This was a tough book to get through for me, not because it was bad. I thought the story was great and the characters were real. There was a lot of reference to substance abuse. As the adult child of addict parents, it really struck a nerve with me so I would have to pause it to take a minute.
Chase and Lily were left by their drug addict mother. Chase is the older sibling, so even when they were with mom (who I also think may have been Bipolar also) he was the one taking care of Lily. Alina meets them when they move in down the street when she and Lily are 11. They become the best of friends, and Chase ends up gravitating toward Alina also! She was just that person that all the people seemed to gravitate to. Eventually Chase and Alina got together (after she was crushing on him FOREVER). But true to the mind of the child of an addict, he constantly felt like he was not good enough…. and he let that take over his life and disrupt every relationship he had. Even with his sister and his adopted parents.
Alina was such a giving and understanding girl who put up with a lot from him. Until she suffered from her own tragedy and she basically couldn’t deal with the drama anymore. Then she got to know what it is like to be the child of an alcoholic. 8 years later Chase moves back to Sugar Lake and runs right into Alina! He ends up witnessing her father having an issue at the bar and that is how he finds out the secret she is keeping from all of her friends. He then goes out of his way to help her…. and that is his IN to getting her back.
While a lot of people will say a lot of terrible things about Chase, I think he is very real! His character development was ON POINT! While he wasn’t very swoony, I was rather impressed that he got himself some help in dealing with his issues! Not something a lot of people do. And then he uses these experiences to help Alina later on. I would like to have seen him grovel more, I felt like he should have done more to win her back and that after putting up a fight, she gave in kind of easy once he explained. But again, that is probably a bit closer to realistic because by this point he has gone out of his way to help her out and she really needs some one to lean on. But more groveling on his part would have been nice.
This was the first time I heard a duet narration and it took a little getting used to. But I really did like it. Steve Campbell was new to me…. but I have to say I am a fan! I totally believed him! Definitely love this story and I am eager to listen to the rest of the books about the Sugar Lake crowd! I need to know what kind of HEA they all get!
Story 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Spice 🔥🔥🔥
Swoon 😍
Angst 💔💔💔
Narration 👏👏👏