Buy: Amazon | iBooks | B&N | Kobo | Paperback | Audible

---

---

Review

4 stars!

This is a really sweet, romantic read with lots of emotion and a nice twist. It’s beautifully heartwarming and left me with a huge grin on my face. I loved it.

Allison is a waitress at a diner and is on shift when the most gorgeous man she has ever seen walks in. She serves him, they share a connection, and then he is gone, but she can’t forget him.

Every day in life, people we will likely never encounter a second time, pass us by. For some unknown reason, I just couldn’t accept that he was one of them.

Of course they encounter each other again, and this time they have an actual conversation that leads to a whole lot more, neither of them able to resist their strong attraction to each other. But while Allison is thanking her lucky stars that Cedric came into her life, it was no accident. Cedric has a secret and he came into Allison’s life for a specific purpose, but he never expected to fall for her, and he knows that revealing all will change the way she thinks of him, so he is torn between doing what he knows is right, and following where his heart is leading him – straight into something he has never felt before.

“My draw to Allison is not a choice. It’s a completely uncontrollable pull that won’t go away, despite the consequences of acting on it. I will never stop wanting her. And I will inevitably hurt her either way, once she learns the truth, whether I am involved with her or not. She is going to find out with or without me. Maybe just maybe, if I can show her who I am and get her to trust me, she will find it in her heart to see past everything.”

I really enjoyed the build-up between these two. It’s intense right from the very beginning, but it felt natural, and I got swept up in the relationship as they fell and fell hard for each other. But what is Cedric’s secret? I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what was going on, and I’m proud to admit my predictions weren’t too far off, but as the full extent of it all came to light, I really enjoyed the twist. It triggers a shift in the story that I really enjoyed, and there’s a lot of emotion as secrets are fully revealed and Cedric and Allison are forced to deal with the fallout.

I won’t say anything more about the story, because you really just need to dive in and experience it, but I will say that I really loved Cedric and Allison together. They both had a few questionable actions, and they certainly had their ups and downs, but there is no doubting that these two belong together and they were very functional for the most part. And though it was a little bit cheesy, I like a bit of cheese every now and then, and their love story was sweet, fun, sexy and mega swoony.

“When I saw you, I fell in love and you smiled because you knew.”

There’s a great cast of side characters that contribute so much to the story, and I really enjoyed the different relationships and am looking forward to reading Jake’s spin-off story. But this book can absolutely be read as a standalone. It ends beautifully, and I was left with a big smile on my face and feeling all fluffy.

4 stars.

 

Gemini (Interconnected Standalones)

 

Check out our Penelope Ward Author Spotlight for more great reads!