A sexy, summer camp-set reunion romance from debut author Lissa Linden When Amy left her beloved summer camp, heartbroken and ashamed, she swore she’d never return. Twelve years later, she’s desperate to unearth the person she was before turning into a workaholic. When her old camp advertises for a new director, Amy leaps at the chance to start over–only to find herself face-to-face with the … with the very guy who broke her heart.
Paul hasn’t forgotten kissing Amy beneath a shooting star, or how she bolted from camp without saying goodbye. When she shows up to take the job he never thought he’d leave, Paul can hardly believe his luck. Amy is now a woman with killer curves and a sexual appetite to match. With serious vibes between them, and him nearly dead from the celibacy of life at camp, they strike a deal for a few days of sexy fun in the wilderness.
But when feelings that started long ago enter the mix and it becomes clear Amy will only trust him with her body–not her heart–Paul desperately wants to break through the armor she’s built to protect herself. And although Amy knows there’s something special about the way she reacts to Paul, something beyond skin on skin, the stakes are high enough to scare her.
With a past like theirs, they’ll either ignite a future…or burn out for good.
This book is approximately 78,000 words
One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!
Edited by Kerri Buckley
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A light-hearted, sexy read about adults who fall for each other a second time around in summer camp.
Super steamy second chance at love story set at an off-season summer camp. If only the great out doors could be this much fun!
Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Avid Reader –
M/F Romance – Second chance
First off, I would categorize this more as a young adult, coming of age story, but you only really get to see the grown up version of the characters, so it was somewhat strange.
Amy and Paul grew up seeing each other for one-week increments during the summer. However, for that one week, they were the best of friends and as they got older, they became more… or at least Amy thought so. However, when Paul’s secret is revealed, Amy leaves and never looks back.
Paul didn’t know why Amy had left like she had and for several years, he has pined over her. He was able to live his dream, but now realizes that something is lost or missing in his life. He decides, kind of on a whim, that he needs a drastic change.
Amy is going through the motions of life but isn’t living. When her eyes are sprung open to that, she knows that she needs to find a place that makes her happy. That place where she can dream again and not worry about someone else’s dreams.
Amy heads back to the place that she was once the happiest in her life and there, she finds Paul. This is where the story takes on a much different feel. For me, it went from a second chance romance beginning to a young adult story. Amy was emotionally stunted and Paul as well. Neither was really past their young selves enough to know or act like mature adults.
And despite the emotional twists and turns in this story and the truth reveals, despite the sexual chemistry between the two characters, they had very poor communication and had to learn what a relationship was throughout the story.
So, while it was a sweet second chance romance, it was more young adult than I was expecting.
Sarah –
I usually love all the feels in a good summer camp story, but while this one had some very sweet and sexually charged moments, it didn’t entirely work for me.
I think my big issue is with the characters. Amy and Paul seem to have both been emotionally frozen at the age of sixteen. They both carry an unbelievable amount of emotional baggage from their teenage camp romance. Honestly, the angst in this story feels totally disproportionate to Amy and Paul’s previous relationship and neither Amy nor Paul seems to have done any genuine adulting in the decade since they last met. I found Amy’s lack of self-confidence and her need for perpetual self-reinvention annoying, and I hated the way Paul just seemed to coast through life, insulated by his inheritance in a fluffy bubble of white boy privilege.
There are some great camp scenes of hiking, canoeing, and shelter building – but camp romances are usually about young adult/new adult characters and with older characters, much of the self-discovery magic is missing.
Reviewers received a free copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.