I voluntarily reviewed an early copy of this book :) this is the second book in Edie's automotive guide series of contemporary romances set in a small town of Grenadine and involving characters that know and interact with each other, but so far both of the stories work perfectly well as standalones :) naturally, if you do read them in order, you will get an advantage of getting to know the main couple of this sequel in the first story, plus the additional knowledge about quite a few secondary characters appearing in this one, which make all those little scenes that much more meaningful, but worry not, you don't need any previous knowledge to enjoy this gem :) now that we have this little explanation out of the way, let me tell you a bit more about our main couple and the plot of this story :)
Like I mentioned before, we met both Vera and Jack in that first book... "Headlights, dipsticks and my ex's brother" if you need the name... and trust me, if you haven't read it yet, you do need it... it was my favourite book of last year for very many reasons :) but back to the topic of this review :) Jack was helping Edie save her autoshop in that story, and was one of the fire fighters who agreed to be part of the auction to raise money... :) and Vera was the one who bid the highest amount on Jack... little did we know, these two actually have quite a history between them... :) I don't want to get into too many details, because a lot of them we discover a bit later in the book, but they were together in high school, and then because of some very sad circumstances they broke up... again, sorry for being vague, but I don't want to spoil you anything... now Vera is back in her hometown, trying to check as many things off of her mom's bucket list after a health scare of her own... and since Grenadine is such a small town and Vera has a pretty big presence, so naturally very fast a lot of people now she's here... after some car troubles, she is forced to stay a bit longer than she originally planned, which sort of forces her to face a few issues from her past :) that's all of the details I can possibly share with you without spoiling you some twists and turns... now let's get into the good stuff, which is all the reasons why I adored this story :)
I'm gonna start with the characters, because when it comes to Heather's books, they are my favourite to write about in each of my reviews :) especially when it comes to this series, she has just such amazingly diverse and inclusive ones... :) but before we get into them, let's talk for a moment about the main couple, starting with Jack because I have far less things to talk about when it comes to him ;) since the book is from Vera's perspective, we don't get a lot of the backstory from Jack, and I did really miss being able to get into his head to get to know him more... don't get me wrong, he's still a really great hero and totally swoonworthy with his support for Vera, but based on all the glimpses we were privileged to see, there was just sooo much more that I wanted to know about him :) now when it comes to Vera... she was such a phenomenal heroine... totally flushed out, complex and flawed, I adored her completely... let's start with the big thing... Vera is a porn star... yep, you read that correctly... not only she's a porn star, she's also a co-founder of one of the big and successful companies in the industry... I follow Heather on social media so I had some insights into her work process on this story, and I know how much research she did to portray Vera as realistically as she could... and I have to say it really shows :) I loved to read about her and get so many insights into her as a character and the industry she works in... and it never overshadowed her actual story or was the sole focal point when it comes to her as a character :) but like I mentioned, Heather's characters are always my favourtie to write about, because she has a true talent to write them as complex and flawed in the best human way... so you can't help but fall in love with them and want to be part of their group of friends :) and speaking of them... let's get into the secondary ones for a moment :) Heather gave us appearances of the ones we already met in that first book, but we also got introduced to a bunch of new ones, including my absolute personal favourite, MVP (Most Valuable Player for those of you not into sports ;) ) Bea, Vera's grandmother... I swear, we all need a person like that in our lives :) to encourage us, meddle into our lives a little bit, and just be all around awesome and supportive :) but the rest of them were phenomenal as well... diverse and inclusive, without them feeling forced into the story just for the sake of writing for example a "gay character" or something like that... all of them feel organic, and just like a portrayal of a very diverse and complex world we live in every day :) I love reading stories like that :) and speaking of the story... if I would have to rate just the one about Vera and Jack, I would probably give it 4 stars, maybe 4,5... mostly because of personal preferences, I am not the biggest fan of secondary chance romances where the main couple were an item in the past and now they are reconnecting... I very rarely don't have issues with it, and this one was no exception... I felt like they got back together pretty quickly, without really addressing some issues that happeed in the past... like they picked where they sort of left things, but like I mentioned... I feel that my personal story and preferences may colour my experience with it... or make me more picky when it comes to the very little details... :) but because of the awesomeness of Vera's character and so many great secondary ones, I am bumping this book to full 5 stars :) and after that little scene at the end... let's just say I already started a coutdown to the next book... just saying ;) the writing style was fantastic, hilarious and definitely way hotter than in the first book... *fans herself* there are a few scenes that will definitely leave you blushing... ;) the book itself made me swoon, sigh, sometimes in awe and other times in frustration ;) it made me laugh so many times, and hit me in all the feels, which is the best thing I can say about it... Heather mixes a lot of very differet themes in this gem and she does it perfectly... I highly recommend you guys this beautiful book... it's soooo worthy of your time :) you can start with the first one, or just jump straight into this one if it interests you more ;) but you have to read one, or preferably both, of them... Heather creates such diverse and complex characters, that you are truly missing out if you haven't met them yet... so please go remedy this situation right now... especially if I do remember correctly, the first book is currently on a limited sale, so there's really no time like the present ;)
XOXO
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