I wanted to love this book so badly but I ended up just liking it okay instead. First you have Kate, she wants a fresh start after being laid off from her job, having her marriage end, and also having a miscarriage. Kate is complicated and doesn't have a place to fit in at the moment, keep this in mind because it is important for how the story ends. Then you have Luke, he is a guy who wants to keep his beloved hometown free from greedy development. Okay so one person doesn't have a place to belong and the other person loves their small town, now do you know where this is going?

Well, you are wrong because he ends up moving to the city where she works at a job she doesn't seem to like very much, the end.

 

Now if the ending were the only issue I would not be as harsh as I'm being but there were too many side plots in this book and too many characters that we just meet and don't go anywhere. I know this is the setup for the next book but there were just too many people that we just meet and then nothing happens. 

The other problem I had was the pacing, this book was paced really weirdly. The book would be so slow and then you would get a time jump, then it would halt, and then another time jump. At no point did it feel like it was at a comfortable pace. I felt the book was both too long but too short because it covered years. 

Last, I had a problem was that the conflict was non existent. Sure, in the preservation effort there is a mustache twirling villain that wants to destroy the island but it is so obvious he is going to lose that it doesn't feel real at all. Then there is a random side plot of some lady trying to get Kate fired but it gets resolved in two pages. Every conflict just gets immediately resolved, nothing felt earned. 

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a no conflict, low stakes book where you just go for vibes only. 

TW: Mention of miscarriage