3-Stars

As someone who has absolutely <b>loved</b> anything written by this author in the past, it's with a heavy heart I admit that this one just wasn't for me. With that, I must stress that it truly is a <i>me</i> problem and I do think others should give Natasha Ander's new book More Than Anything a fair chance and try it.

I am a reader with practically no triggers, but there is one thing that happened in this book (which I won't name and spoil for others) that took the enjoyment out of this book for me. DO NOT let your mind wander to what it could be, it's honestly just something that is too personal for me and I'm sure others will probably not even bring it up since it's so minor in the trigger department.

Anyways, up until that part, I was really enjoying Tina and Harris's story. I liked both characters (sometimes I wanted to shake the heroine but alas she really grew on me) and was totally rooting for them throughout the whole book.

This story was angsty and one you will surely be invested in from start to finish.

A wee bit more than broken…

I would love to take the easy route in reviewing More Than Anything and just say it was good, packed with emotions and ended on a happy note. The problem is that it was A LOT more than that. I “enjoyed” the journey but felt a slight disconnection from the main characters. I liked seeing the connection between the heroine and her best friend but couldn’t understand keeping such a big secret for so long. There were times that the hero was one of the best blokes, however, he was also responsible for a horrible betrayal. There were so many lows before we even get a glimpse of the highs. How do I explain my enjoyment without giving it all away? This is the kind of story that you must get the whole picture before you can judge.

I didn’t understand Tina and her self-loathing. No, I take that back, I did understand but it got a wee bit old by the end. She’s very negative about EVERYTHING and I became impatient waiting for her to realise that her family was one of the main causes of her issues. Her parents are snooty and along with Tina’s siblings, spend a lot of time finding fault in her. Her best friend Libby, who always has her back was a better person than all of her family, yet Tina kept her biggest struggle a secret. As I said, I did understand her low self-esteem, but I was impatient to see her get past her issues and confide in the people that matter.

Harris and his twin brother Greyson have a pretty good life but it’s far from perfect. Greyson’s marriage is in shambles and he only has himself to blame. Harris has feelings for Tina but can see that she will never forgive him for his betrayal when she was 18 and he was 20. Harris’s family have been long-time friends with Tina’s family and her brother is one of his best friends. He tried to apologise numerous times, but it’s been ten long years and she still can’t look him in the eye. Harris wants Tina’s forgiveness and he will do whatever it takes to make things right.

I spent most of the book frustrated with the heroine for her lack of communication skills. I get why she closed herself off emotionally and physically, but I really didn’t get why it took so long for her to share her burdens. This is one of those stories where you’re pulling your hair out because YOU wouldn’t do what the heroine does. YOU would communicate. YOU would stand up for yourself. YOU would have taken the steps to get help to move on, get better and find support. But, this is not my story and I haven’t faced the traumatic experience that Tina did. I had to step back and let Tina fight her demons at her own pace.

How do I rate a story that frustrated me, made me sigh, smile and squirm, and left me a little emotionally drained? Well, my first instincts were 4 stars. Then, when I started writing this review it headed into 3-star land. But, I also remembered the high I felt when all the secrets were out, conversations were had, and love won out after all. I’m going to stick with my first instincts.

If you’re looking for a story with a whole lot of emotional bang for your buck, then I highly recommend giving More Than Anything a whirl.

Stacey is Sassy, received an advanced copy of this story. The copy provided is not the final copy and may be subject to edits and changes.

Okay. Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk.

I love Natasha Anders as much as the next girl. I was super excited for this one. However, I 100% would not have read it if I had known about a pretty big plot point, and that is totally a me thing, and I doubt would bother most people. So, trigger warning, but be warned this spoils something pretty major - don't worry, it's not cheating or abuse or anything like that, I just wish I had known and know other people like me would like to know in advance: after their one night stand, she gets pregnant, the baby dies at 2 months from SIDs. This was so hard for me to read, especially considering my supposed to be due date is next week. I understand things like that are hard to warn about because it can spoil the book, and it really won't bother a lot of people, but I had to put it down several times to cry because it made me think about my own. Definitely not the feeling I want from a romance.

