⭐⭐⭐⭐/🌶️🌶️🌶️ Older by Jennifer Hartman is trauma in book form. It is so heavy, and so so good. Halley meets Reed randomly at a party while she's trying to escape/forget her tragic home. There's definitely chemistry, until he finds out she's only 17. They go their separate ways, but run into each other again and again.. until one day it's at her best friend, Tara's, house.. because he's Tara's dad.

💙Age gap (17 yrs)
💙so. much. trauma.
💙Best friend's dad
💙Emotional damage
💙Secret romance
💙Forbidden/taboo

I throughly enjoyed this book and would love to read more from this author. Thanks to Betgalley and the publisher for this ARC

Un des derniers livres de Jennifer Hartmann que je n'avais pas encore lu, j'ai saisi l'opportunité de le découvrir car Older va être réédité par Bloom Books! J'ai eu un coup de cœur pour cette histoire d'age gap !
Halley va rencontrer Reed lors d'une soirée, lui mentir sur son âge sauf qu'il va finir par le découvrir et ne plus lui adresser la parole. Mais la vie en a décidé autrement...

J'ai tout simplement adoré cette histoire ! Alors oui, je peux comprendre qu'un age gap de 17 ans entre nos deux protagonistes peut déranger mais pourtant, Jennifer Hartmann nous offre une histoire magnifique, bien slow burn, pleine d'émotions et de justesse! Les personnages sont terriblement attachants et touchants, nous donnant envie de les prendre dans nos bras mais aussi de pleurer pour eux! J'ai aussi beaucoup aimé les personnages secondaires qui ne sont pas négligés! J'ai beaucoup aimé le développement de nos personnages mais aussi de leur relation ! Jennifer Hartmann est vraiment très douée pour nous offrir des livres riches en émotions!

En bref, un coup de cœur pour ce livre! Je croise vraiment les doigts pour qu'il soit traduit en France un jour!

Un des derniers livres de Jennifer Hartmann que je n'avais pas encore lu, j'ai saisi l'opportunité de le découvrir car Older va être réédité par Bloom Books! J'ai eu un coup de cœur pour cette histoire d'age gap !
Halley va rencontrer Reed lors d'une soirée, lui mentir sur son âge sauf qu'il va finir par le découvrir et ne plus lui adresser la parole. Mais la vie en a décidé autrement...

J'ai tout simplement adoré cette histoire ! Alors oui, je peux comprendre qu'un age gap de 17 ans entre nos deux protagonistes peut déranger mais pourtant, Jennifer Hartmann nous offre une histoire magnifique, bien slow burn, pleine d'émotions et de justesse! Les personnages sont terriblement attachants et touchants, nous donnant envie de les prendre dans nos bras mais aussi de pleurer pour eux! J'ai aussi beaucoup aimé les personnages secondaires qui ne sont pas négligés! J'ai beaucoup aimé le développement de nos personnages mais aussi de leur relation ! Jennifer Hartmann est vraiment très douée pour nous offrir des livres riches en émotions!

En bref, un coup de cœur pour ce livre! Je croise vraiment les doigts pour qu'il soit traduit en France un jour!

-Perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover, just not for me

I received an advanced copy of this deluxe edition (previously released) from NetGalley and jumped at the chance to read this because it already had great reviews from friends I trust. Unfortunately this didn’t work for me AT ALL. The story centers around an age gap (17 year old and her best friend’s dad.) Technically she was 18 before the relationship really took off but I felt a major ICK about this (and I loved the age gap in The Idea Of You.) I found the female just too young and naive, and the male too creepy and predator-ish. However, it was not poorly written and I was engaged enough to see the story through.

Would this age gap give you the ick?

4.5 stars, Jennifer Hartmann just has a way of writing these emotional books, that has you so invested in the characters. One night, at a lake outside a party, Halley has an encounter with a man named Reed, but she tells him she's 21, not 17. When he learns this, he leaves. Halley has had a hard upbringing and she's been abused until she's 17. When she gets out, she is able to go stay at her best friend's house with her and her mum, then everything changes for her. What Halley doesn't realise is that Reed she met at the party is her best friends dad. It's a slow burn with a lot of tension between Reed and Halley because they know they shouldn't be together. If you like taboo and age gap, you will definitely enjoy the story. Thank you to Netgalley and Bloom Books for the copy of the book!

