Rating: ★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 352 pages
Author: Bethany Turner
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: July 15th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Wes left Addie at the altar two decades ago . . . and that was supposed to be the end of the story.

When her life crashes and burns in a flurry of secrets and redacted information, Addie Atwater-Elwyn hightails it home to the tiny mountain town of Adelaide Springs, Colorado–back to living with her dad, back to working a low-paying job, back to a life of disappointments. Growing up, nobody expected their local girl to become a high-ranking CIA analyst, married to a gorgeous CIA operative. But that was Addie’s life until she lost . . . well, everything.

Now she’s trying to pick up the pieces of her broken life with a little help from old friends. But there’s one old friend she knows her life is better without–Wesley Hobbes, her childhood sweetheart who left her standing at the altar when they were eighteen years old. Truth be told, Addie would be perfectly content never seeing Wes’s stupid face ever again–which makes it very inconvenient that he’s now a beloved senator and presidential frontrunner, his face everywhere she looks. But that has nothing to do with Addie personally. He might make history, but in her book, he is history.

So, when the unwelcome Wes appears back in their hometown, no one rolls out the red carpet–not Addie and not an entire town that was forced to pick sides (and unanimously chose Addie) decades ago. Senator Hobbes certainly won’t win the popular vote in Adelaide Springs.

Wes, meanwhile, is sitting on a few secrets of his own, including the political scoop of the decade: he’d seriously rather gouge his eyes out than spend another minute in politics, much less ever go anywhere near the White House. Addie knows there has to be more to the story, and her curiosity is clouding her judgment. You can take the girl out of the CIA, but it’s not so easy to shake the CIA out of the girl. Of course, it’s not just curiosity (and the acknowledgement that his face isn’t so stupid after all) that’s been reawakened inside her. But after more than two decades, it’s too late. Wes and Addie already had their chance. Right?

Thank you to Thomas Nelson and Bibliolifestyle for the gifted copy.

NOT SURE.

This is definitely my least favorite of the series AND on that note, this book really can’t be read as a standalone. I feel like it falls on you knowing the secondary characters well (from their books) so having that knowledge makes the dynamic make more sense.

I steadily watched this turn into a trauma dump. It felt like one thing after another and I kept quirking my head going, why are we adding this?? I think if the focus had been dialed in more the emotional impact would have been better. The themes darted all over the place.

One of the things about reading romance books is always going, do they make it after the epilogue? And honestly I DON’T KNOW THAT THEY DO. There’s so much baggage between them and I think that Wes should have finished going after his dream *spoiler* before settling? Is that just me?

Anyways, bummed by this one but maybe a new series will work for me.

Overall audience notes:

• Contemporary Romance
• Language: none
• Romance: kisses
• Violence: mild
• Content warnings: loss of a spouse (twice, recounted), loss of a parent (recounted), alcoholism, grief

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