Rose Mathieson knows the only way is up. It has to be. She’s made some mistakes in her life, but almost losing her son is a wake-up call. More than that: it’s a call to action. It’s time to start again.
The town of Redemption, Connecticut, seems to offer exactly what she craves: a quiet, stable life for her and her six-year-old son, Olly. But Redemption has changed since she last saw it—or … it—or perhaps it’s just Rose who has changed. Her reputation precedes her now, and not everyone is happy to see her back.
Caden Shoreham is, though. Rose’s childhood neighbor, a preacher’s son, and now the pillar of the community, he’s embarking on an ambitious new path of his own. He had always hoped they might end up more than friends, but Rose Mathieson isn’t quite what his parents and friends had in mind for him.
Everyone deserves a chance—but has Rose used all her chances up?
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I won this from Goodreads Giveaways. I found that it was a wonderful novel about starting over and trying to find a path to better things. Rose didn’t have the best of childhoods, and tried to find love from working as a cook and then from a man who was more into partying then being a decent human being and father. He died young and she was left to raise her son and with help from her big brother she was doing ok. Yeah the money was tight and they had to move a lot because of cost for everything until she got fired and found her way into a bottle and got upset with her young son and it only took one time for her to realize she needed to ask for help. She asked her brother to take her son and she checked herself in to rehab. She decided to leave the city and moved to Redemption with her brother and her aunt. Her brother found love, and so did her aunt after years of dealing with an abusive husband. The gentleman across was the same guy who became her friend the few times she was able to visit her aunt and knew her secret of how bad her dad really was. He was a man who loved to help and in doing so she thought he was rescuing her but in fact she was rescuing him from a mom who tried to control his every move. It is a lovely story about 2nd chances and new love.
I really enjoyed reading this book. The characters were real and flawed and still found their happily ever after.
Rose had grown up in an emotionally abusive home after her mom died and her dad turned to alcohol. She and her older brother, Jake, couldn’t wait to get out of there. Jake had always been her protector and when Rose felt herself headed down a destructive path of alcohol and pain, she signed herself into a rehab center and gave her son to Jake to take care of until she could get her life back in order. After four months of rehab, she headed to Redemption, CT where her brother and his girlfriend and her aunt Cilla lived, right next door to the boy who had been a real friend to her when she was younger, Caden Shoreham.
Caden had been a preacher’s son and was perfect. Except he wasn’t. His life had been challenging, too, in different ways from Rose, but he always felt he had to be perfect and that had been exhausting and impossible. Once he reconnected with Rose, he couldn’t get enough of her, just being around her and talking to her. They were more honest with each other than they had ever been with anyone else in their life. Could they possibly have a happy ending with so much still unresolved in their lives?
This was a mostly clean book with very little language and no graphic sex. There was one sex scene in the book but it was mostly behind closed door or fade to black, without the details.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.