Sunkissed Hearts

by Krystina Rivers

Betrayed and reeling, Charlotte "Charlie" Paulson flees her opulent Wall Street career and escapes to sun-kissed Key West. She's desperate to figure out who she is when money and power aren't ruling her life.

Harper Willis has survived the loss of her wife by keeping her world her bar, her pup, and her volunteer work at a legal clinic. She does not put her heart at risk anymore. That is until Charlie walks in and their unexpected connection knocks her controlled world sideways.

Charlie hides her past and Harper hides her pain, but their chemistry refuses to stay hidden. In the island heat where sunsets are easy and emotions run deep, will Charlie and Harper risk their hearts for a second chance at happiness?

Genres: LGBT, Contemporary, Romance

288 pages, Paperback

Published July 14, 2026

About the author

Krystina Rivers has been a lover of romance novels since she was probably too young to read them and developed an affinity for lesbian romance novels after she found her first lesbian romance on a shelf in a used bookstore in 2001. Despite a lifelong desire to write romances, she never had the time to write her own until the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and she no longer had to commute to the office or travel regularly for work.
Krystina grew up in Florida but, after spending six years in the military, now calls Chicago home. She works in commercial real estate and lives with her wife and their two dogs and three cats. When not working or writing, Krystina can be found reading with a glass of wine in hand, doing yoga (occasionally with a glass of wine in hand), snuggling with her fur-babies, or trying to convince herself that it is not too cold to go for a jog outside.

Reviews

[Leonie]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/4 (4.25 stars)

RTC as soon as I’m back home (the same with the review before that 🥺) but just know that this was soo emotional and gosh, I loved it a lot!!

[Cherie]

I liked this one, both characters were well written and the romance was slow burn. I liked the setting in Key West. Harper moving to Florida and opening a bar seemed realistic to me after her wife dies and she follows thru on their retirement dream. Charlie was a weaker character for me, she gets fired from her Wall Street job and just starts driving south with her briefcase, no clothes, no phone or computer. I could see how she was blindsided by her employer and good that she reported on their irregular activities. The break up at the 75% mark was a bit unrealistic to me for Harper to get as upset as she did, and their reunion was too easy for the anger that Harper showed at the break up. I also didn't like the political commentary that Rivers included in the book, I would have given this one 4 stars except for that.

I have enjoyed her other books and will read her next book. Thanks to Net Galley and BSB for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

[currentlyreadingbynat]

After losing her wife, Harper moves to Key West and opens the bar they had once dreamed of running in retirement. Charlie arrives after being fired from the Wall Street job that consumed most of her adult life. Both women are starting again for very different reasons, and their relationship develops at a suitably slow pace.

I particularly liked Harper. Her grief, guilt and uncertainty about moving forward felt believable, as did Charlie’s patience and willingness to let her work through those feelings. The Key West setting also suited the story perfectly, and Franky the dog was a super-cute addition.

Charlie was a slightly weaker character for me. Her decision to simply drive south without clothes, a phone or any real plan felt difficult to believe. I also found some of the side plots involving her family and the legal connection to Harper’s late wife unnecessary. The third-act breakup felt like added drama rather than a natural development, particularly given Harper’s reaction and how easily everything was then resolved.

Despite those issues, I enjoyed the slow-burn romance and the chemistry between Harper and Charlie. It was a warm story about grief, regret and allowing yourself to begin again, even if it wasn’t quite as strong as some of the author’s other books.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

[Vita L. Licari]

Two broken women, Harper still reeling from her wife Kelly's untimely death 3 yrs ago and Charlotte "Charlie" running from being fired from her Wall Street job after finding anomalies in financial paperwork. Harper owns a bar in Key West and that's where Charlie ends up after leaving everything and fleeing NYC. Both women , in their 40s aren't looking for love, but can't fight the attraction they have for each other.
But are they both too damaged for a relationship?! They are put to a test when the SEC shows up for Charlie! I really LOVE this slow burn, HOT love story!! 5 stars!!

[Demetri Papadimitropoulos]

The Beach Cannot Absolve You
On Love, Ruin, and Repair in Krystina Rivers’s “Sunkissed Hearts”
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | July 14th, 2026

Demolition is not the subtlest metaphor a romance can choose, but “Sunkissed Hearts” has the good sense to swing the sledgehammer anyway. By the time Charlie Paulson begins knocking down the wall between her apartment and Harper Willis’s, the gesture has gathered drywall dust, grief, sex, guilt, dog hair, and legal consequence. It feels less like symbolism than home improvement with a conscience. Krystina Rivers’s novel is a Key West love story about two women who have fled lives they could no longer inhabit. The question beneath the salt air is whether a new address, better weather, and softer clothes can become a moral alibi. A beach can receive you. It cannot absolve you. A bar can offer a stool, a cocktail, and the woman who may ruin your excellent plan to feel nothing. It cannot make you honest. That harder work is where the book keeps its bruise.

