Until You

I was super excited when I requested this ARC from Valentine PR. This book had all the tropes in it including small-town romance, single father, strangers-to-lovers and forced proximity. While on paper, the plot was a recipe for success, it definitely wasn’t as good as I expected it to be.

We start our story off with Crew Madden, a Chicago police officer who has been put on a leave of absence after a job gone wrong. To clear his head and get away from the constant reminders of everything, he moves into his uncle's old house where he plans to fix it up and sell it before moving back to the city in the fall.

His plans are quickly shaken when he meets the tenant who lives in the rental house on the property, Tennyson West, who may appear shy on the outside, but has a dangerous past that constantly has her looking over her shoulder.

As romance books do, there is a situation that requires Tennyson to move into the main house with Crew and his 2 girls. One thing leads to another and in comes the spice.

Fast forward towards the end of the book, Tennyson’s past starts to catch up with her and to protect Crew and his family, she leaves with the intention of never coming back. While I was enjoying the book up to this point, I was definitely on the edge of my seat for the ending.

It built up so strong…

And then nothing happened. To say I was disappointed in the ending is an understatement. I was hoping for a little action that never came.

It also felt really forced, as if the author was trying so hard to tie in her background to the ending, but the book would have been the same, if not better if they removed her dark background entirely. I thought it was irrelevant to the plot and the exact same story could have happened regardless of her hiding from her past or not.

Overall, I can’t say I would recommend this book to others. As I mentioned before, it had a lot of potential, but didn’t deliver to me. This is also supposed to be book 1 in a series and can’t see myself continuing on with it. I enjoyed it enough to finish, but the ending ruined it for me.

Book Rating: 2/5

Spice Rating: 2/5