There was a lot I liked about this book and a few things I didn't. To start, I enjoyed the story. I thought that it was very realistic and that the relationship/feelings came across as genuine. I felt for Sebastian. His grief, confusion, frustration and emotional turmoil made him easy to relate to. Via was also easy to connect with because she has her own baggage she carries. I really liked them as a couple and I loved Matty! This is an age gap romance, which is one of my favorite tropes. It is also a slow burn romance and when I say slow burn I mean SLOOOW BUUURN, which I found a bit off putting because it took so long to get where it was going, too long in my opinion.

Widowed dad Sebastian Dorner has spent two years using the simple checklist his son's kindergarten teacher gave him, a list necessitated by the painful realization he was begin to neglect his child in his grief. Settling in to their new reality including a school change and a new career, Sebastian is ready to start dating again.

Sebastian, in his early 40s, is aghast to discover he has the biggest crush on his son's former teacher, who is now a new guidance counselor at his son's school. Via DeRosa is in her mid-20s and cannot possibly be interested in dating an old dad like him, right?

Just a Heartbeat Away is one of those slow-burning romances that make you want to yell JUST KISS ALREADY but totally pays off in the end. I admit this one was really starting to drag by the middle. Via really needed to dump her boyfriend and I wish more of her interaction with him had been left off the page. He was blah, bye boy. But that said, Via and Sebastian's slow dance to finally smashing their faces together was paid off in glorious heat.

Bastone has a way with words and emotions that will have me coming back for more! I am glad I gave this one a chance!

A more complex and poignant romance than usual. It's very slow burn and i loved the character development, the sweet romance more realistic than usual, and the setting.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

It’s a pretty well known fact that I dig slow burn romances. And while this book definitely qualifies as the slowest of slow burns (the two main characters don’t even share their first passionate kiss until the 77% mark), there are a few things that left me wanting more from this book.

Let me start with the positives. I really liked the initial meeting between Via (short for Violetta) and Sebastian, Matty’s father. Via is Matty’s preschool teacher and they meet soon after Sebastian’s wife dies in a car accident. He’s completely lost in his new role as a single dad and Via very gently pushes him to become the father Matty desperately needs. They reconnect two years later when Via gets a job as the new school counselor at Matty’s school.

Throughout much of the book, Via is in a long term relationship with her live-in boyfriend, Evan. There is no cheating in this book and the two break up long before Via and Seb share their first kiss. Evan is portrayed as this typical Brooklyn hipster, slightly aimless and lacking in professional ambitions and more than willing to live off his parents’ money. This is clearly a way to delineate all the ways in which Sebastian is more mature and has his life together and is a far better romantic option for Via. I don’t particularly love the trope where the ex partner (or in this case, the soon to be ex partner) is diminished in order to make the new love interest look better but in this situation, it only works partly because of the age gap. Sebastian, for much of the book, is very hung up on the fact that he’s significantly older than Via and thinks that the younger, hipper, hotter Evan is a much better fit for Via.

Via, for her part, has suffered losses in her own life. Orphaned at a young age, she bounced around the foster system before finding a permanent home. She hates the idea of being alone and feeling lonely and I think part of my problem with this book is that there is so much time spent showing how alone she feels that in some ways, it’s difficult to tell whether she truly falls for Sebastian or whether she loves the idea of finally belonging to someone and being a part of a family.

It is possible that both of those things could be true and certainly, there’s no doubt from the writing that she’s very attracted to Sebastian which leads to my second issue with the book. The number of times the author mentions how big Seb is and how tiny Via is comparatively, is absurdly high and almost amusing by the end. I get it. He’s big and tall and she’s tiny. She likes how tiny she feels in his arms. It felt unnecessary and pointless to me that it was mentioned so many times.

In short, I really liked the characters, the main ones and the supporting ones. I loved how the author managed to write a romance set in Brooklyn and make it feel like a small town romance. However, I felt the actual romantic aspects of this slow burner to be a bit lacking especially because for much of the book, Via was still with Evan. But still, the book is not without its charms so if you’re looking for a quiet, sweet, extremely slow burn romance, this would definitely hit the spot.

Sebastian's wife dies and he feels lost. He has a son Matty. Sebastian is having some trouble raising Matty by his self. I didn't like the cussing. Sebastian is an architect. Sebastian works with the teacher that helped him with Matty. I got bored with waiting for via to leave Evan. The connection between via and Sebastian was okay.

I really liked this story and the characters. But it's got language and explicit scenes so I docked 2 stars for that.

When Sebastian loses his wife, he struggles a lot and his son's pre-K teacher notices. She kindly tells him he's neglecting Matty and gives him a list of what to do that becomes a catalyst to turning point in Sebastian's life.

Years later, Sebastian and Via meet again when she becomes the counselor at Matty's school. He's in a much better place emotionally and their friendship slowly develops. It's a real slow-burner romance and then it goes all the way as the ending nears.

Matty was adorable!

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

This was an awesome story and romance. Though you need to expect that this story takes a really long time to get to the romance part of it. Also the heroine, Via is with another guy for 70% of the story, thought its a very casual thing.

This story starts out in a preschool class where Via is the teacher and Seb is the grieving newly widowed dad and she impresses him in giving him tips to be a better dad. They meet again several years later and Seb is ready for a new woman in his life, when they meet but he finds out they will be working together but also she is in a relationship.

And thats how Via and Seb become best friends and are there for each other for the ups and downs, Joys of life and dating disasters. Via never cheats at all. And tahts why the story takes a while to hit the romance part of this story. It was a wonderfukl story and I loved it alot but its a more complicated type of romance and it occurs over a years or so.

Its a deep story with lots of depth and its not light reading. So if you are looking for a deeper romance and story I hughly recommend.