Escape, here, begins as climate. Charlotte “Charlie” Paulson has been pushed out of D. B. Graves, the Wall Street firm to which she gave nearly two decades of ambition, discipline, and blindness that paid well. Her company confiscates her phone, pressures her into signing an NDA, gives her money, and walks her out of the life she mistook for a self. She drives south with almost nothing: a nearly empty briefcase, passport, cash, lipstick, mints, tampons, and the wrong corporate costume for Florida. Rivers makes the inventory funny and desolating at once. Charlie is rich enough to check into luxury and shattered enough to order bourbon and truffle fries as if room service might deliver the woman who existed yesterday.

Mourning has already taught Harper Willis its own geography. A former Chicago lawyer, she lost her wife, Kelly, in a catastrophic accident and remade herself in Key West as the owner of the Scissor and Gavel, a bar whose name earns its pun before anybody orders. Harper lives above the business with Franky, her German shepherd, and volunteers at a legal clinic; her life has narrowed to bar, dog, clinic, apartment, ring. In the prologue, that ring is not a keepsake so much as ballast. Chicago, the condo, the commute, Kelly’s old office, the law books – all of it has become part of a life that no longer holds her up. Harper moves south not because she is free, but because staying has become a way of sinking.

Enter Key West, a seductive little machine for making avoidance look like transformation. Charlie stumbles into yoga, reclaims the childhood name her parents used, buys a teal bicycle, rents the apartment above Harper’s bar, and begins assembling a self from heat, movement, borrowed belonging, and the terrifying absence of market alerts. Harper makes her a Barbados cherry smash, recognizes the expensive watch under the tourist-shop disguise, and tries very hard not to want the woman who has arrived with secrets tucked beneath the new name. Proximity, attraction, concealment, touch, rupture: the machinery is recognizable. Rivers’s better move is to let the past cross-examine the romance after the romance has already begun.

The courtship keeps showing up with a toolbox. Harper fixes Charlie’s sink. Charlie tends to Franky during a storm. Talia’s yoga studio gives Charlie not enlightenment in a gift bag, thank heavens, but a place to return to her body after years of treating it like corporate equipment. Harper makes drinks as if bartending were a form of attention. Charlie’s parents, hurt by years of distance, receive her with a generosity that is almost embarrassingly moving. Even sex often feels like care with better lighting: consent checked, boundaries named, desire made playful enough to be safe and serious enough to matter. Rivers understands that love is frequently logistical before it is lyrical. Someone walks the dog. Someone unclogs the drain. Someone remembers what you said when you were trying not to say it.

Rivers writes in sentences that would rather name a bruise than admire its shadow. The rhythm usually moves in mid-length arcs: sensation first, then recoil or longing, then the feeling caught before it can slip away. The diction is contemporary, colloquial, and lightly profane; solemn polish is not the point. This suits the novel’s wounded openness. Harper and Charlie are evasive enough without the language becoming evasive too. The style has most of its charge when it lets things do the emotional bookkeeping: the ring, the briefcase, the bourbon glass, the bike, the yoga mat, Franky’s large and bossy body, the Christmas tree, the wall.

In objects, the novel sounds most certain. The ring knows what grief is before Harper explains it. The empty briefcase knows what professional annihilation feels like before Charlie names shame. Franky knows, with the rude wisdom of a large dog, when a human requires pressure, witness, interruption, or rescue from her own nonsense. Rivers sometimes explains feelings the scene has already made available, and the effect can be like turning on every lamp in a room because someone distrusts dusk. Yet that same directness is part of the book’s appeal. “Sunkissed Hearts” does not ration hurt, desire, fear, or relief. It wants feeling to be usable.

Payment comes due after the reader has already enjoyed the island. At first, Charlie’s Wall Street disgrace looks like the sort of glamorous fall that romance can convert into growth: expensive car stored away, designer armor abandoned, yoga pants acquired, island life embraced. Then the story complicates its own convenience. Charlie did not simply burn out. She found something wrong at her firm, was pressured into silence, took the payout, and ran. Worse, Harper later learns that D. B. Graves is tied to the corporate machinery behind the accident that killed Kelly. That revelation is the live wire. The love story can still continue, but it cannot keep running on the same current.

Accountability begins in the thin line between not knowing and not asking. Charlie is not the architect of Kelly’s death, and Rivers wisely resists making her monstrous. That would let the reader condemn her cleanly and move on. The more troubling possibility is that Charlie is what many successful people fear they may have been: rewarded for not looking too closely, praised for producing value inside a system that made selective blindness feel like professionalism. Her shame lands because it lives in the awful interval between ignorance and knowledge. She did not know enough. She knew enough. The novel is sharpest when it leaves her standing in that interval long enough for the reader to feel the floor tilt.

Paradise has to be left before it can become home. Charlie’s departure from Key West to cooperate with investigators is where the book most earns its seriousness. Changing her name, buying a bike, teaching yoga, and falling in love are not nothing. They are not testimony. Charlie has to go on the record. She has to risk the agreement she signed and become useful against the people who used her. The SEC and later DOJ material is not shaped as a thriller; it is more like a reckoning with stationery. The investigation matters less as procedure than as pressure: Charlie cannot return to paradise until paradise has stopped serving as cover.

