New York Times bestselling author Lexi Ryan brings you Every Sweet Regret, a sexy standalone romance about a single dad and the reformed party girl who’s loved him all her life. For as long as I can remember, Kace Matthews has been my brother’s best friend and my not-so-secret crush. But I knew nothing would ever happen between us. The successful single dad doesn’t fall for the hot mess party … fall for the hot mess party girl. Kace + Stella exists in the doodles in my high school notebooks and in my dreams. Never in real life.
Until he finds me on a hookup app and starts flirting shamelessly.
It turns out high school Stella was not prepared for Kace Matthews. Adult Stella isn’t much better, but I manage to break down the walls to show Kace the real me—not just the life-of-the-party exterior, but the vulnerable pieces I hide from the world. Combine that with the combustible chemistry we have in real life, and I’m a goner.
Too bad it takes me so long to realize Kace doesn’t know I’m the girl he’s been falling for online. Telling him the truth now that he knows my secrets could mean losing everything, and that’s one regret that could break me.
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“Come to the door so I can tell you to your face how I feel.”
Jeez… the feels in this book. I found myself crying when I finished it yesterday, long past my bedtime for someone who has to work the following day. At the same time, it’s such a wonderfully sweet book I also found myself giggling and laughing out loud during some parts of it.
These are both flawed, real, sweet, clueless, and so so so wonderful characters.
Kace is the single dad, seemingly still caught up in his former marriage because he can’t get why it ended and what he did wrong.
Stella is a former party girl, who is looking for something else, but everyone still sees her for who she was. As a result, she still sees herself as a mess and not enough.
“What does she have that I don’t?”
Stella’s had feeling for Kace for a long time, but never in a million years did she think he would reciprocate. Because, well, she’s Stella. She’s a screw-up, she made mistakes, one in particular she doesn’t want to share with anyone.
“I won’t shave my beard because I don’t want Stella to be less attracted to me…”
Kace is so physically attracted to her that their shameless flirting left me giddy at times. But what happens when he realizes flirting has turned into something else? Or maybe that it’s been there all this time?
“I realized I should tell you that Who Framed Roger Rabbit was my favorite movie when I was a kid.”
Not giving too much away regarding how this connects with the book, because you REALLY need to read it, this sentence means so much to me. This was my favorite movie as a kid. And seeing it in the background of this book brought back feelings as well.
“I want your promises and your smiles and your vulnerable moments—not perfection.”
Bottom line is… there are so many wonderful moments in this book. It is a best friend’s sister, second chance story, yes. But I think it’s mostly a story about life, you know? About one side realizing they need to let go of what happened in the past and realizing they were not to blame, and the other being able to see what they have to offer is more than enough.
And love is often found in perfect moments between imperfect people.
This is going down as one of the best books I read all year.
Oh I just love me an unrequited love story. And even better if it’s brother’s best friend! Lexi Ryan adds in the yummy single dad vs the party girl and shows different, vulnerable sides of them both. This is an emotional, steamy book that I hits all my easy buttons!
I love “falling for your brother’s best friend” romances and this one doesn’t disappoint!
Kace and Stella’s story was full of stolen moments and misunderstandings. Navigating the way through almost costs them a chance at HEA. When they both finally admit their true feelings they get what they want.
Loved Stella and Kace story!! It was great to see how the story built and both of them got over all the pain inflicted from the past.
omg that book was incredible i could stop reading it. If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on NōvelStar.
“Every Sweet Regret” by Lexi Ryan featured likeable characters and a well-paced friends-to-lovers romance between female lead Stella and her brother’s best friend Kace. Their chemistry was apparent from the start, but things between them were complicated because of Kace’s lingering feelings for his ex-wife, Amy, and the fact that he considered Stella to be off limits because of his friendship with her brother. Kace also had concerns about Stella’s reputation as a party girl and how it might impact his young daughter, Hope. Stella had been working diligently to get her life on track, however, and desperately wanted Kace and everyone else in her life to recognize how far she had come.
I really enjoyed the way Kace and Stella connected in their chats through the app, even though Kace didn’t realize he was talking to Stella at the time. He was painfully awkward in his approach to dating, however, especially in the way that he discussed both his ex-wife and the other woman he was “dating” with Stella! My heart broke for her every time Kace brought up the “other woman” from the app, especially when he would say things that were unintentionally disparaging of Stella.
