For the most part, I loved the romance between Jay and Drew. I don’t mind cheating in my romance novels, so that is not influencing my review.

My two main issues are:
1. The tone was super uneven. Like other Gerri Hill romances I’ve read, the tone is mostly serious. But then when Jenna and Drew turn up to dinner, it is too absurd. It feels like a The Birdcage style farce, but the author is still trying to take it seriously and it doesn’t work. It only gets worse when the trip to Hawaii is announced. It either needs to be played as a farce, or Jay’s obliviousness just seems ridiculous.
2. The miscommunication/misunderstanding of Jay driving off with Catherine and Drew suddenly questioning everything between them was unnecessary drama that made me not like Drew. She could have been worried for Jay, not worried Jay would leave her.
3. Jay’s friend was kind of shitty—why did she go back and forth between “you were never happy in this relationship” and “Catherine is just busy and you can still repair your relationship with her”?
4. The abusive nature of Jay and Catherine’s relationship is severely underplayed. Even before it turned physically abusive, there was clearly an element of financial and emotional abuse and controlling behaviour that is barely touched on. Then when it does turn physical, everyone downplays it. Jay should have told her friend, rather than just “it got ugly.” And not just to warn her friend to make sure she was out of the house before Catherine got back! When Drew asked the woman who owned the cottages if Jay was okay, she should have said, “no, she is not okay, her wife beat her to the point of drawing blood.” And while I understood Jays reasoning for wanting to not think about Catherine and just make love on the beach, it still felt gross. 
5. I wanted an epilogue to know that Jay was safe, and her business was thriving, and that Catherine hadn’t taken it from her in the divorce. (And maybe that Catherine had been disbarred.)
6. It was super racist

Not great. Most characters don’t actually or speak like human beings. There is an attempted rape that is not dealt with well at all (by the character or by the author) and it’s super uncomfortable.

A really sweet and well-written romance. I would have liked a bit more focus on the coming out plot, but I still enjoyed it

A really beautiful romance. Lily Seabrooke always creates wonderfully rounded characters and a really sweet, caring and loving dynamic between the MCs, and this is no different. I love healthy relationships and communication!

The only reason I’m not giving this a full five stars is that there were a couple of moments where it felt like it dragged a tiny bit, or where the story lost steam before picking up again. However, I am sick at the moment so maybe this was just my own tiredness affecting my reading experience rather than the book itself.

There were a few moments in this that annoyed me, mostly when I felt the book was focussing too much on their physical attraction and not enough on their emotional connection, but overall this was a brilliant book. I’m looking forward to listening to the spinoff.

This didn’t really do it for me. Not sure I can be bothered to read the sequel. The characters felt one dimensional, and it was the same argument between them the whole book.