A harsher book would leave more splinters. “Sunkissed Hearts” is a romance, and it means to be one. That is both its charm and its limit. Charlie’s cooperation proceeds with reassuring clarity: lawyers, immunity, deposition, case-building, eventual action against powerful figures. Harper’s forgiveness is emotionally prepared but quickened by the form. The book asks a genuinely thorny question – can you love someone whose former world helped destroy your old one? – and then answers it with tenderness, sex, Christmas decorations, and a renovated apartment. There are worse fantasies than the idea that a person can tell the truth, help bring down the men above her, and come home to a woman and a dog. Still, the bruise heals with remarkable speed.

Dialogue is liveliest when flirtation takes the pulse. Harper and Charlie are good together because they are competent in different languages: cocktails, law, money, yoga, domestic improvisation, desire pretending to be banter. Their exchanges around food, drinks, names, parents, loss, and touch have an easy charge. The weaker conversations arrive when the book turns too quickly into a well-lit debriefing room, as if no fear may remain untagged and no misunderstanding may wander the premises without a lanyard. The generosity is winning; the neatness can be a little managerial.

Intimacy works here because Rivers treats sex less as cure than as negotiated return to the body. Harper’s wanting is shadowed by the fear that someone new will betray Kelly; Charlie’s is tangled with the discovery that she has spent years being disciplined rather than nourished, watched rather than known, touched too rarely by anyone not trying to extract something. The Key Largo storm and motel sequence gathers the book’s gifts into one chamber: bad wine, snacks, cards, confession, awkward humor, erotic play, and Franky as witness, chaperone, and furry moral authority. It is theatrical. It also lands.

More than scenery, the island is a social test. Talia’s yoga studio, Harper’s bar staff, Charlie’s parents, Franky, and the legal clinic give Key West a life beyond the postcard. Charlie cannot keep performing Charlotte Paulson, Wall Street weapon, while wobbling around in flip-flops on a beach cruiser. Harper cannot remain unreachable when the woman next door is caring for her dog, turning up at her bar, and refusing to accept charm as a substitute for candor. The town does not heal them because it is pretty. It embarrasses their old defenses into showing themselves.

If the book softens anywhere, it is in the fantasy of consequence with a view. Charlie’s wealth is acknowledged, and the novel knows her reinvention is cushioned, but it does not press that privilege as hard as it might. Few collapses are so scenic, so well-funded, so quickly furnished with yoga, ocean air, and attractive landlords. “Sunkissed Hearts” understands that money cannot save Charlie from shame, but it is less curious about how money saves her from many other consequences. The novel wants to critique excess while enjoying the comic convenience of a Bentley, a Rolex, luxury hotel rooms, and enough financial room to become morally improved in paradise. Romance is allowed its conveniences; this one occasionally uses valet parking.

The repetition has its own tide. Charlie runs from Wall Street, her parents, and Harper. Harper runs from Chicago, Kelly’s family, Andrew’s concern, and Charlie’s nearness. Closeness produces panic; panic produces retreat; retreat produces explanation; explanation produces greater closeness. The pattern fits the book’s argument; by the middle, though, the tide table has begun to look laminated.

Repetition, however, is not a defect by itself. The form often depends on return, on two people approaching the same locked door until one of them can bear the handle. Rivers’s variations are tactile enough to keep the book moving. A yoga assist becomes more intimate than either woman expects. A storm turns a motel into a confessional. A holiday return risks sentiment and mostly earns it. A dog functions, without shame, as emotional counsel in fur. Franky may be the least evasive character in the book, which is fortunate, because someone has to keep standards.

One can place “Sunkissed Hearts” near Melissa Brayden’s “The Last Lavender Sister” for sunlit community-romance pleasures, E. J. Noyes’s “Gold” for the woman trying to live after the collapse of an old excellence, and Lee Winter’s “The Brutal Truth” for the controlled professional forced toward emotional exposure. Rivers is gentler than Winter, less jagged than Noyes, and more morally bruised than a simple small-community comfort romance. “Sunkissed Hearts” is neither froth nor flint. It is a soft towel wrapped around a hard question.

Public life presses in through private bills. The world beyond the bar does not require the novel to lecture on finance, regulation, or infrastructure. It is enough that an NDA exists, that a company has money for silence, that a train accident leaves a widow, that Charlie’s testimony matters. The book also insists, without coyness, that queer joy is not decorative. It makes that case through a queer bar, a legal clinic, yoga classes, chosen domesticity, and holiday ritual: small architectures of survival. Sometimes staying alive looks ordinary from the outside – a shift worked, a dog walked, a light left on.

