Baby, Come Home

Southern Roads #2

by Stephanie Bond

The hardheaded Armstrong brothers are determined to rebuild their tornado-ravaged hometown in the Georgia mountains. They've got the means, they've got the manpower…what they need are women! So they place an ad in a Northern newspaper and wait for the ladies to arrive.…

Sensible yet sexy middle brother Kendall Armstrong penned that ad himself�but there's just one woman he really wants to answer the call.…

Civil engineer Amy Bradshaw�Kendall's ex-fiancée�fled Sweetness years ago, taking a precious souvenir with her. She's back now…but only on a professional level. Really.

Little does she know that old flames always burn the hottest.…

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Audiobook, Chick Lit, Adult

330 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

USA TODAY bestselling author Stephanie Bond was seven years deep into a systems engineering career and pursuing an MBA at night when an instructor remarked that she had a flair for writing and suggested that she submit to academic journals. But Stephanie, a voracious reader, was only interested in writing fiction–more specifically, romantic fiction.

Upon completing her master’s degree and with no formal training in writing (her undergraduate degree is in computer programming), she started writing a romance novel in her spare time. Two years later in 1995 she sold her first manuscript, a romantic comedy, to Harlequin Books.

In 1997, with ten sales under her belt to two publishers, Stephanie left her corporate job to write women’s romantic fiction full-time. In 2011,

Stephanie launched a self-publishing business. Since that time, she has sold more than 1 million copies of her own books. To-date, Stephanie has published over 70 novels and has over 6 million copies of her work in worldwide distribution in numerous languages and formats.

Reviews

[Jae · Rating 4 out of 5]

☑ A red-corkscrew haired engineer heroine
☑ A serious and intense middle brother hero
☑ A twelve year old history of entanglement
☑ A secret love child
☑ Lots of shouting arguments between lovers
☑ A heart melting grandson-grandma moment
☑ A possible future love triangle

I am not as passionate for Kendall’s story as I was for book #1. Mainly because Kendall is the thinking brother unlike Porter who is all play with his silly antics. I didn’t enjoy this as much too.

But still looking forward to the brooding eldest brother's story which is going to be a blast.

[Book Binge · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review is full of spoilers and curse words. Read at your own risk.

I expected to love this book. I really liked the first one and was intrigued by the past history of this couple. It started out well enough, but a few chapters in I started getting a bad feeling about where things were headed..and I was right to be wary.

I can handle the secret baby plot device if it's done well, ie she had a good reason for keeping the kid a secret, something outside their control keeps them apart, she tells him as soon as possible, etc. Unfortunately this wasn't an example of how the secret baby plot works. It was a hot mess from beginning to end.

Kendall and Amy were high school sweethearts. She always wanted to get out and see the world, but Kendall's roots were always firmly planted in their hometown. When her aunt died Amy expected Kendall to marry her and take her away with him (he was in the air force). When he refused she broke it off with him, telling him to never contact her again. They went there separate ways, but neither was able to forget the other.

12 years later, Kendall and his brothers are back in Sweetness, Georgia, trying to rebuild the town as green as possible after a tornado destroyed everything. Kendall knows where Amy lives (in what city/state) but that's it. He respected her wishes and stayed away from her. But part of him hopes she'll return home. He puts an ad in her local paper asking for woman to join their cause thinking maybe she'll answer. She doesn't, but Kendall's older brother Marcus contacts her without Kendall knowing and offers her a job as the engineer of the new bridge in town. Amy agrees because she really needs the work.

Up to this point I was enjoying the story. I love reunited lover themes and I was anxious to see how things played out. But then things took a turn for the worse. Amy kept thinking about this "man" she had in her life..one who wasn't going to be happy she was going to Georgia. This could have meant a lover, but I didn't think so. And I was right. It was her 12 year old son. The 12yo son who also happened to be Kendall's. Only Amy never told him..actually had no intention of ever telling him.

