New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis does it once again with a heartfelt story of family, forgiveness, and secrets that have the power to change the course of more than one life.
When Maze returns to Wildstone for the wedding of her estranged BFF and the sister of her heart, it’s also a reunion of a once ragtag team of teenagers who had only each other until a tragedy tore them apart and scattered them wide.
Now as adults together again in the lake house, there are secrets and resentments mixed up in all the amazing childhood memories. Unexpectedly, they instantly fall back into their roles: Maze their reckless leader, Cat the den mother, Heather the beloved baby sister, and Walker, a man of mystery.
Life has changed all four of them in immeasurable ways. Maze and Cat must decide if they can rebuild their friendship, and Maze discovers her long-held attraction to Walker hasn’t faded with the years but has only grown stronger.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
She’d grown up with big dogs, so she didn’t quite get the appeal of the little ones. They yipped. They had a Napoleon complex. Last week at the dog park, they’d terrorized a big dog into peeing on them.
She’d kept all this bottled in because . . . well, that’s what she did, always. There were lots of corked bottles of emotion deep inside her.
“Healthy relationships are about the three Cs.” “Calamity, cluelessness, and catastrophe?” Maze asked.
Somewhere along the way, she’d become the sidekick in her own story.
Oh my God… I can’t go to jail, who’ll take care of Sammie? And plus there’s scratchy toilet paper in jail, and I’m too short for the orange coveralls they make you wear!
You don’t need to be in the beginning of a child’s story to change the ending.
My Review:
This story carried considerably more angst than any Jill Shalvis book I’ve ever read. Not that I’ve read a lot of them, but it was a noticeable difference when contrasted with the brilliance of her previous works that I’ve been lucky enough to lay my greedy and grubby hands on. The majority of said angst radiated out of the main character of Maze, who was difficult for me to warm up to as Maze took stubbornness to a new level of tenacious obstinance. I grew to care for her, although I still wanted to periodically give her a few smacks with my Kindle to disrupt her egocentrism.
As always, Ms. Shalvis’s writing was easy to follow, cleverly nuanced, well-paced, and amusingly engaging with a compelling cast of complex and quirky characters. The storylines and issues combated were relevant and relatable to many regardless of family situation, as every family unit has at least a few obnoxious members if not an entire limb on the family tree, or as in the case of mine, riddled with a plethora of pervasive pestilence starting from the root level and extending to the very top leaf. 😉
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis writes warm, funny, sexy contemporary romances and women’s fiction. An Amazon, BN & iBooks bestseller, she’s also a two-time RITA winner and has more than 10 million copies of her books sold worldwide.