One thing the novel does unusually well is make solace answer to consequence. The island warmth, cocktails, sex, and Christmas softness all have their proper pleasures. But the solace is not allowed to float entirely free of the harm that preceded it. Charlie cannot be loved into innocence. Harper cannot honor Kelly by refusing the future. Their relationship matters because it asks both women to stop using pain as proof that they are being honest.

Under my scale, I would place “Sunkissed Hearts” at 77/100, which translates to 3/5 stars on Goodreads. That score reflects a favorable, solid romance with real feeling and a sharper premise than its packaging first suggests, not a major renovation of the form’s load-bearing walls. It is too explanatory, too tidy, and occasionally too repetitive to reach the next tier. It is also too warm, too purposeful, and too emotionally sincere to dismiss as merely pleasant. Its flaws are the flaws of a book determined to get its people home, even if it has to sweep a little debris under the welcome mat.

Look, too, at what the ending chooses to build. Christmas returns not as denial, but as practice: music, cocktails, stockings, a tree, bodies willing to be glad again. The epilogue then replaces holiday softness with labor. Charlie takes up renovation. The apartments begin to merge. Her relationship with her father finds a new grammar through tools and walls. The DOJ news arrives not as total absolution, but as evidence that speaking has mattered. The book does not end by pretending damage has disappeared. It ends by giving damage a different address.

Only a romance this committed to repair could make its neatness part of the point and part of the problem. A wall between lovers comes down; a company faces charges; a widow loves again; a disgraced executive becomes useful; a dog approves. The arrangement is tidy enough to make a skeptic suspect a broom closet just offstage. Yet romance has always tested whether neatness can be emotionally true even when life outside the genre would stay messier. Here, the answer is: often enough. The sweetness is not weightless. It has plaster in its hair.

Still, the image that stays is that wall above the Scissor and Gavel, first a practical division and then a challenge. Rivers’s metaphor arrives wearing work gloves. Love, in “Sunkissed Hearts,” is not the discovery that no barrier mattered. It is the decision to find the studs, make the mess, breathe through the dust, and learn which walls were only waiting for hands willing to bring them down.

[Fran Sappharc]

“Haven’t felt a deeper pull till anyone, till her.” At first I rolled my eyes… insta ain’t just a gram…. But then I thought back to meeting my own partner….. and there is something that isn’t based on quantifiable (in the moment) reason. You just want to know more…… compare that to the loads of strangers you have interactions with, that you enjoy but are happy to move on from…. I like a book that helps me clarify a thought!
It held my interest. The break upish arc didn’t come from nowhere but equally it took me by surprise and the cause did seem pretty insurmountable.
The book has a lot of “drive-by” representation that I am not sure added much except they were on the page, all be it briefly. A little bit lecturey at points…. Possibly on the passions of the writer.

[Alexis || abookandAstory]

Honestly, I loved this. It was so up my alley and is possibly my favorite sapphic romance I’ve read.

I loved that the characters were a bit older than the early 20s storyline we typically see. I loved that there was an actual reason for the slow burn and the high intensity moments felt like they were worked through by adults rather than intentionally misunderstanding each other.

It was so exciting to start this book a few days after beginning yoga teacher training myself so that was a fun surprise.

All in all I thought this was a cute, mature, fun, sexy, sapphic romance. I loved it.

This was a huge hit for me, I can’t wait to read more but this author. Thank you so much to the author, publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

A few notes that lean towards SPOILER territory;
I didn’t love the ending. It did come together for me but i specifically didn’t love how Harper never really apologized for the horrible things she said… she seems to have some self realization while Charlie was away but I felt like she allowed Charlie to take all the blame when it was definitely a two way street. You can’t expect someone to open up to you and be honest and then get mad at them when they do. Well, you can.. but you should definitely apologize after.

[Sam]

I like Krystina Rivers, she’s a good writer who delivers stories that are always compelling.

The main characters are always in high powered functions, or just about leaving them. I like all these professional women, they seem realistic. They aren’t written in a simple way, they had to fight for where they are, possibly lost themselves along the way. And that’s where the stories shine, where the characters start to find their way back to themselves and ultimately also each other.
We get a lovely dog as a bonus character and I am here for it.

In this book we even get to escape to Key West. Let me tell you, it sounds wonderful and as a true escape. I am glad we get to experience places like this thrive well written and narrated books like this, no way it’s a place I’ll be visiting in this political climate.

Back to the book and the narrator, Ellie Gossage, also did a masterful job. Pretty enjoyable to listen to. I would recommend this combination of author and narrator, or them separately, any time.

[Scott Cutlip]

In Sunkissed Hearts, Charlie and Harper meet in Key West. Charlie has fled there after being fired from her Wall Street job, and Harper, who used to be a lawyer, runs a bar after the loss of her wife. The two of them are lost in their own ways.

Harper seems a more substantial character than Charlie, if only because she has the loss of her wife about her, and with Charlie, well, when I said they were both lost in their own ways, Charlie seems much more loss. She is a character in stasis.

