Tae and April are as close as a mother and daughter can get. They basically raised each other. There are no secrets between them. Except, when Tae starts asking about her father, April closes off. Tae knows there's something that April is not telling her, and she's bound and determined to figure it out.
Luckily, Tae has help in the form of Riggs Copeland.

Tae and Riggs were friendly in high school. Despite Riggs being a part of the popular group, and Tae being an outsider, they got along really well, but after a brief fling, they parted ways and haven't spoken since.

When Riggs shows up in Sunrise Cove for the summer to help out his brother with his business, Tae and he could easily pick up where they left off, but seeing their situation for what it is (Riggs leaving in a couple of months), they initiate a Friendship Pact. Of course, that doesn't negate the attraction between them. When a secret threatens to upend their tenuous friendship, they both start thinking about what it is they're wanting out of life.

So I have not yet read the first book in the Sunrise Cove series, but like with many of Jill Shalvis's books, you don't have to. I was able to easily read this as a standalone and I really enjoyed it.

There's a dual narration between April and Tae, and if anything I think the mother-daughter dynamic is a super close second to the romance aspect of the story. For me, though, the romance just barely edges forward as the focus of the story.

I really liked the history between Riggs and Tae. It was something that I wish we could have explored more. We got a couple of flashback scenes but I wanted more of these. I just liked seeing the "then" as compared to the "now". I think it made their chemistry that much more dynamic, especially because, at first, it's something they're both trying to suppress which basically makes it burn brighter in my opinion.

I thought that the April and Tae relationship was handled really well by Jill Shalvis. There were definitely moments where I had to remind myself that April was the mother. That's the point though is that as a teenage mother, April and Tae basically grew up together which is also cause for some of the imbalance in their relationship as in the past it felt like Tae was the one taking care of April and not the other way around as it should have been. It doesn't mean their love for each other is not strong, but I could definitely see where some deep-seeded resentments could form from it.

Something that Jill Shalvis has always done really well in her books is making the setting (in this case Sunrise Cove) really stand out. Having the book be about the place as much as it is the people, makes it easy to want to return again and again. Sunrise Cove is this quaint town near Lake Tahoe, you envision this very outdoorsy place and that comes across beautifully in this book. I'm definitely going to pick up the first book sooner rather than later and I'm excited to see where Jill Shalvis takes this series next.

*ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for and honest review.