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Her past. His secrets. They have more in common than
she knows.
Maisy is happily content with the life she's built for herself and her young
son in small-town Prescott, Montana. Her child is thriving, her business is
growing, and her family is as close as they've ever been. But when a handsome
stranger walks into the lobby of her motel, her simple life is swept up in a
wave of affection for his gentle heart. None of those feelings can be trusted,
though. She made that mistake before with another man. The man she murdered.
Hunter was a different man when he first saw Maisy Holt from afar. He took one
look at her and ran in the opposite direction. But years later, he's back in
Montana and unable to keep his distance. He shouldn't have tried to find her
but he never was good at rejecting temptation. The promise of the good she
could bring into his life is too hard to resist. Maybe if he can disguise the
lies and hide the deceit, he can keep her from learning the truth. Because his
only chance at a future with her is by burying his past.
Maisy survived a horrific event almost 4 years ago and was so traumatized she made significant changes in her life. She quit her nursing career and bought the local motel, renaming it The Bitterroot Inn. Her days and nights were devoted to her 3-year-old son and running and remodeling her inn. She was open to a relationship but a string of dismal first (and only) dates left her feeling that love was out of reach.
Enter Hunter Faraday. Staying in Maisy’s inn for several weeks while his new house was being completed meant they saw each other often, and the chemistry between them was instant and intense. But as they got closer it was obvious there was a lot Hunter wasn’t sharing. Questions about Hunter’s life were met with vague answers or outright evasion. Maisy’s past made her sensitive to any hint of deception, but she was willing to give Hunter the benefit of the doubt and see where things went. When secrets came to light and pieces start to fall into place, and what Maisy cherished most was threatened, she had to decide if she could trust again and truly close the door on the past.
Maisy Holt was pure joy. She was goodness personified. She was a beam of sunshine breaking through the clouds in my life.
I’d walked away from her back then.
I’d avoided her the last time I’d lived in Prescott.
I wouldn’t do either ever again. I wasn’t giving her up without a fight.
I’d come to Prescott with a plan: to look out for this beautiful soul. My plan had just changed. Now I was here to win her heart.
Maisy has been a constant side character throughout the Jamison Valley series, and it was wonderful to finally have the focus shift to her. A previous relationship had tragic results and I loved seeing Maisy’s resiliency and the life she had created for her young son, Coby, and herself. I appreciated the slow build of the relationship between she and Hunter and their connection seemed to strengthen and deepen so naturally. Well, not entirely naturally, because Hunter already knew who Maisy was and his appearance in the small town of Prescott was no coincidence. (I had to suspend believability a bit when it came to Maisy not realizing Hunter was the new doctor at the hospital, which was a point of contention. In a town as small as Prescott, and with her best friend working at the hospital, how did that information not make it back to her?) It was obvious that Hunter keeping secrets was going to backfire and it did – spectacularly. While I could understand Maisy’s reaction to some extent, I also felt she was partially to blame because by the time Hunter tried (many times) to share information with her, she refused to listen. At one point she even told him, “I don’t want to know. If whatever you have to say is going to hurt, then I don’t want to know.” After that, can you really blame Hunter when you’re blindsided by the truth at the most inopportune time?
Beyond the issue of secrets being kept and information withheld, I really loved the relationship that formed between Maisy and Hunter and Coby. Maisy’s first concern was always her son, so she took time before introducing Hunter into their daily lives. Coby adored Hunter and seeing how much Hunter returned those feelings turned my heart to goo. There was a pivotal scene when Hunter’s love and devotion to Coby was of full display and it brought me to tears. The family bond that was forged between the three of them was just precious.
The inclusion of all the characters from past books was like revisiting with old friends and made the reading experience even better. Add to that an epilogue that gave me all the feels and put a huge smile on my face, it all combined to show why Devney Perry is an author I return to again and again.
Reader. Reviewer. Blogger. Book Hoarder. Lover of Fictional Characters. List Maker. Makeup Junkie. Introvert. A wannabe princess with my own Prince Charming.
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