I received an ARC of this book from the author in return for an honest review.

Guilty as Charged follows Javier Montes who has just been released from prison and Sydney Matthews, a lawyer who is tired of her father trying to control her life. They went to High School together but never talked because Javier is from the "wrong" side of town. When they meet again in a club, they start seeing each other all the time and their story progresses from there.

I absolutely fell in love with this story from the beginning. I liked how Sydney and Javier build their relationship and how positive it was in their lives. I liked that Sydney learned to stand up for herself and what she wanted instead of just saying yes to everything. What I loved most about this character growth is that it came from herself, Javier definitely helped her to build confidence but she made her decisions on her own.

I adored the side characters in this story and I admire the friendship that Selena and Sydney formed and I hope that we maybe get a book about Selena and Andre's story. The rest of the side characters were also awesome and I liked how they contributed to the story.

I really liked the setting and how Sydney consciously had decided to stay in her hometown rather than finding her luck in the big city.

What made me love this book such much is how much I personally connected with Sydney and at some times also Ally in this story. Sometimes I felt called out and in other moments I felt totally seen and I really connected with her.

All in all, it is another amazing novel by Harlow James and I cannot wait for what she will write next.