This is book six of the Starling Hill series and the main characters are Sophia Abella and Riley Jacobs. Sophia hasn’t had much luck with men over the last six years, having gotten married to a young Marine when she was twenty one and had only known Riley for some four weeks. The marriage lasted less than two years as he chose his life as a Marine over being married to her and keeping her feeling safe. She has had lots of internet online dates and is due to see her current online beau Bruce, for the first time ever in her Italian restaurant this evening. He lets her down yet again, but the restaurant gets an unexpected visitor in the appearance of her ex-husband Riley! He has returned to the small town to be with her at last and also to take on the role of Chief of Police, after finally leaving the Marines. It has been some six years since Sophia last saw him and she thought she was over the heartbreak he had caused her, but the attraction is still there, no matter how much she says she hates him still.
They are both twenty nine now and Sophia runs a pretty successful Italian restaurant now, her dream of running the family restaurant and taking over from her father, who she calls Daddy-o, now a reality. Riley has the job he always wanted as a police officer, but it still could come with danger, as he still goes out on patrol even as the police chief. The danger that could occur when he was a marine, was too much for Sophia when the reality of loss came really close to her and Riley. Now she wants to change Riley and keep him safe, something he isn’t willing to do. No matter how electric they are together and the fact they both still love and haven’t really gotten over each other, they are still having issues in communicating their own needs and desires, out of the bedroom that is! Going forward with their marriage will take time and work from both of them. It’s not going to be as easy as it seems, for these two to come to an agreement of what they want from each other and marriage. It takes a bit of time for the real reasons behind their initial split to reveal the truth from both sides, as you start thinking one thing and finally find out the full story and how each coped in their early days. They are more mature now and don’t have the same pressures on their relationship, but real life will still throw in a curve ball or two. Sophia has had to live through all her relative’s children, when she wants children of her own. She needs to figure out if Riley has changed his previous stance on children and if their list of wants for marriage, can truly align. A longer read than maybe needed, but you get to see the story from both sides and see how things should work out in their second chance at marriage. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.