If her reasons for doing so had been decent, I probably could have overlooked it and moved on. But they weren't. She figured since Kendall didn't want her he wouldn't want his son either. In the end, she admitted it was just "easier for her" if he didn't know. Ever. The most ridiculous thing about this was that she admitted to herself and to others that he was a pretty amazing man. I think at one point she flat out called him a hero. She also muses that her son would really benefit from having a father and other close family. But still, she didn't want to be around Kendall - because it was too hard, don't ya know - so she decided it was better not to tell him about his son. And as for telling her son about his father? Well...maybe. Someday. When it didn't hurt her so much.

Hurt her? Really? What about what's good for her son? What about hurting him by keeping his father from him? A father she openly admits is an amazing, standup kind of guy? Of course that's not as important as making sure she doesn't get hurt again. Right?

If that wasn't enough to make me hate her, her actions the rest of the book certainly sealed the deal. She didn't even consider telling him about his son until more than halfway through the book. Then she decided it would be better to wait until she'd left town and had a chance to talk to her son about it (who was in military school, btw, which was court ordered because he was caught vandalizing his school). She even slept with Kendall, and allowed him to believe his son was really her boyfriend (he overheard her on the phone and jumped to the conclusion that she had a boyfriend she loved..she didn't correct him and actually kind of encouraged him to think he was right). He noticed she was wearing a mother/child pendant that had belonged to her mother and commented on it. When she explained who it belonged to, he said something like "Oh, I thought you were keeping something from me, haha" and she says, "No, of course not" but inside she thinks "I need to tell him....later". This is about 5 seconds before he puts his penis inside her. WTF??? WHO DOES THAT????

But that's nothing compared to the way she acted after he found out what she'd done. She'd deliberately pick fights with Kendall in front of her son, making him out to be the bad guy. It get so bad, as a matter of fact, that the kid runs away so that she'll never have to deal with Kendall again. She's such a selfish, cowardly bitch that she makes her son think he has to GO AWAY so she doesn't have to deal with his father. W.T.F.?!?! WHAT.THE.FUCK?!?!? OMFG.

At this point not only did I want to drop kick her off a very high bridge, but I started doubting the hero and what the hell he saw in her. She was a selfish, bitter bitch and he kept pining over her. I wanted to scream "TAKE THE KID AND GET OVER HER ALREADY". Actually, I think I did scream it. She didn't come across as a good mother, or hell, as a good person. Why was he so set on working things out with her?

She decides she's leaving town and taking the kid with her. Hero says, "I will be seeing my son" and she says "We'll see about that". Why? Because she doesn't want to see him. It had nothing to do with her son or what was best for him, it was all about what she wanted. It just hurt sooo bad, seeing her ex all the time like that. She didn't want to put herself through the constant pain of seeing what she couldn't have. Except she was the one who pushed him away, not the other way around.

When Kendall says fine, he'll leave town - even though he's committed to the project and desperately needed - and move where she does so he can see his son, she ascribes all kinds of negative motives to why he would. But when he confesses that he loves her she's "confused" and not sure what to do. I have a suggestion..but I'm not sure it's physically possible. I still feel like she should try it, though.

The final resolution approached with lightning speed. With half a page left of the book, hero and chick find son and she says "We're going to stay here and live with your dad" and of course this is the first dad has heard of it. Plus, until like half a second before that kid was hating dad because mom had made him out to be some kind of crazy monster. But kid says "So we can be a family" and she says "yes, of course". And that's it. The end. 335.5 pages of her being a douche nozzle twat and then he says I love you so all is right with the world and she can finally do the right thing? No. Just no.

I did love the parts of the story that focused on the town and their rebuilding efforts. I also loved the scenes between Kendall and his son. The way they got to know each other and rely on each other was wonderful - when the psycho claiming to be his mom didn't ruin it, that is.

1.5 out of 5 (the .5 for the good parts about the town)

Review was originally posted on Book Binge by Holly.