I ended up DNFing this book. I love Jennifer’s writing but this book just frustrated me. It didn’t feel like a romance at all. Reed really made me mad with the way he kept pushing the fmc away. I didn’t feel a connection to either of these character or between the two. It was less about romance and more about trauma. I just couldn’t push through to finish it.

This book was written in the best most addictive way possible! My jaw was on the floor for much of it! I loved this hot relationship status and it was so swoony and hot I could not contain myself! Emotional and smutty at the same time! READ THIS IMMEDIATELY

This book had me hooked right from the start, her writing is just so good. It had everything I love in an age gap/taboo romance: real emotion, intense chemistry, and that kind of tension you can feel in your chest. I was completely pulled in and ate up every bit of it. I cannot wait to read more of her books..

4 ⭐️ Age Gap, Forced Proximity, & Best Friend's Dad Romance for fans of Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas. If you read that book and need something else that's similar I highly recommend this one. Jennifer Harmann has such poetic writing with so many beautiful quotes.

The romance was an absolute slow burn filled with so much tension. If you are a fan of the Mr. Darcy hand touch scene then you're going to love the lingering glances and forced proximity in this.

Please check your triggers as there is some dark topics discussed ⚠️

I CONSUMED this book in three days. This book and the characters had me hooked from the very first page. Yes, this is an age gap romance (which may not be your thing, totally fine). But if that is your thing then I guarantee this book will be right up your alley. Halley and Reed meet in the beginning of the book and there is some questionable dalliance at the beginning when Halley is seventeen, but nothing else really occurs until the character is older. I think that helped me lean more into liking this book and their story- there was clear hesitation and conversations regarding the characters and their age gap- whereas I feel other books like this kind of just gloss over it. The plot was great, and I liked the conflict and how it was resolved. There were real problems, with real consequences, and then realistic resolutions. The character development was a tiny bit lacking, I'd have liked to see more, but it didn't ruin the story for me. This book is a little spicy as well, so kudos for that. #NetGalley #NetGalleyARC #ARC

This trope is usually my favourite, however I found it was really cutting close with my personal limit. They met when the fmc was 17 & as she’s the same age as the mmcs daughter, I really struggled to get past this! Unfortunately this wasn’t for me!

Whew. Older is the kind of book that grabs you by the soul—and other places—and doesn’t let go.

Jennifer Hartmann serves up an age-gap romance that is equal parts emotional wreckage and toe-curling tension. This isn't just a story about a younger man falling for an older woman—it’s about grief, guilt, healing, and unapologetic desire. And let me tell you, the chemistry? Off. The. Charts.

The angst? Delicious. The forbidden moments? So good they should be illegal. And the slow burn? Torturously perfect. Hartmann knows exactly how to drag you through the emotional dirt and then make it worth every single second with scenes that will have your heart racing and your Kindle overheating.

If you're into complex characters, heavy feels, and steamy scenes that leave you breathless, Older will wreck you—in the best possible way.

Well, Well, WELL! This was quite the little scandalous read! It’s been awhile since I read something gasp worthy. Literally, as soon as I started reading it I knew this book was going to be a doozy! It’s definitely one of those books you aren’t sure if you should be reading. And then you start reading it and you start rearranging morals and suddenly you don’t even care anymore. 🤣

Tropes:
💙Age gap
🌼Best friends dad
💙Forbidden romance
🌼90s setting

There was so much about this book that I loved. The 90s vibes were vibing. Loved all the references to the culture and music. The story to our FMC was heartbreaking. Her struggles with trauma and healing were a huge l focus in this book. I was back and forth giving myself whiplash on how I felt about the romance. I was gasping, I was sympathizing, I was swooning, I was shaking my head. I was doing all the things. I felt the book started very strong but it did kind of stall out a bit somewhere in the middle.( this is sometimes a me problem ) But it kicked back up eventually. This was some messy shit and I loved it.

⚠️possible trigger warnings

Thank you to @read_bloom and @author.jenniferhartmann for allowing me to read this ARC!

I am a big lover of Jennifer Hartmann books. However this one was a miss for me. The 17 year age gap felt like it was written more for shock value and the overall pacing was difficult for me. There were large jumps is time were hard to keep up with and not a whole lot of explanation why. Reed, our MMC I felt like was well written for the book. He struggles with the relationship and how it will look in eyes of his daughter, who happens to be friends with the FMC. I will always pick up a JH book, this one just wasn't for me.

