I have been wanting to read this author for so long, and finally got approved for an egalley last year. And, I have to hang my head in shame, because I FORGOT to write it on my blog review calendar and didn’t get to it before it was published! Then I didn’t think about it for some reason until recently and so I immediately put it on my review calendar in between books being published this month so I could get it read. I’m so glad I did, because I really enjoyed it!

I have to say this story “hooked” me, had to go to a play on words with the theme of fishing in the story, lol. I loved all the characters, both Maren and Joe, their families, their friends, and even the townspeople. Joe’s kids, oh my gosh, I adored them so much. That added aspect of the story was so good, so much emotion, and so sweet as well. Little Lucy’s autism was something that totally proved Maren was perfect for Joe. I wanted to punch Anders and Lucy’s mom so much at the end! Maren’s brother, another person I wanted to punch. However, I feel like his behavior was definitely realistic for a brother. Although when Anders called him out for how he picked on his sister, oh my gosh, another bit of perfection, from the mouth of babes!

I liked Maren’s friends too, and know that I have their books on my TBR on Goodreads already, so now I really want to go back and read those books! I don’t think her brother Liam has a book? Although I would have read that too! But maybe he doesn’t have one because if he had his own HEA and had done his emotional growth already, he wouldn’t have treated Maren like he did. In the end he did figure it out though, and I liked the way the author filled in that part of the story.

The creepy stalkerish guy, well I thought that was going to go in a bit of a different direction, maybe add more of a dangerous bit of drama to the story. But it didn’t, so in a way I wasn’t completely satisfied with how that played out? Although I like how Maren decided to handle him at the end, that was perfect, even if I wonder if a guy like that would have taken all that as easily as he did. But I guess being in a public place may have helped too.

My first book by this author, and now I know why I wanted so badly to read a book by her, as well as why others highly recommended her books. I think I have one of the YA titles in my school library, and I will definitely want to make sure I get them all for my students who are romance readers!