[Sans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Y'know that feeling you get when you're driving down the highway and you see a couple cars narrowly miss a massive collision? Imagine having that feeling for an entire bloody book. It gets real old, real fast. Then you start hoping for that train wreck just so that something will happen.

Kendall was so epically clueless, I wanted to hit him with that damn hammer he kept toting around. He's been in love with Amy for 15 years. He left her in their little hometown while he went off to see the world "for both of them" and asked her to wait in a place he knew she hated for an unspecified length of time. And he's all surprised when she says, "Fuck that" and packs up her bags for greener pastures. Uh...what?

And Amy. Holy crap could girlfriend nurse a grudge. She was mad that Kendall left. I totally get that. And I was proud of her for growing a backbone and leaving, creating a brand new life for herself. Go girl power! But...why is she all pissed off that Kendall never came to find her...when she told him to never contact her again?

So she finally goes back to Sweetness to rebuild the old bridge. Great! There's tension. I get that, and it was good (in parts). Except for Kendall's inability to say no to the hot chick in town. For Christ's sake, she practically offered to show him her etchings and he still fell for it! And saying yes to dinner with hot chick while he's trying to figure out out to convince Amy to stay with him? Yeah, definitely not the brightest crayon in the box, dude.

So my question is: Why the hell did they randomly fall into a three-day shagfest?! They weren't at their wits end, they hadn't been flirting all night, they weren't moist and panting for each other. He just knocked on her door and she opened it, and her legs, without putting up any kind of a fuss.

And that fucking secret baby device made me want to puke. Sure the baby is almost a teenager now, but WTF? Did that really need to be in there?!

Even more abrupt than the repeated shagfests, was the ending. I clicked the "next page" button on my Kindle and was jarred to see the author's bio page. I had to click back just to make sure I didn't accidentally double click. I sat there and said, "Wait, what? That's it? Seriously?"

Any why the hell did Kendall wait so long to tell Amy he loved her?! That was the most unbelievable part of all. Not only that he NEVER said it to her ONCE in fifteen goddamned years, but that he actually was so fucking clueless to assume that she just knew he loved her?! Seriously?!?!

So. Why three stars? Because I'm a sucker for the Armstrong brothers, I enjoyed seeing Porter and Nikki from the first book again, and I love the idea of a Southern man working to get his woman back.

I would have enjoyed this a lot more if the romance had not been of the "fixing our relationship from over a decade ago" variety. I'm not a fan of re-kindling past relationships (romantic or otherwise) and I don't find myself connecting with the characters well in those situations.

But if you like seeing old loves reunited with a healthy dose of angst, a secret baby, and everything being fixed with three simple words, you'll probably enjoy this a lot more than I did.

[KarenH · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have zero tolerance for a "heroine" who has a baby without telling the father simply because she felt like he chose the air force over her. AND, when he accidentally meets his son at age 12 and tells the mother he wants to be a part of the boy's life, she says she'll think about it. What a bitch!

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second book in the series! (Read them in order so that you'll be familiar w/ the characters.) This book was every bit as enjoyable as the first, maybe even more so. Another pleasant, easy-breezy listen that encouraged me to put on my headset and walk a couple of miles (in the California cold).

[Mindy]

I'm not quite halfway through, but I can already tell the book isn't going to get much better. I think Bond made a bad decision when she chose to write that Amy has kept her's and Kendall's son a secret from Kendall for 12 years. Amy doesn't have a good reason for keeping Kendall in the dark (or if she does, Bond hasn't revealed it)...it just seems like Amy decided to be selfish, not even considering her son's welfare.

And Bond loses points for re-using a plot device from Baby, Drive South: Rachel.

If I had to rate this now, I'd give it a 1.

**OK, now I'm 3/4 through; I'm done and it gets 0 stars. Kendall just found out about Tony, and Amy's reaction was so inappropriate that I'm fully convinced she's not worthy of an HEA with anyone, let alone Kendall.

