn her trust. Will she have me—or is it too late to reinvent myself as the man she once loved?
Much like the first book of the Bower Boys series, this one had me swooning and cheering and laughing and crying all at the same time. Kelly Siskind has a masterful way of writing these kinds of stories, with heroes who have baggage that they struggle to overcome and heroines who are powerful and empathetic at the same time. And when you put those two people together, you get magic. When we got glimpses of Desmond in 50 Ways to Win Back Your Lover, I knew right away that I was going to love him and want to protect him and that did not change.
It’s important to read the first book (and really just read the books in order), because there’s a lot that’s covered and explained in the first one that doesn’t necessarily get addressed in this one. Desmond came across as aloof and grumpy and angry in the first book and he still comes across that way in his own story, but you actually get to see his side of things and that’s always a bonus, because it helps you fully understand this character and the choices he makes. You also get to see this other side of Desmond that we don’t necessarily see through E’s eyes in book one and I loved how soft Des is, even when he’s being grumpy and getting tattooed the most ridiculous things all over his body.
I enjoyed watching Des get his life back on track, interact with the kids in the hiking group and seeing him try his damndest to make sense of the life he’s been thrust into. He admits and accepts his faults and flaws, but instead of just rotting in them, he attempts to learn and get better. And sometimes, that’s what you need to do in life and Des proves over and over again that no matter what, it’s important to get back up.
His relationship with Sadie was beautiful. It was very different from E and Delilah in the sense that Sadie was far more welcoming of Des in her town and in her life. The flashbacks and little treats we get of their young love were so wonderful. Watching them navigate this relationship as adults felt so real, too. I loved that they took their time, but also struggled to really resist the other.
I cannot recommend this series enough and I really hope more people pick up these glorious book!
Thanks to Kelly Siskind for the physical ARC and NetGalley for the eARC. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
anna reads here 