Fashion fanatic Mabel Muldowney loathes every part of her life in a farm town. And worst of all is her brother’s best friend, the infuriatingly broody Cal Horner. The man makes her want to spit nails.
What’s an aspiring fashionista stuck in the sticks to do? Fly the coop and head to the city.
Success in the world of haute couture is within her grasp when a scandalous secret takes her down.
Now, there’s nowhere left to go but back to the one place she doesn’t want to be—the farm.
But the town is in trouble—big financial trouble—and Mabel’s got the skills to help.
The kicker—she’ll have to work with Cal if she wants to get paid.
If the town makes a profit, she will, too. It’s her one-way ticket off the farm.
But the longer she’s home, the harder it is to resist Cal’s tantalizing kisses.
Will Cal’s warm embrace persuade her to stay, or will the temptation of her big-city dreams be too hard to ignore?
RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2021
Not my first read by the author. Krista and I go way back, but it seems like yesterday when I read her first book and here we are many books in and I still get excited to read her releases. This one is a duo and I was surprised we were getting that from Krista do I was naturally excited.
A little about the book: Hero and heroine share a past as in they have know each other since they were kids. The hero is the heroine’s older brother’s best friend. A boy that had always ignored her, even as they grew up into the teens and early 20’s. Have tissue right up front because it’s starts of with a event that will have you tear up and cry, but when tragedy strikes Mabel does what she’s always dreamed of and sets off. Her idea of a life is in the big city, being involved in the influencer life, traveling the world. Bigger and better things than the small town she is in. The hero is a home-boy he wants to stay in town and change the world starting with his town, make a name for himself and grow the town. After all it wasn’t only his dream. 4 years later and the infamous Mabel is back from the big city, with her tail between her legs. Mabel ended up exactly where she ran from and what’s worse that a lot had changed in the four years from her own father, to the farm, to Cal the hero and his family and situation. When Mabel and Cal have to work together, they really do work together well but of course tension is at it’s highest. Cal had already rejected Mabel once, can she risk herself again for the same outcome?
*I want to say after reading the book, okay, so I waited to finish book 1 in hopes that it might change a little for me, the way I feel about the heroine. So here we are. This is not a negative towards the boo but a personal feeling. I want to address that in the very beginning there wasn’t much of the H&H, I didn’t get that connection I was looking for so that started the rocky feeling for the heroine for me. In the end she was just really mean, to me. Like I understand someone would want to leave a small town and be in the big city, but her dream was to make it as a influencer, do the whole like&follows to travel the world style and personally, I can not stand those type of people because usually they just come off as city snobs. And well, she definitely acted like a city snob and just I don’t know heartless and mean. Again, I did not get that connection between H&H before all this so when the author put them together, it was more awkward for me to read them together. I guess I was missing the emotional connection between the two. Really bummed because I’ve read all of Krista’s books and had that connection so this took me by surprise. Again could just be me, but I cringed reading her because she just came off a bitch to me. Again really sucks because I freaking enjoyed everything else, the idea the plot the words and scenes. There is no sexy scene in this book (aside from a 1/4 one) so very slow burn, and of course it’s a cliffy. Fingers crossed the heroine can somehow redeem herself for me in book 2. I feel bad for not loving her because I really enjoyed the story I just couldn’t connect with her at all. (Don’t kill me Krista I was shocked actually that she came out of your writing 😉
Romance: ♡
Steamy: 🔥🔥
Triggers: Personal
Standalone/Series: Book 1 in Duet
Type: All Tags on top of this page!
Recommended: ☑
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