I mean, come on! Amy hid the fact that she had the man's baby and acted all surprised when he was livid once he found out??? What fantasy world was she living in?? And when he said he was going to spend time with the boy, she said "we'll see" like she had the right to keep the man away from his son?? Oh right, it was easier for her that Kendall was kept in the dark for 12 years. Selfish cow. And how can she think in one instant that Kendall is a real stand up guy and the next tell him that the reason she kept Tony a secret was because she somehow thought Kendall would be a deadbeat dad?? That kind of crazy thinking is the reason I can't keep reading.

And don't even get me started on the supporting characters' reactions to the big reveal. Nikki, who I thought was a decent woman, acts like it was OK for Amy to keep that information from Kendall. Nikki is no friend because friends tell each other how it is; if I had a friend in Amy's position, I'd gently but firmly let her know she was out of her mind to think what she did was OK. I quit reading right after the scene switched from Amy and Nikki to Kendall with the other Armstrongs - Bond basically cut and pasted Amy & Nikki's scene and just changed who was speaking. Shame on you, Bond.

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that so far this is the best in the series, but that's not saying much.

In the end there are a couple of holes in the storyline. Amy always feel like she is white trash, below others, and she gets ashamed from time to time. Thing is, she did a really trashy thing and should be ashamed. I'm all for the secret baby plot but only if the secret is justified. Amy doesn't tell Kendall about the kid because he never actually said he loved her and didn't propose (but didn't say he wouldn't, he said "wait"). So she runs away, tells him never to contact her, and has and raises his child in secret. That's a terrible thing to do, very white trash and bitch should be shamed from that selfishness.

That aside, she never does resolve her inferiority complex.

This might be because the ending happens so quickly and sloppily.

And Bond tries to hit us in the head with a parallel between the bridge being rebuilt and the relationship in the book suggesting it's stronger but you still remember the original. It was a tacky parallel and really poorly executed making the constant reminder annoying.

[Lizz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh come ON people!!! Romance novels seem to go one of two ways. Either the two of them are at cross purposes the entire book and REFUSE to talk like rational people, or they are in love and talk to each other but are in peril and must flee flee fleeeee! This is of the former sort. If these two had just taken a minute to have a conversation with each other --- GAHH!! I couldn't decide if I wanted to pound my head on the chair, or theirs!! The first book in the series suffered from the same malady. I am going to read the third installment.... but I fear it will be more of the same. TALK PEOPLE!!

[MelissaB]

Wow, this is the only romance I have ever seen with a heroine with my exact job. I may have to check it out and see how it is.

[JoAnne · Rating 3 out of 5]

a 3 1/2

[Ayny · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
this Amy woman is so self serving! UGGH

[Aly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would have been so much better with a different heroine... I don't know what it is lately with characters ruining books, but Amy was such a difficult protagonist.

A quick recap is that three brothers undertook the project to rebuild their tornado-ravaged hometown in the Georgia mountains . In the first book, they placed an add to invite women from the next town to come settle in their new town. The city's reconstruction is progressing well. After the medical facility, there's now a school and kids joined their mothers. There's talk about a church but they need a bridge first.

Kendall Armstrong is the middle brother and the more calm of the trio. Even if it's been 12 years since his sweetheart left town and him because he was not ready to commit, he never forgot her and he's still pining for her return. In fact, he place the add in her city especially in the hope she see it and come back.

Amy saw it, but she's not interested in resuming the past. She left Sweetness also because she hated the place. So when Kendall's older brother call her to offer a job to design the new bridge, she refuse. But being a engineer is not as paying as it was, there's not much job and when she doesn't obtain the contract she was hoping for, she finally accept Marcus' proposition.

