Love in a Small Town
by Zoe York
A Pine Harbor Audiobook
Publication Date: March 15, 2016
Six years. Two break-ups. One divorce. They should be over each other.
Rafe Minelli knows better than to tell his wife no, particularly since they aren’t married anymore. She can’t hightail it out of town, though, not when they’ve finally broken through the post-divorce cold war status quo.
Olivia Minelli needs to leave Pine Harbour. It’s just too hard to see Rafe moving on without her – even if he says he doesn’t want to. But when a new and exciting job falls into her lap, she needs to choose: protect her heart, or take the new job and risk getting emotionally entangled with her ex-husband. Again.
“I’m not moving on.” He nipped at her ear. “I’ve tried. I can’t do it. You’re it for me.”
…And with that we get second-chance at recapturing love. There is nothing like coming back to something that was perfect but unfortunately fell apart due to small and careless mistakes. Reading second-chance romance stories is always beautiful because at the heart of it all they are always about forgiveness, finding a new path, and motivation to make something work… That something that is truly worth the effort and work.
Olivia and Rafaelo started with a whirlwind romance which unfortunately fell apart. Young Olivia wanting more and young Rafaelo putting career opportunities ahead of his bride. Fast forward 5 years and they are divorced but the attraction had not lessened and when a whiff of “moving on” is sensed old feelings of jealousy and possession surge forward.
It was an endearing story of a small town life, close friendships and true love just within one’s grasp. Although the story is very light hearted it still dealt with struggles of making a relationship work, especially relationship that failed on the first go round. Therefore, the growth of both characters was fascinating to watch. Watching them struggle through their old issues and looking for ways not to make the same mistakes. It was very ‘real’.
As I have listened to an Audio version of the book I felt like the narrator, Em Eldridge, has perfected slight nuances of personality and characters. I really enjoyed her men POV chapters as I felt like she really brought out Rafe’s personality and his personality with his buddies. Those interactions brought lots of chuckles.
Love in a Small Town was a perfect start of a light hearted and sexy series that is full of secondary characters who are loud enough to warrant their own stories. However having a blast listening to Em Eldridge’s narration it makes me want to wait for the rest of the series to come out on Audiobooks. So I will wait and hope she will take on this very important and fun task of giving life to the characters who I fell in love with at first sight. The coupling of Zoe’s writing and Em’s vocal talents is a win win for all of us. Stay tuned…
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Zoe York is a busy mom of two young boys and the creator of modern, sexy, small town contemporary romances. Her debut novel, What Once Was Perfect, started the popular Wardham series, and her first military romance, Fall Out, was released as part of the international bestselling SEALs of Summer super bundle.
She lives in London, Ontario and is currently chugging Americanos, wiping sticky fingers, and dreaming of heroes in and out of uniform.
Leave a Reply