Don't judge a book by it's cover. You may be expecting a summer beach read, but this book is so much more. An enjoyable read, well written with strong and very likeable characters. Tackling a very sensitive full of compassion for Hannah and her desperate situation.

Hannah ran away with her daughter to a new town to start afresh without her husband who abused her. She plan to keep low profile and focus on her baby’s upbringing. She have to start from scratch without knowing a single soul in the town. She encountered Brody, a lone police officer with strong characters and from the start, Brody sense she is running and he want to help her. But Hannah, given her past, push him away at every corner.

The storyline is very engaging from beginning till the end and I love watching Hannah’s recovery from her past and found her happiness in the end. I love Ava, Hannah’s daughter and Bullet, Brody’s dog too. Overall it is an emotional read to me.

*review post scheduled to be posted on my blog on 23/12/22

I thought this book was so cute. The story was just amazing. There was so much more to it than romance. The author really captured it in this book. I would definitely read this book again. It was heartwarming and just a beautiful story.

Cute and heart warming read that was easy to read!

I really enjoyed the emotional layer this book had, and I felt certain issues were dealt with very well. The writing was captivating, and I liked the characters. Particuarly the main female character. I'm also a sucker for a good single-mum storyline.

Thanks to Netgalley and HQ Digital for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This cover was quite deceptive. I thought it would be a light romance but it ended up being pretty heavy. This is a story about an abused mother who goes into hiding in a new town. There she meets Brody who is a police officer and she struggles with whether to tell him who she really is and be in a relationship with him or move on to another town.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a slow romance. It does deal with domestic abuse but pretty much skims over anything to graphic.

This book is a lot more than a romance. It has a lot of emotion in it and great character development. It is a single-parent romance, showing how to heal from a broken heart.

I read it in one sitting. I wanted to see how it ended and how everything was going to come together for everyone.

This was an okay book. It had it's cute moments for sure.

This book follows Hannah and her baby daughter Ava who ran away from her abusive husband, finding a new town to live in and start her life anew. The LI, Brody, is a cop who's drawn to the FMC basically from the moment he saw her. While I liked some aspects of this book, such as the pacing of the developing friendship and then relationship, the openness and friendly behaviour of the townsfolk towards the newcomers, I had slight issues with the dialogue. It was a bit confusing at times as the person speaking wasn't mentioned. A bit of editing on that portion would've done well.
Otherwise, this is a slow-romance, with a single mother, some CW and TW (domestic abuse being the heavy one). I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't anything special for me. I didn't connect well with the story and at some parts, it just felt a bit boring.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Thanks to HQ Digita, Netgalley and the author for an ARC of this book - I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The cover of this book made me think that it would be really light-hearted, but is was very emotional from the beginning. Hannah and Brody's romance is cute, but there is a lot more going on in this book than just the romance. Hannah is escaping an abusive relationship and there are some hairy moments in this that should come with a trigger warning.

I didn't really love the romance aspect, and didn't connect with Brody's character.

The writing was good and the book kept me interested until the end.

3 stars.

Id never heard of this author before but this was a cute. heartwarming read and I enjoyed it quite alot.

This is my first experience reading something by Ms Dove so I didn't know what to expect when I requested this. I found it to be a cute and heartwarming read and I enjoyed Ms. Dove's writing style. Her writing really pulled me in and caught my attention right from the start, and kept my interest all the way through. Hannah leaves her violent husband and takes her daughter Ava and goes to Leadsham for a fresh start. There she meets Brody who is a police officer and is quite drawn to her. He immediately recognizes something is off with her and tries to help, but Hannah doesn't trust police officers or men for that matter and pushes him away. But soon Hannah begins to recognize the kind, caring man that Brody is and can't help but be drawn to him as well. The development of their relationship was slow and steady and I really enjoyed how it all played out. Hannah was a strong character and I was rooting for her and Brody the whole time through her journey as she became a strong women after dealing with past experiences and trauma. This was a genuinely heartwarming story that touched on many emotions and I enjoyed reading it. The characters were well-developed with realistic qualities that made them more relatable. I will be looking for more of Ms. Dove's books in the future.
I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

This was a very enjoyable read. It was well written with very likeable characters. Although it tackles a very sensitive subject, it is very heartfelt and full of compassion for Hannah and her situation. I would definitely recommend it and will be seeking out more books by this author. Overall 4 star!

A swoony insta-love story, dealing with some hard topics. I loved the writing by this author and felt Hannah and Brody were great for each other. Perhaps there was too much of a slow burn towards the end if the book, waiting to wrap up the inevitable ending. But overall a sweet and quick read.

When I first requested I was expecting a enemies to lover, grumpy sunshine romance but what I did not expect is a quick read, insta-love, serious yet light hearted single mom meets cop romance.

So we have Hannah aka Erin who is a Single mom to Ava is trying to get away from her abusive marriage and husband Victor with the help of her mid-wife and best friend Kate. Having no family or friends who care for her Hannah moves to a small countryside village in Yorkshire called Leadsham. In this small town no one is a stranger and every little thing is news.

One evening when she was getting mugged Andrew or as the locals know him as Brody who is a copper saves her and has an instant attraction to her. He is her knight in shinning amour who doesn't push her limits, is patient, helps her get a job while suggesting leave her daughter with a child minding group. As their love story develops we see how much of a scarred Hannah pushes herself to get out of her shell and stand up for herself against her abusive husband.

