Blurb:

Welcome back to Sunrise Cove for this heartwarming enemies-to-lovers tale where found family, forgiveness, and love may just be the key to finding yourself, from New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis.

Lexi Clark’s life is falling apart around her, so when she’s summoned home to Sunrise Cove, the last thing she wants to do is face all the complications she left behind. Her past, her stepsister Ashley, and especially her infuriatingly gorgeous childhood nemesis-turned-crush Heath Bowman.

Yep, Lexi’s pretty sure being home again just might kill her. She’s an overachieving art appraiser who doesn’t believe in trust, love, or Happily Ever Afters. Free spirit Ashley, on the other hand, is so full of life it hurts to look at her. But Lexi can’t refuse Ashley’s plea to honor their late mother’s final wish to make amends with the people she’d wronged.  So, on behalf of her estranged mother’s estate—and with Heath in tow as the executor—Lexi embarks on a road trip to repay all the people her gambling addicted mother owed money to. 

Complicating everything are the feelings that well up for for her mom, for Ashley, and most of all, for Heath. And for the record, she doesn’t like it, or the way he has of scaling the walls she’s built around her heart. The road trip shenanigans that ensue are both funny and heartbreaking, but Lexi finds something shocking along the way. Acceptance. Family. And unbelievably—if you ask Lexi anyway—love.

Buy Links

PRINT:  Word After Word Bookshop (For personally signed by the author copies — in checkout, put the name to sign to in the comment box) 

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DIGITAL: Amazon, Amazon CA, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo

AUDIOBOOK:  Audible

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*****

Review:

Lexi isn’t necessarily the easiest character to like but she’s got a lot of stuff to work through. From feeling abandoned by her mom, a cold dad, and a step family (her dad’s marriage) that was abusive … her childhood wasn’t easy and it left plenty of scars. Causing her to find it difficult to let herself make connections with others.

She’s at a low point, after a bad relationship that ended up with her losing her job, when her stepsister (from her mom’s marriage) calls her home to fulfill a request from her mom’s will. Forcing her to come to terms not only with her relationship with her mom, but her relationship with Ashley. And her complicated attraction to Heath.

Heath had to work at it but he’s made a life for himself that he can feel good about. He’s got a grip on who he is, his place in the town, and his emotions. Then Lexi comes back and shakes everything up.

Shalvis does a good job of mixing humor and emotional growth. Both Heath and Lexi, and Ashley, have a lot to deal with and it takes a long time for them, especially Lexi, to get their shhhh-tuff together. Their journey reveals a lot – things about themselves, each other, and the assumptions they’ve made about the past. But together they can come to terms with it all and create a future.

(This is a series but because they are interconnected with a place, not people, these are truly stand alones.)