Lucy Hope was always the optimist, believing in the possibilities, a dreamer at heart, and often thought back to the happiest moments of her life which were when she was a kid and lived next door to Emma and Cal Bishop. When Lucy stumbles upon a house up for sale, specifically the house in which her best friend (Emma) use to live in, it seemed like fate for her to buy it. Next thing Lucy knew she was starting over in her new home, and found her applying to work at Cal’s auto shop. With childhood to strangers to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, sadness, heartbreak, and a bit of… hope (No pun intended), Lucy and Cal’s story had all the great things I looked forward to reading about, and with Jennifer Hartman at the helm of this story, it was a no brainer for me to read. 

The beginning was all about setting the story in what was told through Lucy’s point of view and little glimpses of her life from the past and present. With the addition of getting to reading excerpts from Emma’s diary, it gave more clues and insights as to what Lucy’s childhood memories were like with Emma and Cal. I also found it curious as to Lucy’s medical history which at first were vaguely mentioned, but not fully explained so early on it gave somewhat of a mysterious question I wanted answered. 

Lucy was truly a sunshine and Cal was a grump, but there were some distinct qualities to them that made them more endearing to me. For instance, Lucy was of course a totally optimistic and like she said even on her worst days she was always optimistic. What I found adorable in her case was how whenever she got nervous, she tended to ramble, and at times ended up making things a bit more shall we say awkward for her, but in a funny way. Often times, Lucy found herself accidentally saying something that came off as an innuendo, and as she tried backtracking, she just dug the hole deeper for herself, again I found it humorous. I feel like compared to Jennifer’s other books, this was a bit more lighthearted in some aspects of the story with Lucy’s personality and how she often found herself in funny situations from her word vomiting to getting stuck in her t-shirt, etc. Cal was the complete opposite to Lucy though. Lucy had this image of Cal from when they were younger as sweet, warm, and all around the boy she thought she would one day marry. Now, seeing Cal all tattooed, stern, and grumpy was a complete new person she didn’t know. While Cal was grumpy, I found that even he had moments he couldn’t help, but express his worry over Lucy. Even Cal himself was self aware of when he was acting rude and apologized to Lucy right away. Despite Cal reiterating that he wanted to keep things professional between him and Lucy, HA SIKE! Didn’t happen as Cal ended up being protective and concerned about Lucy majority of the time. 

Who loves a slow burn?! *immediately throws arms in the air, ME! The tension between Lucy and Cal was great, and as per usual with slow burns, just when I thought something was going to happen between Cal and Lucy, nope! Had to wait longer, but I love the build up so that’s part of the fun. In the meantime, Cal definitely gave some moment worthy pieces of crumbs that had me salivating and thirsty for more! Ok they may be a bit dramatic, but hey you know what? It perfectly summarizes my feelings through out the story haha. Anyways, I absolutely loved seeing how Cal was brimming with desire over Lucy and the man just wanted to claim her all to himself. Lucy couldn’t even grasp the fact that Cal wanted her, but hello? Both his physical and verbal reactions CLEARLY ILLUSTRATED HE WANTED HER! Tension and buildup was chef’s kiss, to the very end I was waiting with glee and excitement over Lucy and Cal getting down to business!

OH. MY. GOODNESS! JENNIFER! I’M SHOOK, MY JAW DROPPED! OMG! Things really started to get even more interesting, a bit more angsty, and quite the big truth bombs revealed that had me as I previously stated shook! Just when I thought, “aww things are finally going to end up potentially well for Lucy and Cal”…. NOPE! Sadness, heartbreak, and a cliff hanger ended that made me internally screaming! No spoilers, but DANG! That cliffhanger really did leave me at the edge of my seat. This book was great, I absolutely loved Lucy’s positivity and her overall personality, and even Cal’s grumpy tendencies revealed such a vulnerability to his character, also I just wanted to hug Lucy and Cal and let them know THEY ARE LOVED! The slow burn was pretty good, and I have a feeling in the next book there will be more angst. I need to get my hands on the second book! Definitely recommend!