Like I said in the beginning, Amy ruined the book for me. She was so cold and she refused the welcome home gift Kendall brought her. It was just chocolate cake, not a personal gift, but a delicate attention. And she rejected everything that represent the town or the past. And then we learn she did the unthinkable (I say learn but it was obvious from the summary at the back of the book and you can guess from the reading too). When she left 12 years ago, Amy was pregnant and all this time she never told Kendall he have a son. For me, it's mean and cowardly to do that. In fact, there's not a lot of reason that makes it okay to hide this kind of thing. An abusive person or someone that could endanger the life or the well being of your child, that's understandable, but not for her selfish reason. Doing it, you don't just deprive a father of the chance of knowing his son, but you deprive your own kid of a pretty important part of his life.

I was almost angry at Kendall to not being more offended when he finally learned the truth. Sometimes I think heros react badly and jerky in books about different kind of situation, but if there was a time a hero could act like that, it was this time. It was sad really, because Kendall was so sweet and she was just bitchy all the time. Even at the end she still was ! I couldn't believe in their happily ever after because at 10 pages from the end of the book, they were still arguing.

It's a shame, because there was glimpse of beauty in this book, such potential to make a good story, but she prevented it all. I had more fun reading about Dr. Cross and Rachel. I liked seeing his pathetic attempts at seduction and all the double entendre he said without meaning it in a sexual way.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Armstrong brothers after serving their country have come home to their tornado ravaged Sweetness Georgia committed to rebuild the town. But after hiring scores of men to do the work it’s become obvious that without women the men won’t stay. Kendall Armstrong uses this reason to lure his former sweetheart Amy Bradshaw back home. He’s never forgotten or gotten over what he and Amy shared. With this in mind he puts an ad for single pioneer minded women to come to Sweetness to help reshape the town, he places that ad in the newspaper where Amy just happens to live Broadway Michigan. But his plan backfires because Amy doesn’t arrive with the women from up north. Brother Marcus secretly knows Kendall’s intentions and also knows Amy is now an engineer, so he makes her an offer that’s hard to refuse.
Amy Bradshaw left Sweetness Georgia and never looked back, because the only thing she ever loved about the place didn’t want her, Kendall Armstrong. She’s worked hard and sacrificed much to be the woman she is today. The only regret she’s had is that she can’t seem to get over Kendall and it doesn’t help when she’s got something to remind her of him constantly. Now there’s a chance to go back and see him again and she’s not sure where it will lead.

Stephanie Bond gives us book two of her Southern Roads trilogy with Kendall’s story a story of second chances, of misguided feelings and missed opportunities. She fills in the plot with tidbits from the first book and adds to it this captivating love story. She does this with narrative that will let you see in your minds eye the mountains, the terrain and the developing new town of Sweetness. Her characters are enigmatic as well as diverse in culture and status and she brings them all to life with her words. Her hero Kendall is a thoughtful, kind and complex man who feels with all his heart even when the words won’t come. Her heroine Amy is a combination of strong woman and fragile female and competent professional. The romance is fraught with holes bigger than the tornado left and we the readers will get to see them fall in and sometimes cross over those pitfalls. The love scenes are sensual and visual and I think any romance lover will love them as long as you remember to turn on the fan before reading.

If this is your first trip to Sweetness have no fear it reads well as a stand-a-lone, but why deny yourself the whole story get Baby Drive South and then wait just a few more weeks for Baby Don’t Go.
Thank you Ms. Bond for an inspiring and entertaining read.

[FlibBityFLooB · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second novel in the Southern Roads trilogy and takes off from where the last novel left off. The tornado-ridden town of Sweetness is beginning to blossom again as a recycled green utopia. The women continue to live in a dorm-like dwelling with curfew, and the construction workers continue to live in barracks. The premise of this novel is that they want to reconstruct a bridge that was blown down, and they need to call in a structural engineer. And, what luck! The hero's ex-girlfriend just happens to be a strutural engineer. *wink*

There was a twist in the novel that was a little surprising regarding the heroine. I suppose if I had read the description of the book, it would not have been a surprise. I like to go into a book without reading the back of the book because it tends to spoil too many things. In this case, I'm glad I didn't know about the heroine's suprise ahead of time.

