Julia Pierce has spent pretty much her entire adult life
with Erica. So when Erica has an affair with her personal trainer, Natasha, and
divorces Julia, Julia has literally nothing to fall back on and nowhere to go.
She returns home to her supportive family. She has her grandmom’s place to stay
in and a job in the family winery while she gathers herself. One of Julia’s
action points is to date as much as possible and have as much sex as possible. Except
she’s practically never dated because she’d been with Erica for so long. Taylor
Winslow was with Julia in high school and had nursed a crush on Julia. Their
lives hadn’t intersected at that time so there was no major drama between them
in their youth. When Taylor sees Julia again, her little crush rears up its
delighted head. But Julia is looking for hook-ups and Taylor doesn’t do
hook-ups and ends up offering to be Julia’s wing-woman instead.
This is a wonderful book. Julia and Taylor are just so
relatable. The growing feelings between them, their conversations with each
other while tentatively exploring their relationship, the romance and the sex
are all perfect. What we totally loved in this was the realness of it all.
Rey writes about Julia, the changes in her life, her
emotional struggles and timid growth wonderfully. She makes us really
understand and empathise with Julia and even fall a little in love with her.
Taylor is near perfect, but thankfully not entirely perfect thus keeping her
real. Both hold back and make mistakes with each other which is how a
relationship, particularly one in its early stages works.
We loved that Taylor’s presence and support don’t magically
erase Julia’s self-doubts in one stroke. But the best aspect of their
relationship is that they make the effort for each other and for holding on to them despite the everyday hurdles. Love is
work in many ways. It isn’t one person’s job to make a relationship work. Both should
want it and both should be willing to make it happen. We loved that Julia and
Taylor both make the effort.
We absolutely loved everything about this book and
unhesitatingly recommend it.
⭐⭐⭐⭐★
