“Now there was nothing holding me back. I kissed her deeply, passionately. Kissed her for every time I’d wanted to and couldn’t. For every time I’d stared at her with longing in my heart, wishing we could be where we were now.”It’s never too late. Loving a woman you can’t have isn’t easy. Ben Gaines knows this all too well. He endured the slow torture of watching Shannon Miles live a life with … Shannon Miles live a life with another man—a man who didn’t deserve her—but he doesn’t regret a minute of it. And he has his reasons.
Now, she’s free. No longer shackled to a loveless marriage, bound to someone who was unfaithful and heartless.
But Shannon thinks her time has passed. That she won’t get another chance at love, especially with Ben. The man who’s been there to see it all. Her mistakes. Her hurt. Her heartache.
If only she knew. Ben loves her with everything he is, and he wants nothing more in life than to spend every moment with her. After all, he’s waited a long time for his chance.
It’s time for their happily ever after.
Author’s note: A sexy silver fox who’s waited half his life for the woman he loves. A peek into the past. And the happily ever after you’ve been waiting for. Finally.
The Miles Family is best enjoyed in order.
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I found the Miles family right after I read the first Bootleg Springs book, so Roland’s story was my first book really that I read by Claire Kingsley and I was in love with the whole Miles family by the end of the first chapter!
I can’t tell you how much I wanted Ben and Shannon together from the beginning. I love this story so much, and I’m going to miss the Miles family so much! Claire, you did a fabulous job from beginning to end. Thank you for bringing the Miles family to life, I can’t wait to see what’s next!
Oh, the Miles family. I’ve enjoyed this series so much. This novella was a gift from Claire Kingsley all wrapped up in a bow. Shannon and Ben are over 55. It’s unusual age bracket for a romance, but everything about this works. Having spent time with this family, reading their romances, why not Ben and Shannon’s story? This novella really taps into how Shannon felt at this point in her life after everything she’d been through. I mean, Ben has been truly on the sidelines, admiring from afar, waiting; it’s just beautiful to see them together. Thank you for this novella; I loved it.
A beautiful love letter
This culmination of the Miles family series felt like a love letter from the author to her readers. Every word was passionate and true, and I savored it. This book was so lovely, it took the sting out of the series ending! A perfect beautifully wrapped gift, tied up with shiny ribbon!
What a beautiful and poignant ending to the phenomenal Miles family series.
Each book in the series has become so much more and Claire Kingsley’s superb story telliing culminated in this amaing second chance story, that was in making for over 25 years. Learning about Ben’s heartbreak brought me to tears; and seeing him finally finding his forever with Shannon, having support of ALL the children as he decided to make his move, and sealing the deal oh his very first date with Shannon was the absolute BEST!
I knew it! I had an inkling that Ben’s and Shannon’s story would blow me away and touch my heart with every word. This story was soft and beautiful, but still packed a knock-out punch straight to the heart. It was everything. Let me just say that again for the people in the back:
IT. WAS. EVERYTHING . . . Everything I hoped, wished, and dreamed for this couple.
Every moment–the trip back in time, the romantic gestures–every glance, every touch, every nuance . . . magnifique!
Since the beginning of the Miles Family Series, the chemistry between Ben and the family’s matriarch, Shannon did not go by unnoticed. Much like other readers, I’ve been rooting for this couple ever since. CK definitely did not let the Ben and Shannon Fan Club down when she brought this couple’s story to the forefront, and the Miles Family Series has now come full circle.
I just love and adore the maturity of this couple’s love. It’s like smooth jazz–sexy and sultry and so romantic. I know this is fiction, but the love Ben and Shannon share makes me look forward to the years ahead with my husband.
Claire Kingsley is such a graceful writer, too. You only have to read the romance in her words, the way everything she writes is hypnotizing and flows so smoothly, it’s hard not to become entranced with the story. Another thing I enjoy about Kingsley’s writing is the way that her characters always seem to come to life for me. I feel like I know Ben and Shannon, that I’ve met them, enjoyed chit chat at dinner, shared a hug or even a glass of their famous wine with them over a bonfire; that I’ve benefitted from their advice and the wisdom of their experience. I just can’t say enough about these two without having a gushy smile plastered to my face.
