I could tell after the first 40 pages that I would absolutely hate the ride (more like car crash) this book would take me on. None of these character acted and thought like actual humans. Holly‘s reasons for abandoning a marriage (even though it was short) and denying her daughter a father for over 5 years were incredibly ridiculous. And Rex forgiving her almost immediately was even worse??
„And whether we like it or not, Holly’s her mom.” He looked at Holly, hoping she didn’t think he didn’t like that.“
Like what??? This was like 2 hours after she told him why she left. It seemed like he didn’t even care about all the things she’s done to him.
At no point did I find myself actually rooting for these two. Holly was so incredibly unlikeable. The five years she spent away from Rex she lived at her moms. Now that she’s building a life with Rex, again, she doesn’t even visit her.
„And what Momma wanted was law in her house. Holly wondered how she was doing. She’d spoken to her several times over the past month that she’d been living in Chestnut Springs, but she hadn’t gone to visit once. A quick feeling of guilt moved through her, but she pushed it away. It was time for her to live her own life.“
I just found her extremely ungrateful and opportunistic. At one point in the book she even told Rex that she didn’t inform him about their daughter, after she worked out her biggest issues in therapy, because it was easier for her. All I could think about was how much harder that is for Sarah?! And Rex still has the nerve to tell Holly she was a great mother REPEATEDLY THROUGHOUT THE BOOK. She also goes behind his back, makes important decisions without him, and then gets surprised when he’s upset about it and puts all the blame on him.
And:
“For all I knew, you weren’t coming back after your third-place finish in Louisville.“
Don’t even get me started on this. He’s done nothing that would warrant her not trusting him, why is she projecting??? Yet she gets angry he is scared of trusting her after SHE GAVE HIM TRUST ISSUES. Sarah is his daughter, and he has every right to know where she is. HOLLY DIDNT EVEN TELL HIM WHERE THEY WENT AFTER THEY LEFT THE HOSPITAL SERIOUSLY WHAT IS HER ISSUE
This book was so anger inducing I got three more forehead wrinkles just while reading this, and basically all of them were Holly’s fault.
I’m a sucker for second chance romance and dads, so I was really hoping this would be up my alley… :/ sadly it wasn’t