2.5  🌶
Contemporary Romance
Second Chance 
Dual POV
Dual Timeline
HEA

This book had me feeling all my feelings.  It was emotional and raw at times and shows how even when we feel we are broken and not loveable, there is someone out there who will see that and love us still.  

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Mila and Tristan meet as teenagers when they become neighbours.  They are both sad, lonely, messed up teens and are drawn to each other.  However their love for each other is often eclipsed by their own self sabotaging and it ends poorly.  When Mila starts college she ends up being lab partners with Tristan, the last person she ever wanted to see again.  However the pull that was always there starts again. And they are drawn to each other all over again.  This time though, the timing is better and they know how to love each other, and although it may be a little unstable at times,  it is real and lasting. 
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Although there was a happy ever after, this is not a cutesy romance.  Both Mila and Tristan struggle with how to be loved, and at times, their dark parts collide and force them apart.  Childhood trauma from abandonment and mental health issues are shown warts and all, and Elle Mitchell has shown how these things can cause us to put up walls to keep ourselves safe.  But she also shows that the right person will know how to love us the way we need to be loved, even if we don't know what that is. 

I was invested in the characters and the Dual timeline helped to reveal their love for each other and that it had always been there, as well as the reasons that they were sometimes holding back or pushing the other away.  Deep down they just didn't want to get hurt by the other as they were both already broken.  Neither of them know what a healthy relationship looks or feels like, but they eventually manage to realise that the other has what they need to feel seen and be loved, healing each other from their past struggles and trauma. 

If you like friends > enemies > lovers and sdcond chance love, with a bit of spice, wrapping up with a happy ever after, then give this a go.