Of course, what we expect and want to happen happens and the two of them veeeeery slowly (which I have no complaints about) develop a relationship. Harper is always putting her walls up to have them almost immediately crumble, which could come off as eye-rolling, but is cute here.

Now the major gripe I have, and I will say that I generally dislike third-act breakups, because, for the most part, they’re there just for the tension. I enjoy having my feelings manipulated; I don’t enjoy it when I can see the strings being pulled, and third-act breakups often do that. This novel just isn’t one of the ones that actually benefits from it or does it in any particularly interesting way. Up to that point, I was really enjoying the book, but the breakup isn’t enough for me to mark it down too heavily.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

[Aleana]

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

Charlie has a career on Wall Street and she spots something she shouldn’t have and because of it she became expendable and was offer a generous severance but was let go. Charlie in shock driver towards her parents but kept driving until she ended up in Key West. Harper owns a local bar that Charlie come to as they talk Charlie rents the apartment from Harper. Harper uses to be a lawyer and left that life when her wife past from an accident she needed a place where she could heal. Charlie and Harper grow closer as they get to know each other and rebuild their lives. I enjoy this read didn’t like the break up I felt it didn’t make senses but overall I enjoy the setting and the characters.

[Brandy]

Escape to Key West with a romance that’s anything but ordinary. This story introduces Charlie who is seeking peace after a career setback, and Harper who has carefully guarded her heart. Their unexpected meeting sparks a profound, slow-burning connection, leading both women on individual journeys of healing and self-discovery.

Beyond just falling in love, they learn to trust, navigating personal challenges to open their hearts fully. Krystina Rivers weaves an emotional story with depth and optimism, promising a read that will make you laugh, maybe shed a tear, but ultimately leave you uplifted. This book has authentic characters, palpable chemistry, and a truly inspiring love story.

If you're looking for a romance that's so much more than just a simple love story, this one is a serious gem!

[Chyrl Brown]

Enjoyed this story immensely.

I have read 4 of your 7 books. Thoroughly enjoyed them all. Will be buying the others to complete my collection. Thank you for your excellent story telling.

[Quinn]

Many thanks to NetGalley, Bold Strokes Books and Krystina Rivers for this ARC. I am delighted to share my honest review.

I was immediately captivated by the cover of this book. Krystina Rivers' last book was a ton of fun to read and so I was so excited to get my hands on this book. I was most definitely not disappointed and very much enjoyed Sunkissed Hearts. This book had so much heart and depth of emotion. It grappled with grief and uncontrolled life crisis with tact and great respect. I loved that this was a satisfying sapphic love story between two women who had been through some real life problems and were doing their best to survive it all.


We meet Charlie who has been put through the ringer professionally. Suffice it to say that she is at a low point after being betrayed, fired and left reeling. She runs away, both figuratively and literally for a fresh start. It was the best decision she ever made. She flees to Key West and is sort of a fish out of water without her high powered career to hide behind but I found this so refreshing. I liked Charlie a lot and found her courage empowering. She meets Harper and things change. The attraction and pull toward one another is strong and I was swooning. Harper truly nestled her way into my heart. She lives a very guarded and walled off existence since losing her wife. Sure, she owns her bar, volunteers at the law clinic and has friends but no one is making it through her grief fortress…until Charlie that is. I honestly felt such a pull to both characters but there was something truly special about Harper for me.

Charlie needs a place to stay and Harper has an apartment for rent and it sets up a perfect sort of forced proximity scenario. The intense spark between these two is there immediately but with all of their emotional baggage I don't know that they would have pursued one another unless living in close quarters. The slow burn romance that develops was so much fun to read about. I found Charlie and Harper to be such genuine and loveable women who deserved to find joy in life and in each other. They must heal and overcome their own personal traumas but find that doing so together makes the impossible feel possible. I couldn't help but smile while reading and I can't help but smile as I write about them now! They embark on a journey of self healing and find real love along the way. This is exactly the type of sapphic romance that I crave and I found their slow dance toward one another so satisfying. I loved them together and the intimate moments were so special and highlighted the developing emotional connection between Harper and Charlie's so beautifully.


Krystina Rivers does such a great job with this book. The writing was warm and inviting and felt so genuine. I felt like every word was precisely selected to help further the story in just such a way and it worked so well for me. The book is intensely character driven and that was great because Harper and Charlie were such deep and complex women. They had both experienced some of the most difficult trials and tribulations that life has to offer but were determined to not merely survive but thrive…or maybe it was finding each other that actually led to thriving. The emotions were front and center and I enjoyed that Rivers devotes a lot of attention to the characters struggles and turmoil and finding healing from those traumas. The pacing was a bit slower and allowed for the relationship to develop organically. It all clicked for me.

I'd say this one hit the mark for me and was a great read! I most definitely recommend Sunkissed Hearts for anyone looking for an emotionally mature sapphic romance with really difficult issues and a satisfying love story that will make you feel all the feels. You wont regret reading this one!