I know I’m not the only one who has immensely enjoyed reading the Miles Family series and is a little sad that this is the last book to feature this loving family. Who’s up for a re-read?!
Shannon Miles finally gets her HEA! What a sweet ending to a great series. Throughout the Miles family series, we all knew that Shannon and Ben were meant to be together.
This novella was a beautiful ending to the Miles family story. I loved the flashbacks to when he first met the boys and how they touched his heart. How he fell in love with them first and stayed for them. How he kept his distance from Shannon until after her divorce and until she was ready to move on. And once he knew, oh how he went for what he wanted! WOW, silver fox Benjamin pulling out the stops and romancing her! Swoon!
If you’ve read my reviews of previous books in this series, you may have noticed that I didn’t mention a certain character. Benjamin Gaines.
It was not on purpose.
In fact, Ben is an important character throughout the series.
He has been working at winery for over 20 years. A man now over 50 years old, who was fleeing from a pain, and found with the Miles family the cure for a heart that no longer beat.
He is head over heels for Shannon. But don’t think that this love was “instant love”, quite the contrary; time had made him aware of her long before she was divorced.
Ben was patient. He watched the Miles boys grow up; he saw Brynn born; he watched the winery’s prosperity, as well as the downfall because of Mr. Miles’ mismanagement, and finally saw the love of his life get divorced. Now was the time for him to act.
There is also a tradition among this family of “burning the mattress”; it’s a certain very important – and funny – rite of passage, and I’ll let you find out in your reading how it all started.
The romance between Shannon and Ben starts slowly from the first book, and the reader builds the anticipation, so this book here is perfect.
A mature love, of two people who know what they want; companionship, complicity are part of the package.
In fact, each book in the series the reader knows a piece of the big board of the game called family. Not everything is beautiful, not everything is perfect, but when there is love, everything falls into place.
Meet the Miles and fall in love.
10 stars
I love this novella. I love reading the story of Ben and Shanon, it makes the story of the Miles/Gained family comes full circle. It’s so fun to read romance with older, mature characters. Beautiful series.
Love at its best
Shannon and Ben.
Friends forever and in love with each other almost as long.
Finally Shannon gets what she wanted and deserved years ago when she married Lawrence.
Benjamin finally able to express what he has been feeling for the past couple of decades.
All the kids see the looks that are sent between the two.
The final epic point is Benjamin when he sets his own matress on fire.
A fantastic end to a great series
This is the final book in he series. I’ve read them all. Now, Ben Gaines has the woman he has longed for most of his life. He met Shannon over 20 years ago as he carried a naked two year old back to the winery main house. Little Cooper had run off to play in the dirt of the grape fields. She was a gentle soul, over-worked with her duties as a wife, mother and mistress of the vineyard. All these years he had watched her raise children and care for others while her husband became less and less part of the family. He, of course, not only had wanderlust but also others in his life and was a scoundrel of the worst sort. Now was Ben’s chance to find happiness with the ex-husband gone, family raised and he could tell her how much he wanted to be part of her life forever. It’s a great novella! I smiled, got up in the middle of the night to finish this great love story, and, enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks Ms.Kingsley for writing Ben’s story. A second-chance at true love and happiness is my favorite and the writing was excellent.
Great to see the matriarch get her HEA. Not a full story like the others, but an important transition from the Miles family to the Gaines/Miles family, and from Salishan to Tilikum.
The Miles Family series is complete with Gaining Miles. In many ways Ben and Shannon’s love story is the most tender and heartwarming of all. It’s all hands on deck as the Miles kids shepherd their mother and Ben’s romance. Their troubles are finally behind them, there’s a happiness surrounding them as the final piece of the Miles family clicks into place.
This was a beautiful end to this series. As the family moves past everything they have been through over the past two years, the future looks bright. I love Shannon. She has been so strong for her family even through her heartbreak, anger, and worries. I love seeing her support her adult kids and enjoy her grandchildren. I love Ben’s story and the friendship he built with Shannon over the years. More than that, I love that he stepped in and was a solid father figure to the Miles kids that they so desperately needed since their father was not there for them. Nothing said this more than when Brynn asked him to be the one to walk her down the aisle. I love how we can see in a flashback that includes a baby Cooper Miles just how he fell in love with those kids. I really adored how Ben courts Shannon and lets her know how he feels about her before he takes her on a date. Beautiful!