Another thing I had trouble with in this book, and this is totally a book thing and not a me thing this time - is in regards to the 10 year separation. It's not exactly a true second chance romance, they had a one night stand and then 10 years went by. They did grow up together. But anyway - this is in regards to what they did in those 10 years, so again, click at your own risk: he was her one and only, but he was with tons and tons of women. I forget the exact wording but he definitely said he'd been with several women. which, again, fine. i am not one of those people who needs to hero to be celibate from meeting the heroine because sometimes that is a bit much, especially since they grew up together, but why was she celibate and he wasn't? I really wasn't a fan of that. I wish she'd been with at least one or two other people, or they'd both been celibate. the thing is, i don't mind when people are with OW/OM during a separation, especially a 10 year one when they were so young at the beginning - but i don't want the scales to be as tipped as they were in this case. Honestly, i would have totally been okay if she had been with someone else, then his OW wouldn't have bothered me. i understand putting it off for quite some time after what happened to her, but 10 years is a long time, especially as young as she was.

Okay, so all that being said, I really didn't hate this one. The first issue is totally a me thing but other women who have gone through something similar may find it hard to read as well. The other thing is annoying and made me love the book a bit less, but didn't hate it or anything. There were a few things I liked about this book and I am still a Natasha Anders fan and will read anything she publishes.

I really liked Harris, he was definitely lower on the asshole scale, especially compared to some of Anders other heroes. I thought he was super sweet and I loved how he felt about Tina. I loved the pendant. Although, his feelings would have been cuter/more believable if he hadn't been a manwhore during those 10 years but whatever.

Tina was a little harder to like. I know some people don't love the fact that she didn't tell her best friend about the baby, but I personally find that believable. Yes, I told my best friends but 90% of the people in my life do not know about my daughter and I am okay with that. When people bring their babies into work or show photos or ask me when I am going to have children, I would rather they think I am rude than talk about it. So, I found that realistic, but everyone is different. I don't mind that Tina made lots of mistakes and whatnot with her career, though I did wish it wasn't blamed on what happened, personally.

Anyway, speaking of the best friend, I really hope they get a book. I do hope that it picks up after this one, rather than be told concurrently, because we already know so much about their relationship - like if it is told concurrently, we will know that the divorce papers are coming and that'll take out some of the mystery, but that is just me.

Phew. so this is a long review and I hope it doesn't sound like I hated it, because I didn't. I struggled with something personally and wasn't a huge fan of something in the 10 year separation. But it was a quick, easy read and I do really like Natasha Anders writing. The ending was cute and I loved Harris getting all those sayings wrong. Totes adorbs. I loved the connection between the Alpha Men series. So I do recommend if you are a fan.

Tina and Harris- second chance romance. Sort of. These two had a thing in high school and she, more than he, bore the burden of what happened that night for ten years. Tina's suffered a lot more than just the cruel words of a stupid teen but that's not going to be obvious (no spoilers). Regrettably, though, I couldn't gel with either one of them. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A rare pass from me.

This is my first book by this author and won't be my last. This is a 2nd chance romance with lots of drama this couple has to work through.

I would give this about a 3.5. It was a good read but I was able to put it down. That said, I would read more from this author.

I will say this over and over again - I will read anything Natasha Anders writes. She produces some of the best in the genre. Even her not-so-good works are better than 90 percent of the books out there. But if I may - one major problem I have with her is that she only publishes once or twice a year. That makes for months and months of torturous waiting.

More than anything is not my favorite of hers, especially if I pit it against The Gold Standard: The Unwanted Wife. It lacks the delicious angst that I have come to associate with Ms. Anders. It had a promising start. The hero (inadvertently in this case) hurt the heroine terribly, and she retreats into her shell. Still my favorite part of any romance. How could he coax her out? However, in the case of this book, the angst kind of tapered off because ... well, the hero was a good guy. He was so nice, accommodating, and that IS a good thing. But I wanted him to be a jerk first, so I would find his eventual niceness more enjoyable. I still think it merits 5 stars, though, because of its likable characters.

It features my favorite type of heroine: the insecure, not-too-beautiful woman who was deeply hurt by the man she loved and is determined not to ever trust him again. It also had a hero who was not as bad as the heroine thought he was. In fact, he was quite wonderful. Towards the end, I loved him more than the heroine, and I felt that he was getting a raw deal. They had a tumultuous start in their teens, which caused the heroine to stay away from the hero, despite the fact that they ran in the same social circle. The first significant encounter they had was several years later (caused by an important event in the lives of the second couple in the series - coming soon, weeee!!!!). She hated him, he could not understand why, and they spent the better part of the book working on that.

Work on it they did. Well, it was mostly on his end. That is the reason why I will not reread it as often as I reread The Unwanted Wife. The heroes were put through the wringer on both books, but in this case, I felt like the hero did not deserve it.

3.5 - "We have unfinished business..." Stars.