[Kaye]

Charlotte (Charlie) Paulson loses her finance job on Wall Street and drives as far as she can, ending up in Key West, Florida. She is lost and unsure of her life and future plans. She decides to give herself time and space to heal. She joins a yoga class and finds a small apartment.

Her landlord is Harper Willis who has the apartment next door and owns the bar beneath both. Harper came to Key West after losing her wife in a tragic accident. She runs her bar and does pro bono legal work on the side. She is surviving but not really living.

Harper’s attraction to Charlie flairs when she walks in the door. I like that these are mature women who are trying to heal and move forward with their lives. They know there are sparks but also know they can choose to act on them or not. I appreciate the book takes time, moving forward here and there, weeks or more at a time. Special mention of Franky, Harper’s dog, who is an emotional support for both.

I enjoyed the characters and their story. The story falls mostly on the two leads. Charlie is extra careful as this is the first relationship for Harper since her wife’s death.

This is a stand alone novel. I love that the author writes her books in the same world. The leads from “The Heart Wants” (Aug 2024) and “An Atlas to Forever” (Nov 2023) both make appearances here. I’ve read those books and was happy to see glimpses of where they were in their futures. The appearances fit the story and mostly I see them as a bonus for fans of the author. If you have not read their stories you still can, or they can be only side characters in this story.

I was fortunate enough to receive both an eARC and an audio book. If I had more time before their release I would have read and listened to them separately. I enjoyed the narration by Ellie Grossage. I knew easily who was speaking from her voice acting. I split my time fairly evenly between reading and listening.

This is an easy book to recommend. I liked characters who are overcoming struggles or issues. And I appreciate that it didn’t overshadow the developing romance. I will be reading or listening to this again. Thank you to NetGalley, Bold Strokes Books and Tantor Media for the digital copies, and I am leaving an honest review.

[Parker]

Both Charlie (Charlotte) and Harper and dealing with loss when they meet in Harper's Key West bar, Scissor & Gavel (great name BTW!), but instant attraction takes a back seat as they both work to rebuild their sense of self in the new reality that is their lives.

Charlie was fired from her high profile banking job and with no idea when to do she headed south and kept driving until the road literally ended in Key West. She went from a world where she worked more hours than not, to being untethered and learning that there was more to life than making money. I found Charlie's journey from a life of excess to learning what truly makes her happy and how she can do good refreshing and inspiring.

Harper moved to Key West leaving a career as an attorney behind after the death of her wife, Kelly,. Grief is her shadow, following closely behind her and never quite loosening its grip. She doesn't feel she'll ever love anyone again, until she gets closer to Charlie.

Harper's grief and love for her wife is so well described. I could feel her struggle with what she thinks she should do to honour her vows while also knowing Kelly would want her to be happy.

The slow burn and thoughtful way they had with one another never pushing and letting the relationship blossom with time was heartwarming.

There is a touch of intrigue tied in with why Charlie was fired and how Kelly had died, which helps to drive the story and help with the building romance between Charlie and Harper.

I also loved Franky, Harper's dog, who is the best snuggler and is afraid of thunderstorms. Franky's addition to the story not only helps get people into the same spaces at the same times, but also allows both characters to see a softness in how she is cared for my them.

I like when characters from prior, seemingly unrelated books from the author show up in a meaningful way, and I got this with the reappearance of Sydney and Reagan from What the Heart Wants.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes a slow burn, with charged chemistry, and characters put the work needed into themselves in order to be a better partner.

Thank you to Bold Strokes Books for a digital advanced copy via NetGalley for me to be able to read and provide an honest review.

[Michele]

Charlotte “Charlie” Paulson works on Wall Street and has witnessed something that she should not have witnessed. Now she is expendable to her company, D. B. Graves. She is let go and offered a generous severance. In shock, Charlie gets in her expensive sports car and travels past her family hometown of Gainesville, Florida, and continues south to Key West until she meets the end of the road. She stays in an expensive resort for a few days until she encounters Harper Willis who owns and operates Scissor and Gavel, a local bar. After talking with Harper, the bartender, Charlie learns that Harper has an apartment for rent and she makes her a generous offer for a year's lease of the apartment. Harper has her own secrets including the fact that she lost her wife three years ago in Chicago to an accident. She left her career there as a lawyer and decided to move to Key West for her mental and emotional health. After spending some time together at the bar and with the close proximity of their apartments at the bar complex, the two women begin to grow closer. Franky, Harper's adorable dog, also allows them a common topic to bond over.

I adored the hesitant yet smoldering chemistry between the Charlie and Harper as they were getting to know each other. Both women were also struggling to recover from injustices in their recent past lives that drew them together. The setting in Key West was an ideal location for Charlie and Harper to let their guards down and rebuild their lives in order to live again. The only downside of the book, from my perspective, was Harper and Charlie's breakup when the SEC unexpectedly shows up to discuss her employer's situation with Charlie. I felt that Charlie and Harper's bond was growing stronger by that point in the story and therefore the immediate breakup didn't make much sense.