This is a romance with two mature people who understand what a gift love is. Perfect!
The perfect book to conclude the Miles family saga. You’ve seen Ben throughout the series, taking care of everyone, being the father figure when they need it. The friend when they need it, and in the back of her mind the romantic idea that Shannon needed to help her get over her first marriage. Not a lot of books out there tackle the love of the older generations and I think that’s one reason this book was so loved, it was something we all never knew we needed!
The final installment of the Miles Family series and can I just say… FINALLY, Shannon gets the Happily Ever After she deserves after everything she went through. And Ben. For an older man… wow! Just wow!
This is a novella and the perfect beautiful ending to this series, as sad as that makes me because I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to this family yet. Not even close to being ready. Good thing I can go back and re-read them over and over again. But there is nothing like that first time read. I am extremely jealous of everyone who gets to experience this series for the first time.
Ben and Shannon are everything that is good and beautiful about this series. The icing on top of the cake. The perfect ending to a beautiful series. I adore everything about the way Ben cares for Shannon through all of it. I couldn’t imagine a better outcome for them or for the entire family as we see each of them and their HEA’s in this little novella as well.
And this novella gives the perfect opening to the newest family series coming soon by Claire Kingsley and you bet I am here for that! I can’t wait!
If you haven’t read any of the Miles Family yet, I don’t know what you’re waiting for, but go… now! Start with Broken Miles and work your way through, I promise the lost time is worth it!!
Five stars for the perfect ending to one of my favorite series!
Ben loves the Miles children and has been around 26 years. Shannon has had a lot of bad stuff happen to her but with her family and Ben’s friendship she in a good place. Ben has been secretly in love with Shannon and now is the time to let her know but she thinks she’s too old. Can Ben change her mind? Great characters and storyline. Such a perfect ending and new beginnings. Loved it
Gaining Miles is a great conclusion to the Miles Family series, and it makes me want to visit Salishan Cellars.
I have been waiting years for Ben and Shannon to get their happily-ever-after. They certainly have been through enough over the years together that they deserve happiness. Ben has not only been there for Shannon throughout the entire series, but he has been a surrogate father to all of the Miles siblings, and he’s been amazing. The strong, stoic, protective type that has put their needs before his own.
This was such a lovingly written conclusion to the Miles Family series.
Finally love for two deserving people. Sweet, romantic, touching, and lovely.
Gaining Miles (Miles Family #5) by Claire Kingsley is a contemporary, small town, friends to lovers romance novella told in first person, dual POV.
After seeing the two of them interact throughout the series, this book tells is the long-awaited love story between Shannon Miles and Ben Gaines. Their history is one of heartbreak, grief, unrequited love, and bad timing, but their clocks are finally in sync and the time is right.
I really enjoyed this story. As I read the previous books, I loved Shannon and Ben as characters. It was so great to see them finally get their happy ending. This was sweet, romantic, and heart-warming. A feel-good read and a great way to end the series. I’m looking forward to more glimpses of the Miles family with their half-sister, Grace, in the upcoming spin-off series the Bailey brothers.
Great finish to the series. Really glad to see Ben and Shannon got their own story.
Well edited.
The four Miles children have found their HEA’s and the trouble Lawrence Miles caused is put behind the family. The winery is safe and prospering. Shannon is ready to enjoy her children’s happiness and all the grandchildren they have to offer. Love just isn’t a thing for her anymore. Or is it? There’s one person who has stood in the background for the past 20-something years. Ben has been there to work the winery, help with the kids, watch over her, and see the destruction Lawrence left in her life. But Ben has been waiting patiently for the day he can finally lay claim to Shannon’s heart. Will she allow him in? Or does she think she is past all that love stuff?
What a satisfying conclusion to the Miles Family saga. And bonus, we met the Bailey brother’s, finally found out a little more about Grace’s fiance, and know her story will be told. Yay! Enjoy!