Time After Time

Bayswater #1

by Violet Lynn Aster

Haunted by a dark secret... Lara Jacobs is determined to live alone with her cat Bones and never write again. Once a small-town literary legend, the guilt she holds onto over the loss of her best friend now rules her life. After being forced to leave her home in the stifling city, she moves back home to the small town of Bayswater and takes up her old job at the only inn. There are only two A voicemail from her past she's been avoiding at all costs. And a boy who threatens Lara's heart with an all-consuming passion. Tormented by a lost love... Mac Archer has known Lara all her life. He is her brother's best friend. As teens, Lara held the power to bring Mac to his knees and he's always hung on to the stubborn hope that she was his one. But as adults? They've become strangers. So, when the local microbrewery master learns Lara's back in town, he determines he won't let her go again. If there's one thing he's learned since she left, it’s to fight hard for the ones that you love. She left him once, but he'll still save her when she needs him most... Lara knows she needs to stay far away from Mac. But in a small town, that's easier said than done. Getting involved with him could be dangerous for them both, but ignoring the sparks that are flying between them is almost impossible. When Lara learns that Mac knows more than she realized about the tragic night everything changed for their group of friends, she must make a heart-wrenching Is the chance of forgiveness worth the risk of pain, or should she run far away from Bayswater forever? The powers of love, friendship, and forgiveness collide in this ground-breaking steamy New Adult debut which centers around a group of friends whose pasts are riddled with secrets, lies, and betrayals. Brother's Best Friend Second Chance Love Small Town Romance A Haunted Past

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2022

About the author

Violet Lynn Aster writes steamy small town stories of love, family, and finding your true purpose in life. She is an educator who studied and teaches English literature. Violet always dreamed of writing stories that give her characters a happy ending and their place in the world. Violet lives on the East Coast of Canada with her husband and two small children, along with a small farm of animals.
If you want more from Violet, she’s been taking lessons in Tik Tok from her students and making Book Tok a full time hobby @violetlynnasterauthor. Violet is a new, indie author and although her social media is just beginning, you can check out her website for upcoming ARCs, stories, give aways and more!

Reviews

[Lily Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

The suspense comes to an end, or at least for now. We finally can get the answer we all have been searching for. What happened that fateful night, that left everyone in Baywater a changed individual. We continue the story from ''Tell Me Lies''. Seeing the world after Eva through Lara's eyes is heartbreaking yet special. The novel trully has everything. Violet is just showing us more of her amazing talent. As much as I have cried reading some of the chapters, everything comes to a lovely HEA, not just for the couple, but also a light for Bayswater after the tragedy that created this story in the first place. It shows us how trauma can birth happiness and growth, you never knew you needed.

[eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

okay i don’t LOVE the writing style & i don’t love the character development BUT why do i wanna keep reading this series oop stay tuned for updates tehehehe

[Cath · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is part of The Bayswater series and the main characters are Lara Jacobs, a woman suffering from a horrific accident and then the loss of her best friend Eva Starr, and Mac Archer, who has known Lara her whole life. Mac and Lara’s brother Nolan are best friends and they all grew up in a cul-de-sac in the small town of Bayswater. Mac brews special beers, selling his special brews to places in the area and also wants to open an off grid set of cabins either up in the hills over town or by the beach. He has loved Lara since they were teens, but events have got in the way of him beign with her or their romance sparking off. Lara and Eva were best friends and both wanted to be writers growing up. The book flicks back and forth, between then and now, as Lara tells her side of the story. She had been living in the city when she was in a bad accident and it was only her friend Eva and her brother Nolan being there that helped her to stay in the city and try to finish off her degree and her book. What it took her ages to realise, was how close her brother and Eva had become, as she was too focused on her recovery and her writing. Her parents had offered to bring her home to look after her, but with her brother moving in, she could stay in the city. It seems Eva was keeping a lot of secrets from her, as was her brother, but she was too self-involved to even realise at the time.
Her contact with Mac slowed down to just phone calls and texts and they are almost like strangers who never meet. Her best friend’s sudden death blows everything up into chaos and she ends up blanking out huge parts of what really happened that night, shutting herself off from everyone, especially her brother who she blames for the loss. Her brother ends up in rehab and Mac has plans for his brewing and off grid vacation homes. He keeps secret from her, the fact he is in touch with her brother, who she hasn’t spoken to since Eva’s death. Mac is still waiting for her to realise how close they had become before Eva’s accident, but it seems like she can’t remember anything from that time period and her brain is trying to protect her. But she is not really living. She ended up moving back home and going back to work at the inn, but keeping herself isolated from others and never feeling like she really deserved to still be living without her best friend around! Sparks fly between Mac ad Lara at long last and he involves her in his plans for the future, without revealing who else he in working with towards his dreams. Lara has a difficult decision to make with regards to forgiving her brother, but also whether she is willing to start living properly again, rather than just hiding away. She also has a chance at love with a man who has loved her for years and has been patiently waiting for her to remember what they had together and accept a chance at happiness together! A really slow and confusing start of the book for me, but got a lot easier to follow back and forth as the book progressed. A love story with tragedy, loss of friends and family, as well as a loss of self-worth and an expected future that had been worked so hard for. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.