Ava is a heart warmer because she ws the cutest fictional baby...given a change I will keep her. Brody and his police trained dog Bullet are the bestest dog son and dad duo you need. Lola and John are those friends who will be patient and turnip when you need and will keep an eye on just cuz they are protective.

I loved how the book talks of people running away from abusive relations especially when they have kids involved and how these kind of relations isolate people from their only support system like friends and family. And how rebuilding life from nothing in a new unknown place while recovering form the trauma of your past. Will 1000% recommend it!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ Digital for providing the ARC.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting with this book, but I am just not feeling the story. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it is not capturing me the way that I want.

I feel like the slow burn part of the romance is dragging a bit too much. I understand that characterizations, and I get that the author is trying to indicate the FMC's reticence to pursuing something with another man, but it is almost excruciatingly painful at times. The story itself kind of drags, as well. There's a lot of time spent inside the head of the FMC, and it's exhausting. Again, understood that this is a stylistic choice by the author to showcase their mindset after enduring something so horrible, but from a reader's perspective the story itself is just very slow going. As someone who is known for devouring books, I have found myself skimming over passages, and double checking to see how much of the story I have left.

I can see where people would enjoy this, I feel that it is very well written in some parts, and I do enjoy the characters and their journey. Overall, it is just not the book for me.

The more I think of this book, the more I struggle to know how to rate it but I will settle with 2 stars because I did really like the writing of this author and our main character of Hannah (most of the time) but there is so much improvement needed in this book.

I think this writer has potential as the writing is easy to read and understand (there were some errors in my arc copy but as it was an arc take this comment with a pinch of salt).

The main difficulty I have with this book is the main characters personalities and unrealistic nature of the situation.

I found Hannah to be inconsistent in her thinking. She says that she is fearful and has a hatred for the police because her abusive husband is a police officer and when she reported him they protected him and didn't believe her therefore it didn't make sense for her to easily fall in love or should I say lust and trust a police officer (Brody) days after barely escaping with her baby from her abusive husband. Hannah's story very early shifts from her desire to protect her baby to her desire for Brody. We see the inner battle she has over her feelings for Brody but she's not very strong as a character or in her conviction to protect her daughter and not get involved with Brody. I also found it weird how quickly they start to "date" and eventually move in with one another. You would think Hannah would have learned her lesson to be more careful. The cherry on top of the ridiculousness that is Hannah is that after her husband is arrested for trying to break into Brody's house is that she makes a comment about how she wants to undress Brody. I mean personally if I was just nearly killed by my abusive husband I would probably not be thinking that after he's arrested. Personally, I would have liked to have seen more of Hannah being strong her resolve not to let him in and then maybe midway through she bonds with him and let's her guard down.

Next is Brody and he was just a man written to be there. He's meant to be the perfect man but honestly he's an idiot. How does a trained cop not see and recognize the signs of a battered woman? Also he doesn't fancy Hannah, he just lusts for her and he just made me cringe reading. Also how is this small time village cop taking down a huge organizational crime ring of dog fighting - make it make sense!

Also one of the side characters also turning out to be a survivor was just weird cause it added no real value to the plot. It would have made more sense for that to be revealed early on as we see Hannah grow and trust people.

Overall, it was a decent read as the writing is good but as I got bored 70% of the way in I just thought this is getting ridiculous and is becoming unrealistic. I will give the author credit this is the only cheating storyline I read that I was okay with cause technically Hannah isn't divorced but based on her struggle we know why divorce wasn't an option.

This was such a swoony and heartwarming romance. I normally don’t do police officer love interests, but this one didn’t bother me. Highly recommend!

DNF @ 70 %.

I knew what I was getting myself into when I was reading the blurb and I requested it on NetGalley because it peaked my interest.
Heroine escaped from an abusive marriage and is hiding in this little town with her daughter who is a toddler.
Months after she meets a police officer, a kind guy who somehow finds his way into her life and her heart along with his dog Bullet (I read this book weeks ago and I don't remember the MCs' names but I do remember the dog's lol).
Anyway, I understand this is not a light read even though it reads at one point as one. After all, even though the heroine has a friendship-like relationship with the hero, she didn't tell him why she's hiding the whole truth. Then they sort of began dating but it's all just some kisses here and there.
I feel like the relationship didn't progress much so that's why I DNF-ed it at 70 %. The cover might be cute but this book deals with some heavy topics!
So for me, this is a 3 stars book because it lacked something and I lost interest in the second half.

A lovely romance to warm the heart I enjoyed the characters and the plot. I cannot wait to read more from this author. I have a feeling I will never be disappointed.

Lovely contemporary Rom com read.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this book in exchange for my review.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I picked this without really paying attention and I was surprised on how heavy the issue brought since the first chapter was. It gives clear picture on what's going on and where the main character will go from there. I really sympathize with what happened to Hannah and kind of anxious throughout the whole story untill the main issue was resolved, but I enjoyed it a lot! The plot and story was well-written, it almost feels like I'm fighting side by side with the main characters and oh boy what an adorable male character Andrew Brody is! Though I said that I was anxious, but everytime there's a scene of Hannah and Andrew together, it's heartwarming and so overwhelmingly adorable! (please tell me where to get Andrew Brody irl!!). I also love how this book highlighted how Hannah, a woman, pick herself up and get back up again and solve the issue on her own strength (not to discredit the whole support she got from the town and Kate, of course!). It's really satisfying to see! Also all the side characters are adorable except for Victor.

Overall, it's truly an emotional yet heartwarming and overwhelmingly cute story and I can't get enough of their little family cuteness!

TW:: domestic abuse victim