One final note, I found the title and cover design for this book unique, inspiring, and gorgeous. Overall though I would rate the book at 4 stars.

I received and ARC from Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Megan]

This book was fine. A slow burn romance that was fairly predictable, but most romances of this type are. The chemistry was mostly good (see below) and I liked both characters for the most part, though they both had me rolling my eyes a bit at certain points. The setting was a little different than most of the romance books I’ve read, which was a nice change of pace.

I waffled on whether to give this three or four stars but ultimately went with the lower rating for multiple reasons.

Some of the conversations between Charlie and Harper felt too forced. Some of the transitions during the conversations also felt awkward. Both of these things made me feel like the dialogue didn't always flow as well as it could have, which took me out of the scenes a bit and harmed the chemistry between the two main characters. Everything with Charlie's family also felt unnecessary and it didn't mesh well with the rest of the story for me. And I hated that we skipped the first few weeks of them dating to get to this reunion between Charlie and her parents. I would have been far more interested in those weeks than with what we got.

The worst thing about the book, though, was the drama toward the end. Why do we always have to do this? And given Harper's initial overblown reaction, it wrapped up all too neatly. It was all just so overly dramatic and ridiculously contrived that it really took away from the story in my opinion.

The book wasn’t bad, but I definitely enjoyed the first half or so of this story more than the later parts.

Thank you NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

[Sue Plant]

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

Charlotte "Charlie" Paulson goes to her boss after finding an anomoly not long afterwards she is marched out of her office and the business with a cheque and an nda agreement.... she feels dirty ....why she doesnt know but she has sort of agreed to take the blame for what she is unsure but still ... she keeps driving the idea of going to her parents was once in her head but rejected that after she drove passed the turning so she keeps driving on and on....

finally she arrives at the end of the road... she cant go any further and books into the hotel she has turned in to at key west


Harper Willis runs a bar.... she also keeps it low key but she hasnt given up working as a lawyer and keeps her hand in where people need her type of help

when charlie walks in to her bar.... charlie isnt looking like someone who has a high powered job she is wearing yoga clothes and when she asks about the room that harper has for rent... harper doesnt know what to do as charlie looks like a down and out but there is something about her.... and so they come to an agreement....

but neither can stop looking at each other or spending time together.... but both have secrets and those secrets are about to be exposed....

loved these two main characters..... both ice queens keeping their walls up but it was great watching them start to trust each other and see each other for what they are.... its a good read... and the spice was hot

[SusieQ]

This Key West-set romance follows Charlotte "Charlie" Paulson, who flees a betrayal-ridden Wall Street career to rediscover who she is when money and power no longer define her life. She crosses paths with Harper Willis, a woman who has kept her world deliberately small since losing her wife, guarding her heart through her bar, her dog, and her volunteer work at a legal clinic. When Charlie walks into Harper's carefully controlled life, their unexpected connection throws everything off balance.

What makes this story resonate is how honestly it portrays the human side of loss, grief, and moving forward, as well as the toll of being consumed by a career in a world that, looking back, makes you question your own choices. Both Charlie and Harper are shown reacting authentically to their circumstances, and the novel does a beautiful job showing how people can learn from painful situations and slowly open themselves up again. There's real depth in how the story treats the value of confronting what we'd rather forget, rather than simply burying it.

At its heart, this is a story about trust, the trust that even after hitting rock bottom, it's possible to find your way back, even if that healing takes time. The slow-burn chemistry between Charlie and Harper unfolds against the easy sunsets and deep emotions of island life, making for a romance that feels both grounded and hopeful. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book.

[Rach]

This is a slow burn of two women coming together and in reality starting again both via different events.

Charlotte “Charlie” Paulson has found herself in Key West after her Wall Street career is over and desperate to work out who she is without this job taking over her life. She happens to walk in to Harper Willis bar, and as much as she fights it there is an attraction between the two women much to Harpers dismay as she feels she is dishonouring her late wife.

Both are women having vastly different lives hide each of their pasts but their chemistry when around each other opens them both up to the possibility of a new future with each other.

It is enjoyable, but a bit slow in places plus there is some side story with Charlie’s family that I didn’t feel really added anything to the overall story, I also didn’t really care for the legal storyline that connected slightly to Harpers wife. It just felt like they needed tension and unnecessary drama to make them closer which again for me added nothing. I did like that both women were slightly older, the level of doubt and vulnerability via Harper was very understandable and great to see Charlie checking in and just being there for her. Plus I loved the pooch which at many times was super adorable!

Thank you to NetGalley and bold stroke books for a chance to read prior to general release.

[Maria]

This was an interesting book since both MCs damaged at the start of the book, not open to starting something real with anyone. This means that they both need to process so much, make changes in their lives before anything can happen and I was there for the ride.

Harper a former lawyer that after loving her wife, the love of her life, just up and left Chicago and her life there. Even after three years she is still not sure she wants anything but casual in her hectic very different bartending life in Key West. Charlie, suddenly fired from her busy finance life, somehow just leaving New York City and ends up in Key West just by chance, also completely broken.