I don't normally choose books with a high angst content, but Jennifer Hartmann is on another level and I will always pick her books knowing that she will break my heart and put it back together in a re-arranged way. She's so good, so careful with her words, that she has me at her feet craving every beautiful phrase and description that falls from her characters. I fall for them every time and carry them in my heart forever.

Halley and Reed are much more than an age-gap romance . Their story is about the connection between two people, two survivors with different wounds, trying to be strong and fight against this intense feeling until they understand there’s more to it, this connection between souls and a deep desire that got me hanging to every page waiting for the moment, the first moment they decide to surrender to that inevitable feeling of being close and learn to love and be together.
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Halley comes from a difficult home with vd, and when she finds a refuge, a friend, a family willing to give her love and care, she discovers that the person she met the summer before, the first one in actually seeing her and who with a conversation changed her world and who she dream about, is her best friend's father.
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“You just had to be so perfect. My white knight. My rescuer. You had to be everything I’ve dreamed about, every wish I’ve made on falling stars and birthday candles and pennies in mall fountains”
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I only want angst if she writes it. It's so beautifully crafted that I enjoy holding my heart in my hand while reading, tears are always escaping my eyes but they do it knowing she'll give me a beautiful ending that will make me sigh happily.
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And yes, there is steam, very good steamy scenes that really blend with the characters' personalities and the journey through the path of nostalgia of the end of the century and the beginning of 2000, the songs and bands that accompany the characters like Oasis
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No one of her books is the same, but they're all my favorites.
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Thanks to Jennifer Hartmann and Sourcebooks Bloom Books for give me a copy of this beautiful book in exchange for my honest and voluntary opinion
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Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read this ARC!!

Jennifer Hartman is such an amazing author. Just like her other works, this story is visceral, gritty, a little uncomfortable, but weighted with depth. The taboo element to the love story doesn't feel out of reach - her stories have roots, her characters are extremely well-fleshed out. This was an addicting read!!

Older by Jennifer Hartman has been one of my favorite books that Jennifer has written. There is a lot of angst, the forbidden trope is very prominent here. And if I am honest, this is a well written age gap romance. I kept comparing this to Still Beating, and it took me a lot to realize that they were not the book, yet they were interconnected in some parts. Towards the end of the book it becomes a little slow but not too slow that it became overwhelming.

Truly, a really good book and I loved it

I usually enjoy a good age-gap romance, but this one felt a bit cringy to me. Although she was technically a consenting adult, considering her background, it didn’t feel appropriate for her to jump into a relationship when what she really needed was time to heal. As the older party, he should have prioritized her well-being. That said, I really appreciated the presence of the mother figure in this story—she was there in a meaningful way during a very vulnerable time, which added a lot of heart. Overall, it was a compelling story, but the romantic dynamic just didn’t sit right with me.

Jennifer recognizes how to write a persuasively tragic story that will mesmerize and emotionally destroy you along the way. Reed and Halley are so much more than words on paper. They are the epitome of a soul connection. The intense bond was felt from the beginning and only continued to grow as the pages turned and they fought against their rising attraction. This may be an age gap romance, but the crux of the story is so much more than that. It’s about love and compassion. It’s about fight and determination. It’s about healing and acceptance. My entire soul was aching while reading this from essentially the moment I started until the very last page. You know a book is good when your feelings are so intertwined with the story that when they hurt you hurt.

Halley broken, battered, and bruised lived a life filled with pure sadism. Her tragic past has aged her well beyond her years. But all that she lived through did not shatter her completely. She fought tooth and nail building herself up from the sheer ground, slowly stitching and mending her broken and battered soul piece by piece. And across each phase and within each accomplishment and trial that she battled Reed was there facilitating and aiding her. Halley’s character arc and growth throughout the story was uplifting. She never stopped fighting. She worked through all her trauma to become so much more than what her upbringing led her to believe she could be.

Reed was something else. He really did attempt to stay away from Halley and their growing lure. He was admirable and resolute. But Halley was so much more than he was prepared for. She may have been young, but her soul was not. They fit together so impeccably, so flawlessly there was no option for either of them, you can only fight fate for so long. The age gap between them is a large one, but Jennifer so eloquently wrote the words that you can’t even tell there is an age difference when they are together. They were that seamless. Jennifer has created a brilliant journey that will leave you wrecked and depleted but emotionally complete by the end.