The first book in Natasha Anders’ new Broken Pieces series gives us a second chance romance with a whole boat-load of past drama and issues for our couple to work their way through before even getting anywhere near a HEA.

Some pain was just too huge to be self-soothed away…

I hate that I didn’t love this book as much as I usually do when it comes to Natasha’s writing, and after finishing and thinking about the story, for me there were two main reasons why.

He’d been her first… and only.

I’ve read enough books by the author now to know what to expect in relation to her characters and story-lines, and you are always assured that there will be a whole bunch of emotional turmoil that jumps off the page and pulls you in. The same can definitely be said for Tina and Harrison’s story. Their families and friends all run in the same circles, so they have known each other from childhood, but one thoughtless act in Tina’s late teens, completely derails then and still to a certain extent now all of her life plans, it also takes Harris from friend and teen crush to a walking nightmare/reminder of everything that is and has gone wrong in her life, so-much-so she spends the next decade actively avoiding him, much to his consternation.

Being around Harris again bought back all those old insecurities and self-doubts…

The part of their back story you know about from the beginning is attributed to Tina being of the curvier persuasion, something she’s been made to feel badly about for a long time by pretty much everyone, something Harris (although unwittingly) with his group of douche-bag friends act out towards classically, and on this front I really did empathise with her having similar weight issues all of my life myself. But as the book progressed I felt it was a little overplayed in one context, in that she constantly bought it up, but then her actions didn’t always follow up with what she had previously said. I also found her constant digs at Harris as a kind of punishment a little below the belt and immature, especially when you take into account the other half of the reason she’s so anti him, which he doesn’t actually know about until much further along in the story, it was reasonable to understand why he felt she was overreacting in relation to her behaviour towards him.

"I don’t want to go back to the way I was before…"

The two main issues between this couple are pretty heavy, the one that has the longer term effects on Tina, we don’t actually find out about (although I did suspect it early on) until later on in the story, was handled really well, although due to its sensitive nature I really hope a trigger-warning is added to the beginning of the book for those that purchase it.

"I’m sorry I’m not great at talking about stuff…"

My second issue is the fact I really struggled to warm to Tina, despite understanding a lot of what she was going through in one respect, I just didn’t like the way she treated everyone for the bulk of the book, and although I feel my sympathy should have lain with her, because of everything she went through, it actually moved to Harris pretty sharply because of how she was treating him, when you take into consideration she was not actually giving him the full reasons as to why. Usually the author gets the balance right and I think it was a little off this time.

"You were seventeen when I first looked at you and saw…"

That-said I did not struggle to read this book. I loved the neat little link up with the town and people of Riversend, if you have read the Alpha Men series you will feel right at home, and it was great to see how the characters from those books are getting on. I also loved the side story playing out between Tina’s best friend Libby, and her husband (Harris’ brother) Greyson, their book - Nothing But This is next, and I am dying to read it, it’s got classic Anders written all over it from what has happened between them already.

So although not a 100% winner on this occasion, more through characterisation than anything else, More Than Anything left me itching for its follow-up, and hoping that the author has more characters and story-lines that she can continue to add to the Riversend group going forwards.

This book thoroughly ripped me apart! I wanted to jump into the pages, take Tina in my arms and hug her tight! All her life Tina never felt enough! She didn’t think she’d ever be the light in anyone’s eyes and one night changed that, only for her world to implode further! After years of fearing hate and not knowing how to forgive Tina is faced with seeing the man who ruined her every single day! Harris has no clue why Tina holds so much anger all he knows is he’s always admired her beauty, her strength and he is now adamant on helping her even though she wants nothing to do with him!

My goodness this book was amazing and truly a tear jerker! Through beautiful writing Anders shows how time, acceptance, and hope can help heal us and guide us to forgiveness! She shows how fighting through the pain and help to heal! A beautiful story and I can’t wait to see what is in store!

Loaded with emotion. Written with heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I love a good second chance romance and this one has a lot of great factors that made it a book that you will appreciate the further you get into it.

All is not well with the main characters. This book had me tied up a few times with the drama and the secrets. I ended up liking Harris way better than Tina. She took a while for me to warm up to.

The beginning of the book was a bit much to slog through but by the second half, all of the secrets and issues started to come to out. The connections grew. The ability to stay away from each other heated up the pages. The angst and drama was not far away.

While this book has some irritations for me, for the most part I was really sucked in and flipping those pages to get to the big revaluation. Harris was amazing in all ways. So strong and a perfect balance for Tina.

