Anybody who has lost their first love forever fantasizes
about how it will be if they’d meet again; about how it could all have played
out in an alternate reality; about ‘what ifs’. This one is a second chance
romance and Erica Lee is certainly getting more and more compelling in the lesfic
chick-lit space.
Kari Adelberg is content. She is in the profession
that she dreamt of, has a loving besties, a great family and a dog. The only
dark spot is her non-existent love life. A decade back, while in college, she
had the perfect love with a partner, Kacey Caldwell. Except that Kayce
disappeared without a trace after breaking up with Kari via a text message. One
fine day, Kari is woken up by her bestie, Bo chirruping about a Kari’s just-moving-in
hot new neighbour with a daughter. Turns out that the bombshell new neighbour
is Kacey. The chemistry, the sparks and the emotion are all still there but
Kari is thrown by the fact that Kacey’s daughter, Bailey, is almost nine which
could only mean that Kacey cheated on Kari. Plus, once bitten forever shy, Kari
cannot trust Kacey with her heart anymore no matter how much Kacey insists
otherwise.
This is a sweet second-chance romance with a to-die-for MC
in Kacey. Kari leaves us uncertain. There is a whole lot nice in her. Her fear
of trusting Kacey again is also understandable. What takes away from Kari is
her stand about Bo and her frankly adorable sister Kylie (both adults) dating
each other. For most of the book she keeps them away from each other and they
respect her interference only because they both love her. Somehow, she doesn’t
seem to return that love adequately or trust Bo despite their friendship. That doesn’t
reflect too well on her. The other thing that takes away majorly from Kari is
when she lashes out at Kacey viciously towards the end. Two things here: one, Kacey
didn’t deserve the attack in the least and two, we often hear anger as an excuse
for bad behaviour but we just cannot get behind it. To us, words spoken in
anger express the deepest feelings. So no, we cannot condone Kari as easily as
Kacey does and cannot really like her.
Written in Kari’s PoV, interspersed with flashbacks, the pacing
of the book is good. The flashbacks of the Kari-Kacey relationship during their
college days are oh-so-sweet. Kari’s feinting in the present is frustrating but
that part of her behaviour is completely understandable.
This is a sweet weekend read.
⭐⭐⭐☆★
