This book had some of the same elements as the Abbs valley series: Why choose aspect, cliffhanger, mafia, family betrayal, trauma, broken hero, grumpy hero, plus size FMC, etc. 
The thing that was different about this book & the Abbs valley books was how the group relationship formed. Th formation of this relationship was more natural & coincidental. 
Chelsea as a FMC is like Les mixed with Evie with a dash of Bridget (Les is still my fav FMC though). This book was really good & im still convinced nobody does why choose like Ames mills 

All imma say is this man stopped wearing suits & ties because it was a trigger for her & started wearing jeans which he despised due to his childhood 😍😍 Pasha/Pavel didn’t take Sergei’s spot as my fav but he was still a good, sweet & gentle man. 

Deuce was my favorite character besides Messiah & Miyana got on my nerves. However, I do respect & understand where Miyana was coming from when she was trying to say that she wanted to make sure that their bond was a true bond & not a bond built off trauma. She wanted to make sure their relationship was pure & genuine but she could’ve worked on her delivery & allat. Also she was dead wrong for not telling Messiah what her & Jay did. Her not telling him showed that she didn’t trust him enough to be gentle with her which is foul. Overall this book was good I can’t wait for the next Graham 

*** CHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS this book deals with child abuse, death of a family member, grief, abortion, miscarriage..***

4.75… I feel like if you like before I let go by Kennedy Ryan then you may like this book as well. It’s a second chance romance about Wednesday & Hendrix who met as kids but didn’t get together until they both were in college. Something happens to Wednesday & she just abruptly leaves Hendrix & moves to New York. Almost 10 years later Hendrix is traded to the ATL falcons & moves back to their hometown of Edgewood at this point Wednesday has moved back home as well due to family matters. Both Wednesday & Hendrix have moved on & is in a relationship with other people & actually Hendrix is engaged & Wednesday is the wedding planner but then stuff hits the fan & Wednesday & Hendrix find themselves single & the option of them giving their relationship another chance is on the table. 
I actually liked this book a lot. Wednesday did get on my nerves a lot but it was alright. I was actually rooting for Alexis up until she embarrassed tf outta Hendrix (which I didn’t see coming). I wish the epilogue would’ve been longer or that there was two epilogues. 

So the first book was more plot & this book is a good mix between plot & character development. In the first book I was screaming for charli to leave Kash but he turned a new leaf & learned how to communicate his thoughts & feelings like a sane adult (minus the trifling situation that happened about half way through). Charli did work my nerves in this book some but she was alright. She definitely learned how to have a backbone with Kash & let him know that he messed up & she warned him what would happen & she stuck to her word for a good minute. This was a really good ending & now I’m wondering if Parker & Jayson have their own book?

I think out of all the books I’ve ever read these two may be the most toxic couple I’ve read about & not the good, cute toxic I mean toxic where they shouldn’t even be together. I wish we could’ve seen more of the private moments that Kash talked about towards the end because their dynamic would make more sense cause without that context it’s giving charli had low self esteem & Kash is just an 🍑hole & bully that doesn’t know how to communicate like an adult. Like boy your 28 years old & continuously throw a tantrum when “your girl” doesn’t agree with you. Kash was a walking & breathing red flag but despite all of that I was very much entertained & im heading on over to book 2. 

In my opinion, this book was a slow burn filled with a lot of nothing. To me the reason why Ashland was soo closed off & addicted to drugs & alcohol wasn’t really explained enough. It was like a reason was given but not explained because other ppl have gone through what he went through & didn’t take the path he took soo what exactly drove him to the drugs & alcohol. Also the way he pushed Kenya away repeatedly was exhausting & then after the breakup she was the one that went to him & started the reconciliation 🙄

Chanel got on my nerves 🙄 She fought Xavier sooo hard despite her liking him & having a long term crush on him. Then when she did relent to her feelings and attraction to him she lied to him repeatedly like girl come on now. 

In my opinion I think this part of the book was more so about character development between Xavier & Chanel. I also loved the display of the importance of therapy both individual & couples therapy. 

HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING TRENCHES & THEN WAIT FOR ME FIRST‼️ 

Listen we know from wait for me that Exodus is a little crazy & definitely about that life we also see that Paxton has a little backbone & is a spit fire HOWEVER Paxton surprised tf outta me. Now she’s no trenches (Monica) but when it comes to the people she loves ohhh she turns into a beast. Paxton & Ex was effing people up left & right. I loved it. The twist in this book was good too I knew something was up but I didn’t expect what happened to actually happen but shot out to Ex & his people for being there for Paxton. I love this friend group..Krude (Genesis) had me dying laughing because he has nooo sense whatsoever I know Judge & Sasha’s book is next but I can’t wait to see the toxicity & badness of Cross & Nine.