On a side note - for some reason, there are suddenly children in the town of Sweetness. In my last review for this trilogy, I was speculating that the brothers put an add in a paper looking for females because they wanted a baby boom. There were suddenly enough children in the town that it warrented them building a school. *Raises eyebrow* I'm not sure how this happened since no children were mentioned in the last novel that I can tell, and it has not been 9 months since the last novel took place timewise. Maybe they're cabbage-patch kids grown in recycled dirt?

My favorite character in this novel was neither the hero nor the heroine. In fact, it wasn't even a main character :) It was the male doctor who was panting over one of the lead females in the town. He amused me as a character because of his ackward antics. He tries to fight for his women with some good old fashioned 'fisticuffs', but all I could picture was flailing arms without finesse. Good stuff. :)

I enjoyed this novel, and I plan to read the next one in the trilogy. I see that they just put out a short prequel, so I may have to pick that one up as well.

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review is full of spoilers. Read at your own risk.

I expected to love this book, especially since I like the first one and was intrigued by the past history of this couple. It started out well enough, but a few chapters in I started getting a bad feeling about where things were headed..and I was right to be wary.

I can handle the secret baby plot device if it's done well, ie she had a good reason for keeping the kid a secret, something outside their control keeps them apart, she tells him as soon as possible, etc. Unfortunately this wasn't an example of how the secret baby plot works. It was a hot mess from beginning to end.


I did love the parts of the story that focused on the town and their rebuilding efforts. I also loved the scenes between Kendall and his son. The way they got to know each other and rely on each other was wonderful - when the psycho claiming to be his mom didn't ruin it, that is. Because of that I'm going to give this a

1.5 out of 5.

[TheAgileReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved the story about the town and the bridge. Hated/Loathed the Heroine. She is an absolute B**** with a Capital B. She only cares about herself, and doesn't even feel bad about keeping her son hidden from his father for 12 years. I don't like secret baby plots as a whole but this was definitely one of the worst that I've read. I felt really bad for Kendall because he just can't catch a break.

Depriving a parent of a baby's first years is a crime in and of itself but for 12 years and not give a damn, that just equals bitchiness to me. She had no good reason other than the fact that he didn't come after her when she told him she never wanted to see him again. When you use the word Love as a tool or weapon you have definitely lost my respect, and the heroine did that repeatedly.

[Mandy Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the most immature writing I have seen. Amy is pissed at Kendall for going off to the airforce and following his dreams at the age of 18 and not staying with her. So she is still pissed about this at the age of 30? I mean really? And the secret she keeps from him is the most selfish thing anyone can do and is not forgivable. This whole book is stupid AF. I can’t even finish it!

[Hilcia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, but unfortunately the female protagonist and the way the story was going made it impossible for me to keep going. Too bad, I liked Kendall in the first book and thought his story had potential.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in a day. I hadn't read the first book, but I found that I really don't need to. This book gives enough background information so I didn't feel like I was missing anything.

This was a quick and enjoyable read.

[Keris Shay · Rating 1 out of 5]

No!!! Could not handle that dumb woman. Holy hell, not sure why H wanted to be with her. She is a horribly selfish person!

Read this out of order by accident but I won't be reading the rest. Sorry just couldn't handle the horror of the h. Ugh she pissed me off!

[Nightwitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was strong and I found it readable, but this ended up being a DNF for me. There was just a little too much proud southern gender essentialism for me - from the weirdly paternalistic dormitories for all the unmarried women the (male) re-founders of this town have imported to repopulate the town, to the constant references to the "fact" that kids need "a mom and a dad." (There are also a lot of annoyed references to the heroine's "giving up on her southern roots" which I can't even fully grasp. Is she not allowed to dislike grits? Is that illegal?) I should probably spoiler this: the heroine has a twelve-year-old son by the hero, and the hero has no idea. The kid is troubled, the heroine is financially struggling, and the fact that she never told her ex-boyfriend that they had a child is presented as something that's easy to overcome. That doesn't strike me as an easy-to-overcome issue. That strikes me as, in some respects, unforgivable; and while it's the plot of many a Harlequin Secret Baby novel, usually they have some suitably over-the-top reason why the heroine never informed the hero of his paternity, whether that be a series of improbable coincidences, a wicked fairy who lies to either or both of them, or, I don't know, convenient amnesia. Here the reason was basically that she got the sense that he was stalling on marrying her and didn't want to deal with that. Uh.

