Blurb:

Chelsea Winters knocked me on my ass.

Meeting the curvy, auburn-haired goddess was the last thing I was expecting on my first day at a new college. But when she shows up at the lake house I share with my seven close friends, she looks like my literal dream girl.

Then we spend a few hours talking, and I know without question, she’s meant to be mine.

Until she panics, runs away, and tries to ghost me.

But our campus isn’t that big, and it doesn’t take long for us to cross paths again, and when we do, I realize how terrified Chelsea actually is.

Afraid to trust or let anyone past the upbeat, confident exterior she puts up.

Which means it’s now my mission to show her she’s safe with me. She can trust me with her hurt and her heart. If she needs to go slow, I’ll crawl, as long as it’s to her.

We’re both here for a fresh start, trying to heal from our pasts, but the more time I spend with her, the less I’m worried about the past because all I see is my future with her.

There might not be any such thing as the perfect love, but I know without a doubt, she’s my perfect match, and I’ll do whatever it takes to be the man she shares her future with.

Buy Link:

https://a.co/d/aT8VLXI

Available in KU

*****

Review:

This is my first read by this author so I’m not sure how this represents her writing style. But I’m not 100% sure what to think of this one. I loved Chelsea and Trevor, individually and as a couple, and I loved the found family that they have created. There are a lot of them, so I was glad for the character guide at the front to somewhat keep up.

For a large group of college students, tho, they come with a large amount of trauma. This is where my hesitation comes in. I guess they could have bonded because of their issues but it seems like every one of them has something big they need to work through. And they know a lot about mental health, good communication, and support. I mean A LOT. Trevor is an amazingly perfect book boyfriend, tho he does have some trauma of his own to work thru, but the rest are amazingly perfect friends. Sure, a couple of them are studying counseling, some are actively in therapy, and they’ve been thru a ton collectively, but they are also only 20 years old. (Not that # of years lived necessarily means that you can’t have these kinds of lived experiences, but all of them?)

I saw another review say that it felt like an after school special and I can see that. There’s a lot of mental health terminology and advice, girl power and healing. I love that Chelsea is so into supporting women, lifting them up – **** the patriarchy, choose the bear kinda thing. But there’s so much going on here. I’m not sure if it is because there are so many of them, and they are so close, that it felt that way. And I admire both Trevor and Chelsea and how they address & overcome their issues. It was just a very full book.

Please know going in that this book deals with some really heavy subjects. It has some fantastic mental health representation and I love to see the normalization of that in books. The characters try so hard to be good people, good friends, to be supportive and love enthusiastically. They are wonderful characters and I so want to know their stories, to get to know them better.

It just feels like a lot when there are so many of them 🙂

*****

Author Info:

Bethany is a small-town girl and lover of all things romance, love, and happily ever afters. She is an indie author of both adult contemporary romance series and new adult drama series set in small towns. She loves taking her characters (and readers!) on an emotional rollercoaster throughout the story whether it’s a standalone romance or a continuous series. Even though she puts her characters through their paces, she always leaves them with a happily ever after, knowing they rode off into the sunset with a good life and their perfect match by their side.

She is shamelessly obsessed with the friends-to-lovers trope and will read any friends-to-lovers book she can get her hands on while writing plenty more. When she’s not writing, you can find her mom-ing, binge-reading, drinking coffee and pretending the laundry doesn’t exist, eating sushi with her SIL, and cheering on all her author pals.

Bethany lives in the Southern Tier of NY with her husband and two sons. You can find out more about Bethany and what she’s working on next on Instagram @bethanymonacosmith.

Connect with Bethany Monaco Smith:

https://bethanymonacosmith.com/links/

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