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A down-on-her-luck city girl searches for new purpose among the shelves of a failing bookstore in the quaint town of Pine Ridge, New York—until a forbidden love tempts her to go off-book. When life sets fire to your happily ever after, you ditch your cheating boyfriend, trade in the city life for the off-the-grid seclusion of your mother's bookstore in the mountains...and try to resist your attraction to the brooding town mechanic you accidentally got into a fender bender with outside the local bar. Sydney Walsh might be falling head over heels for the romance novels she's stocking up to rebuild The Loving Page, but she has no delusions about actually starring in one. That chapter has closed. Beneath Sam Kirkland's gruff mountain-man exterior lies a gentle heart and a burning desire for the woman he knows he can't have. He's made promises that anchor him to the past, making romance off-limits. And he accepted that—until Sydney came crashing into his life. Sam can't do a relationship right now. Sydney doesn't have the wherewithal to believe in one. But when you meet the right person, the wrong circumstances don't matter. Even when the world seems to be doing its best to keep them apart, their real, one-of-a-kind love is worth fighting for.
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1 primary bookForever Adirondacks is a 1-book series first released in 2021 with contributions by Lauren Accardo.
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TW: Alcoholism, grief
It all started with Connor and the blonde. Connor and that stupid blonde! And she changed everything for him! Going off the grid into the mountains of the Adirondacks is the only option. Shutting herself off in the quietness of her mother's old bookstore is exactly what Sydney needs Walsh. A place to lay low.
Enter a hunky mountain man Sam Kirkland and his grumpy attitude. Throw in an alcoholic ex-girlfriend, a quick fender bender, a failing bookstore, and a forbidden romance, and you get Sydney's failed attempt at a quiet change of pace at life.
Sam and Sydney's animal-like attraction is hard to hide, although they know that with his situation with Liv and Jay, it has to be on the back burner. They can't be more than friends, but their feelings are electric. Sydney would love nothing more than to just forget Liv but Sam made a promise, and he will stick by it. Will Sydney be able to become the woman that she was before Connor? Can Sam finally learn to put himself first for his own happiness for once?
This story is about grief, pain, and learning that sometimes you need to be a little bit selfish. It's about learning to give in love and not feel guilty about it. It's about learning that you can't always fix people, sometimes it's something they need to do on their own.
This book was good, but not great. The liked the characters and the love story, but again it wasn't my favorite. I appreciated the mentions of grief and the journey into the topic of alcoholism, though I would have some notes for her on it. I enjoyed the male character more than the female character, she kind of seemed a bit stuck up at some points in the story.
I've waited a while to write this review because I kept forgetting to do it, so that kind of shows you how much of an impact it made. It's not super memorable. However, I still will read more of Lauren Accardo, she's a great writer and descriptor.