Summer has moved back to Austin, Texas, after years away in college and teaching in California, and she finds out that the school her grandmother founded is imminently being gentrified. She goes to the site to walk down memory lane—and maybe take some souvenirs—and runs into an old high school crush she’d had a missed connection with at their prom. Unfortunately, that old crush is working for the developer that is taking over the school site, which Summer is actively protesting, but Summer and Aiko find themselves falling together anyway… even as Aiko is encouraged to use Summer’s interest in her to get her to stop protesting the project.
I’m not one with a strong preference for single POV or dual POV romance novels, but in this case I think dual POV really serves the story best. Getting views into both Aiko and Summer’s lives helped to establish the stakes and weave their story together in a way that made it so that they couldn’t escape each other. Some of the narration style was not my preference, as it tended toward description and scene-setting that often felt too wordy. A lot of the dialogue and internal monologue also read unnaturally, for largely the same reasons—excessive description and detail—especially when in Summer’s POV about her work and her activism. Frankly, a lot of her scenes at work felt like a child development lecture. I did enjoy the educator/educational activism angle, it just felt pretty heavy-handed at times. A critical-eyed editor could have gone a long way to smoothing out the writing.
Overall I liked both characters, and I believed their connection, even though I was raging a bit at Aiko for entertaining the “make a connection to stop Summer’s activism” suggestion. Making sure the development project at the old school site went ahead might not have been her sole motivation in reconnecting with Summer, but the fact that it was a factor at all made me view her uncharitably at times. Regardless, they had strong chemistry and I definitely believed that they were attracted enough to each other to try to make the “agree-to-disagree” thing work.
There is definitely spice in this book: it’s so open-door that there may not actually be a door in the room at all. I don’t mind that, but it’s definitely something to note for some readers. In addition to sex scenes, there are also discussions among characters about those scenes, which are also explicit, and extensive use and discussion of sex toys as well. The characters have healthy conversations and perspectives on sex and they are covered pretty extensively within the context of the story. I think the sexual connection is a critical part to understanding Summer and Aiko’s relationship, but I would say some of the scenes can like they’re there just to be there (rather than to advance the story).
Ultimately, I found that the resolution of Summer and Aiko’s story was a little too tidy for my taste, but it’s a sub-300 page romance, so I’m not exactly expecting prolonged messiness. I enjoyed the audio narrator (though bumped up the speed a bit to find a good pace for my preference), the overall story arc, and the cast of characters. I think Kianna Alexander’s strength is crafting compelling characters, so if that’s something that you prioritize, definitely consider reading her work!
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