Audiobook, Audible, Kindle Edition, KU
Author: Kayley Loring
Narrators: Mackenzie Cartwright and Teddy Hamilton
This is the story of Wes Carver and Lily Barnes. They met as young teens. Lily lived in this wonderful house where Wes’ dad was a the gardener. Lily always said she would never fall for him, but she kissed him anyway. And kept kissing him. And then she says she could never like him because he was never leaving and she was hitting the road as soon as possible to pursue her dreams of becoming an actress. One day she does take off, leaving him a simple note and her cat for him to take care of…
5 years pass and Lily is back in town. Her dreams shattered, with no money, and she accepts her dad’d offer to work in the company business, at least until she reaches the age in which she can access her trust fund. Her new job? Wes’ assistant. He went to college and now works for her dad in his real estate business.
Unbeknownst to each other, whatever they had in the past was too strong for either of them to forget. And being together rekindles all the flames. Can puppy love turn into the real thing?
This story is so so sweet! It has a lot of romance novel tropes (first love, second chance romance, workplace romance, forced proximity, virgins) but it’s never trope-y. It’s also very low angst when it comes to Wes and Lily. They both deal with things happening to them, but they help each other as a couple and it’s adorable to see that, even without any hope of getting back together, they never wanted anything else – like they were just waiting for the universe to put them back together even if against all hope.
This is one of Kayley Loring’s first books, so you may be surprised that she hadn’t yet turned up the funny factor we all love to eleven, but the romance is all there and it’s swoony!
It can be sometimes daunting when you go back to a favorite author’s early works, but Kayley hasn’t disappointed me!
Possible triggers: difficult relationship with a parent, loss of a parent, abandonment by a parent