Overall, “Every Sweet Regret” was an intensely emotional but ultimately satisfying read, and I would recommend it for all fans of emotional contemporary romance. I look forward to reading more of Lexi Ryan’s work in the future.
*Review copy provided by the author via Grey’s Promotions. All opinions expressed are my own.
This one was kind of a tangled web. I liked that Stella lived life as she wanted, but didn’t let any man walk all over her. It made me sad that most men tried to, though. Kace had that protective nature over Stella, but was kind of hot and cold when it came to her. The timing was off and a relationship was almost forbidden, as she was his best friend’s little sister. The temptation was there, but there were always roadblocks. The app that brought them together was interesting as it helped Kace sort through his feelings, but made everything confusing to Stella. The ex just kind of baffled me, and she was another part of this crazy journey. I enjoyed the book though.
I am keeping this kind of vague without spoilers, so please bear with it. I recieved and ARC for this book in exhange for an unbaised, honest, and spoiler free review.
I have never read Lexi Ryan, and it is always a risk jumping into the middle of a series. But you do not have to read book 1 in the Orchid Valley Series. This is a complete standalone. This book centers around Stella Jacob and Kace Matthews. These two have danced around each other for a long time, but neither has acted on them. Stella is stereotyped as this wild party girl, when she works so hard to try and break from that. Kace is a steady, divorcee that is sometimes clouded by other peoples opinions. I really loved Kace and Stella together, but it says even more when you love the characters separately. They both had their strengths, and weaknesses. There are things in their pasts that shape who they are, but a lot of the shaping of Kace is based on misconceptions. This doesn’t change him as a person, but it does open his eyes to the real truths in front of him. There were times where Kace, while smart, but oh so dumb at the same time….I feel like he didn’t want to open his eyes to some obvious moments. I don’t fault Stella for acting and reacting the way that she did, but thank goodness Kace saw what was in front of him. I gave this only 4 stars, because I felt like almost wasn’t enough follow-through with the situation with the ex-wife. It was handled well, but I felt like it needed more. This was a well written, well thought out book, and you will not be dissapointed.
Stella is a wild child, and Kace is a newly divorced father. She is his best friend little sister, and she is also best friends with Kaces sister….so you can understand that they might worry about any crushesor feelings they may want to act on!
From the get go, their chemistry jumped off the pages. Lots of flirty banter and eventually sexual inuendos.
Stella has been using an app called Random to find dates, it’s essentially a hookup app/ site. She hadn’t been having the greatest luck. Kaces ex signs him up on Random, and he’s quickly matched to an account that has a Jessica Rabbit avatar, to Kase he sees this as the woman not being all about looks and more about talking.
So he begins a conversion with this mystery woman and it really helps them both with the issues they both have been having. While speaking to this person, Kace and Stella do become closer.
I loved their journey, and though it was tough at times, they surprisingly leaned on each other and their friends to get through it all and see if they can make things work.
This is my first book by Lexi Ryan but definitely will not be my last!
I would like to thank the author, Lexi Ryan and Greys Promotion for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
great characters……this series continues I hope with future releases….satisfy read
4 STARS
Review by Leah
Late Night Reviewer
Up All Night w/ Books Blog
The two that you know would be fire if they would ever get together. Every Sweet Regret by Lexi Ryan is a “sweet” brother’s best friend’s story.
Stella “Jessica Rabbit” I feel in love with. I understand where Lexi Ryan was coming from but it irks me when people label someone a “wild child”, “party chick”. Reading you will see she gave her heart away years ago to Kace. And no one will live up to Kace or anyone that she has found yet. I give her props for not settling. I love the back and forth between Kace and Stella through “Random”. Even though Kace did not know it was Stella, thanks Abbi. You get to see inside of Stella’s heart. And I LOVE that she did not stoop down to Kace’s ex-wife level and spew all the information she knew.
Kace was a little wishy-washy at first. Drove me batty how hung up on his ex he was. Just reading her I knew she was a sneaky little snit. And her coming back when she sees Kace being happy again??? OH Heck No! But my man stood up for Stella and made his stance known each and every time. And put the ex right in her place. Bravo, you won me back at that one.
I enjoyed reading about Kace and Stella. Parts were a little frustrating but overall a great read.
I love a brother’s best friend romance and this wild child/single dad story hits my sweet spot!
