Stay with Me is the second book in the Sugarland Creek series and this is a small town, best friend’s brother romance. It was described as having “a girl who falls pregnant by the wrong man and the cowboy who takes her in.” So I definitely went into this with expectations and it just didn’t meet any of them sadly.
The surprise pregnancy part doesn’t even come into play until 65-70% into the story. Legit the whole time I was reading this I was waiting for her to find out and wondering if I was reading the right book. There was just a lot going on in this story and it felt so disjointed and I never got behind the couple.
Basically he’s the youngest of the Hollis family, his family owns the Sugarland Creek Ranch and he works there too. We start off with him losing his best friend in a car accident in the prologue, then jump forward in time a couple times to showcase him and Magnolia over the years. She is best friends with his sister (the heroine of the first book in this series). one of his brothers crushed on her for a while but when they didn’t work out they became friends instead.
There was just so much in here: on her 21st birthday her on-again-off-again boyfriend at the time drugs her (and accidentally her best friend) just to try and have some fun later in the night and “loosen her up” to a certain activity she has previously said no to. Major ick! While she does get rescued from that, I was surprised it didn’t become more of a thing. Instead, a couple years later, that is the guy she ends up hooking up with again (like what ma’am?!) when she’s wasted and that is how she gets knocked up. In the weeks following the hookup with her ex, her and the hero finally admit their feels for one another even though every one around them knows and they’ve been dancing around one another for years. They’re instantly in love and have a breeding kink immediately, and then of course she realizes she’s pregnant with the other guy’s baby. The hero is instantly down for raising the baby as his, even suggests she just say the baby is his and never tell anyone. There was also a point where one of his brothers crushes on her in the past, they even tried to date but realized they’re better as friends. She is so close with him now that she even sends him pics in her lingerie to ask his opinion on which are good options….oh and the lingerie her best friend’s husband-to-be pays for (like he gave her his credit card to use in exchange for her helping him pick out her friends lingerie, but still). Like whaaaat?! Also the over-describing of multiple popular movies/tv shows (Ghost, My Girl, Hart of Dixie), didn’t need the time spent on any of that (and I love those movies and shows)! Once we get to the pregnancy part it’s 70% in and just rushed, their only connection seems to be having the hots for one another all the time. And omg I forgot about how the baby’s father was handled in the end, yikes. I don’t know what happened with this book. I loved the first one in the series and this just felt so different, and not in a good way.
I did receive an ARC, all thoughts in this review are my own.
CW (majority provided by author): drunk driving and death (in the prologue), loss of a loved one/grief, mention of drugs, anxiety attacks, animal death, accidental pregnancy