Unique locations, nicely developed characters, and plenty of hot, spicy scenes, More Than Anything is a romance story like few others. A bit long, but just sit and absorb it. The last half makes it worth it all.

I was initially attracted to the cover for this book because it's stunning! I then read the synopsis and it sounded interesting, so I grabbed an ARC and tried to read it as soon as I could! After reading this book, I have to say that I didn't enjoy it as much as I was expecting! I mean, I enjoyed the plot and the direction that it went in, but it took me a while to get into it and actually start enjoying it! The plot did develop nicely and I found myself enjoying it more as it progressed and a few more things started to happen! There was also plenty of romance in the plot and the romance allowed for a few really hot scenes between the two main characters! The ending of this book was also left at the perfect place and summed up the characters story! The characters were also great and developed the plot, but I found them slightly hard to connect with! Tina was the main female character, and I liked Tina at points in this book and then I found that she acted a bit like a stroppy teenager at other points! This made it difficult for me to connect with her and I don't normally have this issue! I understood Tina more as this book progressed and I heard her story and what she had been through! Tina also started a new career in this book and she took a big risk, but she worked hard at it! Harrison 'Harris' was the main male character and love interest of Tina! There was something intriguing about Harris in this book and I wanted to know more about him! Like Tina, there were times where I liked Harris a lot in this book and then times where he annoyed me a little! He was also a serious ass at the very beginning of this book, but he did kind of redeem himself for me as this book progressed! He also learned a big secret in this book that changed a lot for him and this did make me feel sorry for him! This book was written in third person, which I wasn't expecting! I don't normally like books being written in third person and I do think that this book would have benefited more if it had been written in first person! It was still told from both Tina and Harris' point of views, which I did enjoy! I liked that it was written from dual point of view because it helped me connect more with the two of them and understand them! It added a lot more to the plot as well, especially as Tina and Harris spent a bit of the plot apart and had a history, so it allowed for more things to happen! I now can't wait to read the next book in this duet! I know that it's going to continue the story of characters that were secondary characters in this book! This has me very intrigued because they did go through a lot as a couple in this book, so I'm intrigued to read their story and see what's going to happen for them! I really hope that Tina and Harris make some appearances in it! The cover for this book is also absolutely stunning! As I said at the beginning, it's what drew me to the book! I love it a lot and it's so pretty! The cover models are the perfect Tina and Harris! Big thank you to Natasha, Montlake Romance and Netgalley for an ARC of More Than Anything!

I was first introduced to this author when I read The Unwanted Wife. To this day that book is in my top ten favorites. Natasha Anders has done it again with this book. Reading about the lives of all these characters at times was heart wrenching. Seeing what Tina and Harrison went through and how to this day Tina still holds a grudge against Harrison. How because of what happened to her, her whole life was affected by it. Then you throw in Libby and Greyson and everything happening in their lives my heart was breaking for them all. This story just took me on such an emotional journey. In the end I was left with the feeling that I wanted more. I cannot wait to read Libby and Greyson’s story. Thanks Net Galley. I voluntarily reviewed this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars

First off, thanks so much to Netgalley for giving me a copy to read and review!

As you all know, Natasha Anders is a favourite of mine. I love her writing, her prose and the ANGST. In this story, we follow two characters who very much liked each other as kids, only to be separated by circumstances for 10 years. No, our hero wasn't celibate but our heroine was. Sure, we can argue her situation and mental state didn't allow for her to find many partners but I did find it irksome that this was the case. However, it didn't hinder my reading experience much!

I really enjoyed the dynamic between the two leads, Harris and Tina from the get-go. I felt that they both complimented one another really well. Their banter and chemistry was great but for some reason, I couldn't relate to either character. I felt like there was a foggy glass between me and the characters. Tina, for all she suffered and the after affects of it all, I couldn't relate, I couldn't see myself in her shoes. Harris was a bit more real in the sense that I got where he was coming from throughout the book.

The writing was amazing, like always but for me the connection and some of the story left me feeling a bit wanting. I felt that having Grayson and Libby so much in the readers' faces made us want to know more about then. Their story was explained in so much detail I found myself more curious about them than our main couple at times.

I did enjoy this read but it was not a WOW read for me! It was still a win but it wasn't my favourite Anders' book.

Angst and tender second chance romance between two once childhood friends. Harris(on) and Martine (Tina) were childhood friends. As teenagers, curvy Tina had a crush on Harrison, and at a teenage party they had a one night stand, then Tina found out she had been the subject of a bet, and heard Harrison’s friends calling her fat and ugly. Ever since, she has refused to have anything to do with Harrison. In the subsequent 10 years, Tina has struggled to find a vocation or be successful in her teenage ambition to be a obstetrician. She is hiding a secret from everyone, and it has negatively affected her life since. She has a strained relationship with her parents and 3 brothers, and they are constantly critical.