[Kate Carrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am rounding up because this was more of a 3.5 for me. I didn’t mind it. Read it because it was recommended in back of something else I loved, but it was quite different and I guess not what I expected. It was sweet, but not funny at all. Quite serious. Angsty. And very American? Or Canadian? Burly woodsy man and beer drinking and a small town that has lots of mountains and pine trees. There were even words I didn’t know. Maybe Canadian words? Overall it wasn’t bad, but for me, a bit boring and I prefer novels with lots of jokes, honestly.

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this book, gave 2 stars for effort.
You follow a MFC who has gone through some ptsd forgets a horrible night and also forgets that she's in love with her brothers best friend, but wait it doesn't stop there, she gets her cheeks clapped by said guy and forgets about that too. 🤦‍♀️

I get it ptsd, I do. Also, the chapters could say flashback or past or something. But basically every other chapter is a flashback or maybe her getting her memory back. Idk.

[Theresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read from this author. Not impressed. The basic story was interesting, but for me there was too much graphic descriptions of sex which I felt was not necessary. And I didn't like her writing style. I don't think I'll try another one.

[Emily Pennington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lara and Mac . . .

This is Lara Jacobs and Mac Archer’s story. Lara abandons her city life and returns home to heal. She still has to deal with the past, but seems to be at a standstill. Lara had to go through quite a lot of difficult experiences.

Mac, her brother’s best friend, is there for her when she returns, giving her time to reconcile all that has happened and to prepare herself to move forward. Will she be able to accept her second chance for love? Or is she doomed to grieve and remain empty inside?

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought I’d review this series as a whole as they’re all quite short books.
This series is based around a group of friends in a small beach town making lives for themselves and falling in love along the way.
There are actually some hard hitting topics in these which I weren’t expecting going in such as grief but I really enjoyed the characters navigating their lives and enjoyed how these topics were covered.
My favourite couple was definitely Maren & Jake. Old friends to lovers/second chance will always be a hit to me.
These are very fast paced and the characters are in love before you even blink but I didn’t hate it in this series.

[Jena Stelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was reading through booksprout ARC options and Time After Time’s synopsis intrigued me. Since Ms Aster is an author I haven’t read before I had to claim this book.

In my opinion the first several chapters started off a bit slow. It took me a while to get into Mac and Laura’s story, but once I did, I couldn’t put it down. I do understand this is the first book (introduction) of the Bayswater series.

Laura and Mac are great characters. My heart breaks for the experiences life throws at Laura. It takes her time to reconcile everything that has happened. Mac stands by her the only way he knows how; he’s very patient with Laura. This patience does eventually pay off.

I will say towards the end of the book there’s a revelation about Mac to Laura that I think Laura lets go of a little too easy. Her questions aren’t fully answered. It seems Mac skipped over a bunch in his explanation. As a reader, I felt Laura should’ve had a better explanation and let it go a bit too fast.

Other than this issue I really enjoyed this story. I look forward to reading the rest of the Bay’s water series.

This book is about healing and forgiveness. I recommend reading Time After Time.