They meet, become friends, but absolutely not prepared to start something more than that. It is quite a slow burn, and I loved that. I thought very realistic how they slowly grew into something more. I was not a big fan of all the legal issues in the end of the book, but the rest was a nice read.

I received a free ARC via NetGalley and leave an honest review voluntarily.

[Theresa C]

sweet and spice + low angst + Key West = perfect sapphic summer read

Sunkissed Hearts follows a disgraced Wall Street exec, Charlie, as she flees the city life and finds herself in Key West. She stumbles into a little bar owned by Harper, who is charming, friendly and knows how to cater to the Key West crowd, but deep down she's a grieving widow. The book takes us through their back stories and internal struggles while we get to see the two of them become acquainted with each other and explore how far they're willing to let things grow.

This was my first Krystina Rivers book and I really enjoyed it. She did a great job with character development, and both MCs were very likable. This was not an insta-love, which I appreciate, but it wasn't a painfully slow burn either. The spice was done well.

The book was narrated by Ellie Gossage. I thought she did an excellent job. Her tone, her voices for the MCs and her pace were top notch.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ALC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

[Claire]

Firstly, I loved the setting, Key West appeared like a very chilled place and I can see why it was the dream destination for Harper as she processed her grief, by fulfilling her and her deceased wife's dream of opening a bar their. Charlie is running from the humiliation of being fired from her successful Wall Street job, having got in her car and headed south she finds herself in Key west and slowly rebuilds her self esteem by becoming a yoga teacher. They become friends which develops into a slow burn romance, I missed the sense of community that I enjoy in lesbian fiction and I would have liked more scenes with Franky, Harper's dog. I really enjoyed the self-reflection of both women as they navigate these major life changes and witnessing their healing.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Meghan]

Slow burn, but a good one.

After her Wall Street career is over, Charlie goes to Key West and figure out what to do now. She walks into Harper's bar and there is an immediate attraction, but Harper resists because she feels she's not being true to her late wife.

They come from very different backgrounds and are secretive with each other, but they can't fight their chemistry or their attraction.

Its a little slow in some parts, but other things didn't seem to add much to the story. Like Charlie's family and the legal stuff with Harper's wife.

My favorite part was the dog.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Red Dragon]

If you like romances that rise out of heartbreak and regrets then you will enjoy Harper and Charlie’s story.
One has lost ‘the love of her life’ and the other a job of two decades that was so all encompassing that she has major regrets about the job and the way it ended!

You get to meet a bartender and a yoga teacher, heat up over some ‘hot’ scenes and then there is Franky - the bundle of fur love that can’t be resisted!
It’s a lovely but sometimes bumpy journey that we take with Harper and Charlie while they try to reconcile their pasts with possibilities for the future!
Thanks to BSB and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

[Aaron]

This was a great story about two people, each running away from something terrible, and unexpectedly finding each other. The Key West setting was nice and cozy, and Charlie and Harper were distinct characters that both worked for me (plus the adorable dog…). The slow burn was great, and I liked that the drama toward the end came from an outside source instead of one of them. Their reactions felt authentic as well, even if I could have wished they were different! Bottom line, it all worked for me.

FWIW I listed to the audiobook and it was great.

[Jess Bullock]

I quite enjoyed this one. We have two MC's who, for varying reasons, are not interested in love or relationships and then they meet and it is instant chemistry. It's slightly to much "insta lust/love" for my preference but still was cute. Their chemistry was explosive. And one of them has the cutest dog and that always scores well with me.

Ellie Gossage was phenomenal, as always.

Thank you NetGalley for the ALC.

[Mads]

many things stood out to me as good, but unfortunately i really couldn't handle harper's inability to accept and process other people's emotions throughout the story—particularly when it came to seeing from other people's shoes. it constantly felt like we were getting somewhere in character growth and then something mildly upsetting would happen that pushed us right back to square one. after many unneeded outbursts the ending felt quite rushed, and while of course not necessary i would have liked a little more representation minority wise.

[Katie Cleek]

I received this ALC audiobook from NetGalley and I *loved* it. It took me a couple chapters to connect to the MCs but once I did, I loved the development of their relationship. The spice was *spicy* and the slow burn worked for this couple. I loved Frankie 💗 I don’t have anything negative other than I wish it had been a different narrator 🤷‍♀️ My first book by this author and narrator…definitely will not be my last from this author!

[metmjt]

Krystina Rivers’ books are always a joy. I was first drawn to them because of the Chicago location of some of her earlier books. But now I look so forward to each of her books. This one is certainly no exception. Great story, great characters, and I loved catching up with Sydney and Reagan from ‘The Heart Wants’ and briefly Ellie and Hayden from ‘An Atlas to Forever’. A wonderful read. On a personal level, if I may, I know it must be difficult to have a spouse in the service these days with all that is going on both at home and abroad, and I wish you and your wife all the good luck in the world.