Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Release Date: February 24th, 2023
Add to Goodreads | Amazon.in (Available on KU)
CW: postpartum depression, infidelity, divorce
When I met Levi Truin, we were young, rich, famous, and beautiful. Nothing could go wrong, we had the world at our fingertips. Except millions of dollars, marriage and a baby all before twenty two isn’t all fun and games. And when my indiscretion caused it to come crashing down, we were just another Hollywood couple on the cutting room floor.
Seven years later, Levi and I are the poster-children for exemplary co-parenting. Attending red carpet events in support of each other, Sunday night dinners for the sake of our daughter, and her private school functions where we save seats and make polite conversation. The articles paint us in the healthiest of lights, because none of them know the truth.
So when he wants to take our daughter on tour, I have a decision to make. Let her traipse around venues with a nanny, or tag along and somehow survive sleeping in a bunk below my ex for months.
We go on the road, taking our demons and heartbreaks with us. And as we spend nights together with the highway lights flashing past the windows, that familiar spark reignites. Old hurts are discussed, wounds I guard tight are exposed, and my ex-husband makes confessions I’ve been waiting years for. Against all odds, he might just be able to love me again.
But then the dirty details of our long ago breakup get leaked to the press, and the newly fledgling relationship might be doomed from the start.
Lies, silence, and miscommunication are the things that ripped us apart. Can we push past our scars to reunite our family after everything we’ve been through?
I have a very soft corner for all of Carrie Aarons’ books and this one was no different. It’s a second chance romance between two people who were once married and have been divorced for seven years while trying to co-parent and just exist in the same world without letting it break them even further. Sophie and Levi were so great and Hart was fantastic. Carrie always gives you enough about the secondary characters to be totally invested in them by the time you’re done reading the book, so I knew that I was going to love Judd and Dane and Ariana and want more of their stories too. But this was a unique take on the relationship in crisis trope, in a way. Mostly because Sophie and Levi haven’t been together for a few years, but the love never died and there’s so much to overcome before they can give each other what they want.
It’s angsty, it’s emotional, it’s fun and sexy. Carrie does all of those things well. With Levi and Sophie spending time together because of their daughter, battling Hollywood rumours and fighting against the tide; this story will hook you from the first chapter and keep you in its grasp all the way till the end. And Carrie tackled such an important topic that I believe more romances should feature—postpartum depression and how it affects parents in so many different ways. Sophie’s struggles draw you to her, but also makes you see how strong she is to work through it and overcome it, even if it all happened slowly.
“You were never my second choice. If anything, you’re the only woman I’ve ever seen. The world could be crumbling, and my focus would never stray from you.”
Sophie and Levi’s relationship is complicated and when forced into tight spaces for a long tour—Levi’s a famous musician and Sophie’s a well-known model—everything explodes. I loved their open and honest conversations, even if they were sometimes yelling the words at each other. There’s so much talking and understanding and rehashing and dealing with their past mistakes and struggles and overcoming all of their demons. I appreciated the time and effort they put into figuring out if and how they were going to work as a couple if they gave it another shot.
I enjoyed this very much and cannot wait to see more of Sophie and Levi. And of course, Dane!
Thanks to Carrie Aarons for generously providing me with an advance copy. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
anna reads here 