There really was much to like about this story. Two people struggle through heavy grief, trying to navigate their attraction to each other, and figure out what to do next. I guess that's a little bit of a contemporary romance template. But the writing, although choppy and telling in some places, was good and made the story more believable.
Things I didn't like: the comparisons between "big city" and "small town" life. This came across more than heavy-handed. All the small town people were delightful, friendly, and invested in each other and their community. The city people were consumed by their fast-paced careers and designer clothes, expensive food, and a cold, hateful city. The inference was also quite clear that the city people were smarter and more sophisticated than the small town people. These are lazy, stereotyped tropes that are seriously not true or even close to realistic. I've lived in many small towns, as have most readers. I'm sure you'd find we could refute every templated "small town" point the author shared. Same for the "big city" stuff. I wish authors would stop using New York City like it's the fricking center of the universe. If you've ever picked up a newspaper or read a online article, you know NYC is filled with mostly poor/working class people struggling like hell against a handful of uber rich guys who appear to own everything. Big city life can be isolated and terribly lonely. Small town life can be equally lonely, but with the added fishbowl effect of proximity as well as judgment and very long memories for even small life mistakes. I'm just saying that a story with more realism might be a good move. Writing something, even a first-time book, with more realism, would have made this a richer story.
Another reviewer mentioned lots of holes and missing parts of this story, including things like the female and male leads parents. For me, it's not that they're missing as much as the stereotyped early death of parents. This is a trope that's always freaked me out. It seems leads in romances often have lost their parents even though those people couldn't be in their 60s! It's the same thing with many romance ces that are geared towards more mature readers (me) where the lead is a widow/widower at age 50! Today, people rarely die that young, whether they're parents or spouses. Most people I know have parents still living in their 80s and beyond. I know a small handful of people who lost their partners in their 60s, yet romance is entirely populated by adults with dead parents and widows in their late 40s, early 50s. It's just another example of an unrealistic ancillary point. Things like this when handled well make for a much richer, real story.
I did feel the sex scenes were great, and that's a real accomplishment for a first-time author. They felt real, very hot, and relatable.
Overall, the plot is a sweet one that could have been better.