It’s Cliffside Bay and beyond in this heartwarming enemies-to-lovers romantic adventure from USA Today bestselling author Tess Thompson.Stone Hickman is the last of a dying breed. The former Marine believes in integrity, service to his country, a hard day’s work, and taking care of his loved ones. When he meets the clever Pepper Griffin, their obvious attraction has him ready to count the … the stunning beauty among the people that he cares for. But Pepper doesn’t share the instant connection. In fact, she wants nothing to do with him. And for honest, straightforward Stone, not knowing why only makes the rejection worse.
Pepper Griffin is the epitome of scrappy. For years she’s struggled to make acting her career without any help at all from her famous father. While she’s still accepting meager roles with little screen time, her best friend has steadily risen to the height of fame. To make matters worse, that very same friend is happily in love, newly engaged, and wants poor Pepper, whose love life is as sad and pathetic as her last film role, to serve as her maid-of-honor while Pepper’s enemy, Stone Hickman, is sure to be the groom’s best man.
Though Pepper despises the best man, she loves the bride-to-be more. To keep the peace, Pepper willingly includes Stone in the wedding planning process. When the unlikely pair find themselves stranded in a snowstorm while searching for the perfect venue, they’ll have to work together to survive the chill even if that means thawing Pepper’s heart.
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Omg stone and pepper are great people and have complicated pasts.
I am sooooo sad for Stones past. He deserves a break.
Pepper is funny and so careing. I love how they went away to help friends and finally gave in to their feelings and destiny.
Stone was a protector born and bred through a childhood that constantly “rained cans of peas” (I love that expression). After tours of duty and his family being together once again he found himself longing for and loving the spit fire that was Pepper. Pepper had landed back in Cliffside Bay watching her best friends find love and soar in their careers while hers became stagnant. She had to fight off the green monster of jealousy and envy as she watched them and fought off Stone. Their story and the last line of the book just felt good. The battles and the growth, their dreams and successes. It’s so well done that you want to believe the possibilities. The friends and family love and support. The growth of the siblings as they learned to receive and give forgiveness. The story isn’t just about Stone and Pepper working through the obstacles that continued to bombard them in their personal lives but also about them working through being together. The siblings, Kyle, Autumn and Stone have some other challenges to deal with as well. Love is a powerful weapon that can heal when yielded with a forgiving heart.
Pepper can best be described as sassy, fun and sweet but certain events, that she’s hidden from those she loves, have left her scared and never healed and still hiding behind the sass and fun side. Stone has had his share of bad events in his life also but, as the opposite of Pepper, he is honest and open. Read and find out how they heal each other
Great relationship development.
It was a very good story. Typical type story of someone who has been in the service.
A great town of diverse characters…..
I have loved this whole series!
I liked all the books in this series.
The loss of a loved one can be impossible to recover from. It takes special care and consideration to open your heart to love again.
Even though this couple is struggling individually, when they are thrown together to help their friends it becomes possible for them to accomplish so much more.
Too much telling of how wonderful the two main characters are. Sort of like the author was trying to fill pages instead of more story line.
You feel you are part of this book!
An interesting book but not interesting enough that I would look for the rest os the series. Probably a little less than 4 stars
Loved Stone and Pepper’s story.
Clean without sex and bad languge
Two people with lots of baggage learn to love.
These characters are uniquely broken but able to repair each other. Of the series, Pepper is so zaney that she is lovable.
This was not nearly as good as the others in the series. Pepper is too much of a winer for my taste.
I wasn’t sure how this book was going to read but it was very good. The characters were very well written and realistic. The plot was very believable and could be inspirational to many hurt people. Good read!!
A good read.
Great characters