Her best friend Libby has married Harrison’s uptight twin Greyson, and is pregnant, but estranged from Grey. Tina insists she will help and support Libby and the baby and they move to a small town, where Tina takes over a local restaurant. With her anxiety at record levels, can Tina learn to have condpfidenxe in herself and her abilities, can she relax around Libby’s baby, and be successful? She is about to relaunch the restaurant, when Harrison moves in next door. Can she keep her distance, or will Harris be able to break down her defences. Will they give in to their mutual attraction, and can Tina reveal her secret, and let go of her negative feelings and become whole agin?

This was really nicely done. This author seems to specialise in angsty, difficult situations, and this second chance romance was bittersweet and tender. Very satisfying read.

I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Also posted on Goodreads

Tina Jenson belongs to the same social stratum as Harris Chapman, but he’s out of her league—at least that’s what she thinks before they jump in bed together. It’s the perfect night, but when she overhears crude, hurtful comments the next morning, she can’t get away fast enough.

Ten years later, Tina’s life is a mess. That night with Harris didn’t just hurt her feelings; it started a cascade of disappointment and heartbreak. Every time she bumps into Harris, her heart twists inside out. She still wants him, but she’s harboring a painful secret from their night together that she’s not ready to reveal.

Crossed signals, high-society whispers, and shame have kept Tina and Harris apart for years, but deep down, they’re hungry for each other and eager to write their own rules. Can they let go of the past and find their way back to each other, or are the barriers between them too high and too strong?

This was very boring for me. I really couldn't connect with any of the characters at all and it just didn't flow very good.

<B>3.5 Stars!</b>

More Than Words is a second chance romance of sorts, between a one night stand that results in a lot of misunderstanding and a heroine that holds a grudge like not other heroine.

When Harris and Tina had a “quick try liason” as a party, Tina’s heart was broken when she overheard Harris’s buddies joking and paying him off on a dare he wasn’t entirely aware of being a part of. He’s always had an eye for Tina, however things got a little crazy, he got a little drunk, they got a little freaky, and she stormed away after hearing his buddies razz him about it. In typical young adult style, Harris moved on with life...and so did Tina.

Fast forward nearly a decade, Harris and Tina come face to face again. And she still obviously not over her anger and he’s obviously not over <I>her.</i>

This was an easy, sexy read. It could’ve been more. I think it was drawn out a bit longer than it needed to be, Tina was more of a bitch than she needed to be, and Harris tried a bit more than I felt a guy in that position would try. When you’re treated crappy and told to go away enough, I think most guys would...go away. He had staying power, that’s for sure. I wish we had a bit more prologue attaching us to the two of them because literally the whole book is her pushing him away while he keeps coming back for more. I guess if I felt his love more, I’d buy it. But they didn’t have love on that one night stand years ago, did they? The book never tells.

Not my favorite book from this author but still won’t be my last!

Thank you to Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

I’ll have to settle with 2 stars for this book. Some parts of it I enjoyed, but I felt like there was a lot of room for improvement as well.

Text messaging is one of the biggest ways we communicate, so it’s natural that it would appear in books, but the way it was formatted in this book was a bit confusing. It was hard to tell what messages were being exchanged and what parts were characters’ thoughts. There were no quotation marks, italics, names, or any of the other formatting styles that appear in books today and it just left me feeling lost.

I understand that Tina went through a lot - more than what a lot of us go through in our first 28 years - but I’m not sure I could have handled any more of her tears. I sympathized with her loss, but couldn’t get on board with her treatment of Harris for something that happened when they were teenagers. I was also in complete disbelief about how quickly she got over her aversion to babies. One conversation with Harris after nine years of suffering and the fear and panic suddenly ceases? Doesn’t seem likely.

Harris’ trend of running away from Tina didn’t make much sense after he spent ten years trying to get her to listen to him and talk to him about their misunderstandings. I don’t doubt that he was frustrated with the whole situation, but for his feelings to be that strong I felt like he wouldn’t have given up so easily at times. Things felt very disjointed between these two and while I’m all about a happy ending, I found that I wasn’t really cheering for either character at the end.

