***I received this book from NetGalley***

While I have not read the other books in the series it did not matter. I love that about Carrie Ann Ryan! If you pick up one of her books they are truly a stand-alone and you do not feel like you are missing anything.

This book was about Zoey and Caleb. They have been friends for years, not necessarily close friends. Zoey has always had a crush on Caleb. Little did she know that Caleb liked her too.

I love a book that's hard to put down, and this was one of those! I haven't read anything by this author before, and starting with book 3 in a series might be a lil crazy, but that's me. I live life on the edge. And it paid off, they must be connected stand alones.

This is like a lifetime crush/ friends to lovers sort of thing. Zoey has always wanted Caleb, but never ever acted on it, and he never seemed to be single. And even when they're both free and clear and things are moving along, she's still reserved and content to pull back. Which I guess wasn't a bad thing for the most part.

Caleb has his secrets, but he's close with his family, he's a good friend, and really likeable. I'm still kinda struggling with a stupid decision he made at one point, it made me sooo mad at him. But it all works out, so I guess it's fine. This book did make me want to look up her other books for sure.

ARC received for review

I haven't read the first two books in this series or any of the Montgomery titles (I am collecting them when they are free or .99). There's no need to have read any of them to understand this story.

It was a slow, slow start to me, and then the book skipped big periods of time like a month or two, and another month or two. Zoey has been in love with Caleb since she was 8 and him not much older. She's watched him with other girls for years and never opened her mouth or let him know in any way that she was interested. I thought it was weird how ALL his previous ex's are so nice and have no problem with him after they stop dating. I didn't like how long it took for him to share his secret with her. There was just a lot I didn't like, but Zoey and Caleb were hot when they were together.

A hard book for myself to review. One the one hand I was engrossed through the whole book, on the other hand I was kind of annoyed by both main characters. We spend a lot of time in the H&h's heads, and there was a lot of indecisiveness, and thinking that struck me more typical of a 20 year old vs the 30 years they were. I felt like the heroine didn't stand up for herself when others treated or talked to her poorly (eg her sister). The hero was ... well I really don't have the words, other than, after finishing the book I still don't know why she loved him. I wish we had descriptions of the characters, because it took half way through the book before I learned she was blonde. I could go on, but I'll let you form your own opinion on the rest. Overall, a decent book that had too many head scratching moments IMO. *I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and this is my voluntary and honest review.