Eno, North Carolina seems like the perfect place to hide. Working at a local café is light years from Maddie's Manhattan existence and for the first time in a while, she's finding her family. There's Grandma, the café owner; Samantha, the hairstylist next door with plans to make Maddie's life unsuck and Noie, the three year old girl who's stolen Maddie's heart.
And then there’s Gabriel Mendez, Noie’s single dad. He’s intrigued Maddie since the first time she met him, and while he has his own secrets, he wants more from her than just friendship. But the past never stays past, and all too soon, Maddie realizes she can't hide from hers. If she can't put the pieces of her shattered life together this time, she'll have no hope for a future.A future she desperately wants.
So what are my thoughts? Well I really liked the book actually. I say that a little surprised, because reading the synopsis I was all set for an emotional somewhat depressing read. Woah there, let me finish! It was definitely emotional there's no denying that, but I wouldn't call it depressing. The storyline was actually really well put together, and I found myself enthralled from the first chapter, no seriously, it took me like a day to finish! I was that enthralled, and you know that says a lot. Maddie's story was a hard one to hear, and I admit K.K. had me bawling my eyes out at just 26%. It was so hard to feel for all the pain and hardship Maddie's been through, I found myself often wondering how I would handle such grief, because it's hard not to try and contemplate. I admired her strength of character, her compassion, her bravery and really big heart. She was a well developed character, and I don't think as a reader you could really hate her, that's not to say there weren't times when she was annoying or too damn stubborn, but in the end you just have a whole new level of respect for the woman.
Her relationship with Noie was heartbreaking and beautiful all at the same time, I'm a sucker for stories with children involved. Makes me all mushy and happy. I think in their own unique way they helped heal each other a little, through their relationship you could see the fear slowly disintegrate, the trust begin to grow and the buckets of love just flourishing. It was cute, sweet and adorable as hell.
“Changing your location doesn’t necessarily mean losing your problems. They’ll show up wherever you are, changing to fit the situation. But until you break them down and deal with it, there is nowhere far enough for you to run away from them.”
I loved how he was with Noie, like dude could father of the year. Their scenes had me in sighing in content, and getting all mushy inside. I just wanted to hug them sooo bad, but that wasn't possible so I hugged my Kindle pushing all my happiness through to them. Yeah I know how I sound, but hey it was a good book damn it and I'll be damned if it doesn't get the appreciation it deserves.
Everyone’s past has ways of sneaking up on them. You just have to be in a place in the present that you’re strong enough to deal with when your past comes to visit.
Therefore my rating is 3 endearing stars. K.K. has a lot of potential, and her writing style is something to take notice of. I loved the story of Fort Raleigh being incorporated into the book, and I'd actually heard it before in Supernatural...gotta love the Winchesters! As a history buff that kinda thing makes me all tingly and intrigued...it's a historian thing. So if you're looking for a book with awesome background characters (who aren't really in the background), a town where you feel right at home and as though you've known another since forever, the most adorable 3 year old you'll have the pleasure of meeting and a hero and heroine fighting their pasts for the HEA, then look no further minions.