⭐⭐⭐★
Way back when, Sage Collins was in love with her best friend, Emma Newton. One drunken kiss, and straight girl Emma ghosted her. Thirteen years thence, they're back in the same town and in each other's lives.
I'm not sure whether this can be called a second-chance romance exactly, because it's not like there was a first chance at all. Maybe a different-phases-in-life-finally-converge romance?
Emma, baker, married to Liam for a few years, has discovered that she's actually a lesbian. Liam is all understanding and her very best friend. They have a perfectly amicable divorce and he is still her best friend and fully supportive. She returns to her hometown, get a job — which just happens to be at Sage's sister's establishment — so frequent running into Sage is inevitable.
The book is well-paced with likeable characters, everyday narration and dual perspective so we know each MCs headspace and perspective.
My real issue comes from a blanket get-out-of-jail-free-card for poor behaviour. I cannot stand it when one MC goes out on a limb, makes herself vulnerable — and then continues to carry the burden. Passive personal overthinking that doesn't translate into action just falls so short. So, in this Emma is forever making up for a moment in her confused youth to Sage, who seems pretty narcissistic in the way she gives just enough crumbs to keep Emma in their pattern. Sage remains pretty self-absorbed, self-indulgent and selfish. For that past hurt caused by Emma, Sage seems to have developed a moral entitlement in her behaviour towards Emma. When a relationship starts with this pattern, I don't quite believe in the HEA.
I liked the writing with it's sudden splashes of humour (Sage's Beef Wellington "... so raw that it was mooing at her" was a gem). It's just that I like an equality in emotion, action and vulnerability between two people in love. It's an idealistic vision, but some books manage to give me just that. This one doesn't.
⭐⭐⭐★
