Format: ebook
Published: April 7th, 2022
Age: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Goodreads
Rating: 4/5 Stars
This was a Stuff Your Kindle gem, and though it’s not the type of romance I usually read, I really enjoyed it. Definitely made me keen to check out the next book in the series, too, which is always the sign of a good book.
Emilia is on the run from the controlling hand of her father and her abusive soon-to-be-ex-husband. She flees to small town Harlow, Minnesota, full of friendly locals, including her ex, Blaine. Emilia hasn’t seen Blaine since he was driven out of LA and forced to move back to his hometown, but he’s become Harlow’s Golden Boy, determined to help the town thrive. And maybe he can help Emilia find a way to thrive, too.
I had two slight gripes with this book that I’ll mention first before getting into what I really did like. Firstly, the emails. We see emails Emilia sent herself years before, and they serve as a bit of a diary for her at the time. My main problem with these is they really didn’t add anything to the overall plot, and often rehashed elements we’d already seen or knew about. They felt a little unnecessary, and were used so sporadically I was kind of surprised whenever one popped up.
The book is mostly told from the POVs of Emilia and Blaine, but occasionally we also get Anthony, Emilia’s dangerous ex. Again, these didn’t really add anything, and felt like they more often than not ‘gave the game away’ – we knew too much of what he was doing, and some parts of his POV felt like they were setting up plot points that never materialised.
I think the tension would have been better if we didn’t see Anthony going to get help or travelling towards Harlow; these are the kind of things that we should get hints about, but not necessarily see on page. I also really didn’t understand how the penniless, on-the-run-from-the-law ex-husband did enlist the help of anyone else? He promised them money, but it felt kind of obvious that wouldn’t materialise?
I think giving Emilia someone else ‘back home’ who she did trust would have worked out slightly better – a cousin or friend who could have informed her Anthony had disappeared into thin air, or there were rumours he was going around town trying to call in favours, etc.
Anyway, what I did really like here was the characterisation of the two main characters – Emilia feels very believable as a woman who has escaped a dire situation, and doesn’t know what might happen next. She’s battling panic attacks while determined to strike out on her own, even, at times, to her own detriment. Blaine is initially annoyed at Emilia’s arrival; neither of them know the full story about the last time they saw each other, and there’s some hesitation on both their parts. But once it’s resolved, they realise they still care deeply for one another.
I also really liked that although Blaine did have a partner when Emilia arrives, it doesn’t turn into a woman against woman kind of thing, but instead they act like adults and everyone is actually fairly reasonable about what’s happening. It was refreshing, and nice to see Sarah (Blaine’s ex) is the FMC in the next book.
If you like romances with an element of suspense and characters who approach situations reasonably (except for Emilia’s ex) and actually communicate with one another, but with enough steam it’s coming off the page, this book provides all that and more, and it’s a recommendation from me for Sapphires and Secrets.
Reading Challenge
Musicals Reading Challenge 2024
Prompt: Moulin Rouge – Come What May – Forbidden love
Progress: 13/24 Completed
Unwrapping Words 