Every sweet regret by Lexi Ryan is the second in the Orchid Valley series, if you remember well the first is Every Little Piece of Me that I read and reviewed and you can find my review on Goodreads
In the first book we got to know Marston and Brinley, in this second volume we read about the story of Stella and Kace.
Stella is a girl who loves to have fun, loves life and above all loves to keep her crush on Kace, her brother’s best friend.
Kace is a single father, recently divorced but still very close to his ex-wife.
Kace has always thought how great Stella was, but only recently she started to notice how beautiful and attractive she was and so she decided to make her move.
At the same time he gets to know Stella, he also meets a girl on a dating app.
What Kane didn’t know is that the person he was chatting with on the dating app was Stella.
This made me laugh a little bit and not. Stella thought that the person she was talking to was Kane, but if in person she shows herself to be a person, she looks like a different guy in chat.
Stella showed herself to be very fragile in this situation, let’s say that with a little more strength things could have gone differently.
Kane did not excite me and this is the first time something like this has happened with Lexi that one of his male protagonists does not excite me.
I liked the story, but in my opinion it had much greater potential given how the protagonists were presented.
Surely I would have changed many things and cut others, but overall Lexi Ryan remains my favorite one click romance author!
ARC provided by Grey’s Promo in exchange of an honest review
For the most part I really enjoyed this book! It held my attention from the very beginning and was a pretty quick read! It had me laughing some parts and feeling the feels in others. The only thing I wish we got more of in this book is more of the single dad, father daughter aspect. Hope is such a fun little girl I wish we got more of her! That’s just me though! I love a single dad romance!!! I would definitely recommend this book and others that are in this series!!
Received an arc for a honest review
I loved Stella and was ready to get her story after reading the first book in this series. I am really enjoying the Orchid Valley series.
Stella and Jase were perfect for each other. They have amazing chemistry and you can tell they are attracted to each other. The way their story played out was perfect for them. Lexi Ryan sure has a way of telling a story.
If you haven’t started this series what are you waiting for. They will pull you in from the first page.
I honestly do not know how to not love a Lexi Ryan story. Her stories are thought provoking, emotional and never journey in a straight line. When I first started reading her work, I playfully used to say “She loooooooooooooooooves her triangles that sometimes are possibly pentagons hiding in a hexagon” about almost every story I read LOL and years later it is almost always true! Her stories live in the grey area of life; they’re just never black or white, which is fantastic because that’s where real life lives, in the greys. I’m always excited to read her stories because I know that on some level, they will be relatable and on all the levels they will be realistic.
The relationship between Kace and Stella had spark from the very beginning. The had a connection as friends already and you feel in the prose the simmer of more as you read. Another attribute I love about Lexi. She’s a word wizard kids! The choices she made for them, in my opinion, were perfect for not only their personalities, but their circumstances. Here’s the part I remind you I don’t give away plot points so that will have to suffice lol
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there are some circumstances in this story that maybe were a bit too much or took up too much time on the page (again, no plot points) but even with those thoughts, I just can’t give this story less than the 4.5 stars rounded to 5 it so richly deserves!
Can you imagine finding your long time crush on a hook-up app and having him swiping right on your profile only to find out that he has no ideas that he’s talking to his best friend’s sister?
Between the flirting, the messages, and the steamy moments I couldn’t stop reading Kane and Stella’s story. Plus, I wasn’t expecting that little shock to the story twist that Lexi threw in there.
I can’t wait for more about this group of friends, so many great characters that I don’t know who I want to know more about.
Love single parent romances. Love intense, emotional writing. Love Lexi Ryan! Grab this one!
I love a single parent romance. Kace is a single dad that appears to still have feelings for his ex-wife. Stella is Kace sister’s best friend. She has had the hots for Kace FOREVER. Can you say “COMPLICATED”?! Yikes.
This story has “ALL KINDS” of drama. Misunderstandings, dating app, mean ex-wife, and a full cast of characters drive this story. As all becomes revealed, well I was ticked for both of our main characters.
Finding feelings of self-worth and standing up to someone who has done you wrong are all part of this story’s journey. LOVE IT! Stella’s evolution was a beautiful thing to see. Kace maintained who he was throughout this story until his confrontation with his ex. I was actually shocked at all he knew. It was the one part of the storyline that was out of character to me. Fortunately i still got the amazing ending I was looking for. Wink.
Happy Reading Everyone!