[Kristen Lewendon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m finding it difficult to figure out what it was that I loved so much the first time I read this. Maybe it’s just a product of me becoming an advocate for personal responsibility, but I really couldn’t find much in this story that encouraged me to respect Amy. Even though she appears to be a successful career-woman, I thought that in her personal life she behaved like a whiny, spoiled tweenager. Twelve years later she still blames Kendall for her own perceptions and choices? Give me a break! As much as Kendall and Amy need to stay on speaking terms, I thought he could do so much better than her. I’m also frustrated that the author felt the need to continually water down her alpha hero to justify the rush to a happily ever after for the ending. Considering how rushed it is, it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s going to last for very long.

[Kinanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pedih, haru, dan rumit mungkin adalah tiga kata yang mewakili hubungan Kendall dan Amy. Bahkan sampai bab akhir masih begitu banyak hal menyesakkan dada yang disuguhkan penulis. Tentu saja, seperti novel cinta pada umumnya, kisah ini berakhir bahagia. Namun, seperti kisah cinta pada umumnya, perjuangan tidak pernah mudah.

Ada dua hal yang menarik di buku ini (selain tentu saja ceritanya); pertama, karena ada Indonesia yang disebutkan di dalam cerita sebagai tempat yang pernah dikunjungi Kendall; kedua, karena Kendall dan ketidakmampuannya mengungkapkan cinta mengingatkan aku pada Will di Tanya Tania (cerita karyaku yang masih bisa dibaca di wattpad). 🤣🤣🤣

[Niki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anybody who follows what I read knows that read a lot of quick easy romances. Many of them are entertaining and I can get through them in an evening. Yes I read vs watch TV. I did find this series much more interesting than the usual romance. The story is a little bizarre but fun with three books in the series.

[Maya Poedji · Rating 5 out of 5]

O-emji buku ini emang full emotions. Aq yg baca juga jadi emotional. Apakah semua ciri pria2 Selatan itu seperti ini? Keras kepala tapi sangat bertanggung jawab? Aq ngga paham juga siy hehehe but I don't really mind if they do. Yg jelas yg suka warna biru, neeh cowok2 bermata biru... Eh, denger2 si udah laku dua, jadi tinggal satu neh, so Marcus! 😜

[Melanie Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly don’t know why I chose to read this book. I didn’t love the first one but I kind of liked it by the end. This one had me annoyed the whole way through. The ending is a joke. Basically, if you want to be pissed off, read this book. It’s full of bullshit that will have you pulling your hair out.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story about young couple who splits and go off on there own. While on there own they become professional they meets again in the home town to help rebuild after a terrible storm. While back at home they find out a great deal about each other live and themselves. Great story

[Alyssa Edmonds · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic! I sped-read (listened) through it in only 5 days! I'm definitely more motivated now to listen/read the next book in this series. I wish there was more of a plot but as always it's fantastic learning about a small town and each person connects with one another.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixture of romance, humor, family issues and small town life. Almost perfect with the exception of the rush ending.
I truly enjoyed Ms. Bond's writing style and I liked all of the characters. Hopefully the finale would be as satisfying, if not more

[Robert S. Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Bond Hit

As always, Stephanie Bond comes through with a great combination of words and phrases that produce a fantastic tale that is Very hard to set down. Always a bit predictable, but also always with an unpredictable twist. Another Bond hit!