4.75 stars (if there’s such a thing?)

There is a kind of relief you feel when you set the last few pieces of a 1,000 piece puzzle into place. As a reader, watching Beat and Melody discover how they fit together delivered a similar kind of pleasure.

This is a tender and well-considered love story about Beat and Melody, who are essentially fated mates. They find peace in each other, and that feeling of the gentleness of love really comes through.

The story also includes what I consider to be an important and thoughtful commentary on the stigma of kink, and sex-shaming more generally. As a reader, I shared Beat’s sense of lightening as he freed himself of the shame he felt about his sexuality.

To that end - as you may expect from Tessa Bailey, there’s some solid, detailed, non-boring, open door sex. No shortage of it. But it’s not spice for spice’s sake. The scenes felt central to the growing trust and intimacy we see between Beat and Melody.

The storyline about the moms’ conflicted friendship fell flat for me. It’s a tired story: ‘a boy came between us and we haven’t talked in thirty years, and now we see we shouldn’t have let that happen’. It just seemed basic compared to what is an otherwise intricately drawn book. But, this really didn’t detract from my love of this book.

I’ve read several Tessa Bailey books, and this one is now my favorite.

IG: @juliereadsromance