My summary:

After tragedy struck when she was 13, Rhodes was taken in by her best friend’s family. Now 27 years old, Rhodes is feeling ready to cope with her devastating loss and move back to her childhood home, all with the support of her large found family. Anson is a restoration specialist working for Rhodes’s brother and taking the lead on her project. But Anson is running from his own tragedy—and he and Rhodes soon connect over their shared losses. 

My thoughts:

This is a heartrending story of tragic loss and learning to love again. This is my first book by Catherine Cowles and I honestly didn’t know what I was setting myself up for with this one. I *thought* I was starting a sassy and spicy romance and, instead, it was quite tragic but also left me feeling hopeful and swooning as the story moved along. And the suspense kept me from putting the book down for the entire last half of it. 

At about 40% into the book, I think I got over my shell-shock of expecting a lighthearted romance and instead getting a tragic one. And I was HERE for it. I love Rhodes and her choosing to enjoy every moment of life and finding the good.  Anson is such a great character and his concern for Rhodes above all else hit me right in the feels. I love Lolli’s character and her sparkly phallic artwork. The huge found family, although hard to keep track of the who’s who at times, is a delight. 

This felt very similar to me of the style of Abby Jimenez’s The Friend Zone series. You know, absolutely devastating and tragic where it just rips your heart out and shreds it—but then slowly stitches it back together in a swoony love story. I mean, the dedication already had me tearing up so I clearly should’ve immediately realized what I was jumping into here. And, despite not being emotionally prepared for this at all, I ended up really enjoying Rhodes and Anson’s story.