Finally, I wasn’t a fan of the amount of unanswered questions in the end. Did Smith and Harris work things out? What happened with Greyson and Libby? I understand that not all questions are answered in every book, but these were two pretty significant plot points and it felt odd to leave them unanswered.

Both from mega-wealthy families. Harris is a twin and Tina's older brother's best friend. At eighteen, she had harboured a not so subtle crush on him for years but he was beautiful and she was... well...chubby (although also beautiful as it turns out). Attending a party at his house, she was ecstatic to finally get his attention and so within a few short moments, she went from receiving her first kiss to POP, bye bye cherry. Gone. It wasn't mind-blowingly good, but she wasn't going to dwell on the disappointments, because it was Harris after all. Her bliss lasted marginally longer than the act itself, doused by the devastating discovery that he did it all for a drunken wager and she was the laughing stock of the party.

Fast forward 10 years and Tina's BFF is married to Harris's twin and about to have his baby. Twin is being total prig and Tina and Harris find themselves forced to interact to support the new mum and baby. Harris has been trying to apologise to Tina for years but she won't have a bar of him. Turns out their disastrous one-night-stand had long term consequences for Tina (*spoiler alert* pregnancy and later loss of her baby boy to SIDS) who remains traumatised and embittered by the experience.

This is where my problem with the book and Tina's character comes in. We soon learn that Harris was drugged by his 'friend' and cannot recall much of the night. He was decent enough to claim responsibility for allowing himself to be placed in such a position to start with. Tina didn't know that he was drugged initially, so I can't blame her anger although she wasn't exactly an unwilling participant and stupidly slept with him after just a few flattering words. However, I can't accept that every single horrible career decision she has made over the years (and there were many) was a result of that one night and the resultant trauma of the death of her baby. She career choices and plans were poorly researched and impetuous and it was no wonder her family were disappointed in her and tired of having to keep saving her from her failures. She's not the brightest spark as evident by her assumption that she would be covered if she started her oral contraceptive pill on the morning of her fated sexual encounter. Again, can't blame Harris as he did have the awareness to ask (even in his drugged state) if she was using protection and she said yes. If she had remained catatonically depressed and poorly motivated after the loss of the baby, I can understand. But she made these career decisions enthusiastically and with the conviction they were the right choices for her until there weren't. That's just incompetence. Setting up her restaurant and failing to follow through with her responsibilities was also sheer incompetence, especially when she had people relying on her for their livelihoods. Repeatedly abandoning the business whenever she had a rough moment was also irresponsible and unprofessional. Her best friend and partner in the restaurant had just been rejected by her husband after giving birth, but still managed to run the restaurant kitchen efficiently and did not go off crying when the going got tough. Yes, shit happens, but people just get going shit and all, mainly because they don't have a choice and they don't have a powerful and stinky rich family to come to the rescue when they hit a bump on the road. And why not confide in her bestie about the pregnancy and baby instead of having the friend think that Tina hated the baby?

Harris recovered well from his youthful idiocy and treated her right after that, at least from the time they got together after the birth of his niece. I am not convinced that he truly had strong feelings for her throughout these years apart because he sure did not stay celibate waiting for her and didn't really make that much of an effort tracking her down. As an aside, he also had an irritating habit of substituting the wrong words in common phrases or idioms. Not endearing at all. He's a smart and successful guy and this quirk just didn't fit. I have read and liked the author's books in the past. She likes her angst and so do I usually. This one just didn't fully work for me. The angst felt too forced.

Second-chance romance is one of my favorite tropes, so I was pretty excited to read this book. However, I really struggled to finish it. My biggest problem was how Tina continuously was pushing Harris away and didn't even give him the chance to make it right or explain himself. I can understand that what she went through really broke her and left scars, but to heal you would have to talk it out with the person that in your opinion caused all the hurt. I loved Harris, I thought he was very patient and sweet. He didn't let what Tina was throwing at him push him away. It was obvious that he felt a very strong attraction and love for Tina, and it didn't really diminish in the ten years they were apart.

However, when Tina was ready to take the next step, Harris wanted to sacrifice himself for her happiness. Which was nice of him, but he shouldn't have. He finally got her to give him a chance, and then he wants to give her space to grow. I was glad it didn't take long for Tina to convince him otherwise. Overall, I thought this was an okay second-chance romance, but I couldn't really feel a strong click between the characters. I also didn't like some of the decisions they took. I was very close to DNF'ing the book, but decided to finish it anyways, and thankfully it got a bit better. I liked the writing style and I thought it had a very nice flow. Even though I didn't enjoy this story, I do want to read her other books because I loved The Unwanted Wife.