Lindsay Chase is the golden girl who ends up crashing thanks to a gambling addiction. Now instead of hobnobbing with celebrities she returns to her home state where she will serve out her parole and 300 hours of community service. She begins her time at a homeless shelter and it is there she meets Ellie Tuttle who is a social worker. Ellie's best friend also happens to be married to Lindsay’s brother. At first a fish out of water she soon is doing her share.

I thought the book handles Lindsay's adjustment to working with the shelter well. She also shows that addiction is difficult and includes relapses. It fits her character that she is doing the bare minimum to stay out of jail in the beginning. I was a little disappointed that she never takes real accountability for her actions. She is bailed out of bigger consequences by a former lover and it happens more than once. The program she is in is telling her addiction recovery should be her focus for a year and suggests no relationships. But she is with multiple people in the months covered by the story.

I did like Ellie. She is an ideal social worker. I wanted good things for her. I enjoyed the book but I didn’t love the message that you don’t have to face the consequences if it is for a good cause.

Ellie Tuttle has worked hard trying to help the people in her community. Being a social worker meant she helped the homeless along with a variety of other problems like drug, alcohol addictions. The only one she hasn’t had much experience with is gambling addiction. She had good friends but it’s been a while since anyone turned her head.
Lindsay Chase thought she owned the world and she acted that way too. Going from relationship to relationship, ( Does a one night stand count? ) but none of the women she met weren’t what she needed. Been there, done that and didn’t want to revisit the one time she was in love. She’s older now but at times the pain seems so fresh.
Lindsay needs a social worker so she can do some of the court ordered community work, she’s paid the restitution required. She also has to go to her ‘twelve step program’ to help her stay straight. When she’s offered the chance to work with the homeless she’s very hesitant but what’s she going to do? The only upside was meeting Ellie and it soon becomes clear Ellie just isn’t that impressed with what Lindsay’s offering.
Now the question is can Lindsay stay the course or not. Characters' main and supporting characters were well thought out, making this a very enjoyable read.
ARC via NetGalley/Bold Stroke Books

Not a bad read from this author. I will have to check out the others from her.

This book followed Lindsay's struggles with addiction that felt real and personal after she went from having it all to rock bottom. Ellie works hard to help people in her community as a social worker which is where their paths cross as Lindsay needs a social worker to help with community service along with the 12 step program. Together they work to help the homeless, and Lindsay does her best, but overall, this started off well, but the last part of the book, was too much back and forth to get to the happy ending.

Also, I personally hate the switching of POV's in the middle of scenes, because it gets confusing.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is an enjoyable read and I thought the author did a great job exploring addiction. The book is well written and captured me from the start.


Thanks NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books

An enjoyable read that kept a reasonable pace throughout. I felt the book explored addiction well and demonstrated how recovery isn’t linear. I liked that we saw Lindsay’s struggles and the way it impacted those around her. It felt real.
I did find the book a bit hard to follow at times due to it moving from different characters POVs in the same chapter. I would’ve preferred chapters in one POV where we can gather more understanding of each character and the layers to their being.

In this book, we follow Ellie, a social worker, and Lindsay, who is doing court-ordered community service at the shelter where Ellie works. I personally struggled to connect with Lindsay and her motivations and was frustrated by her throughout the novel, but both she and Ellie were well developed and well written. This is a high angst, high drama novel that will suck you in until you reach the last page, perfect for reading when you want to get out of your own life for a while.

Lindsey had it all going for her, successful career, she can get every woman she wants and a flashy life in LA. She destroyed it all with her gambling addiction and must move back to home to her dad and must do community service. Ellie is this out of this world good social worker so when they are supposed to work together a bit of a clash, Ellie thinks Lindsey cannot be trusted in any way and Lindsey may think Ellie is too boring. With time things however progress and we get a sweet love story between such different women. Lindsey finally grows up and they may have a chance but of course a lot of mess on the way to that HEA.

This was an enjoyable read but the last 30% were not my favourite part of the book, too much back and forth until we saw a resolution.

First of all thank you for approving my request!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The authors writing style had me hooked throughout this book.

I didn't want it to end, a book I really couldn't put down.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.


Lindsay had everything going for her but then she developed a gambling addiction and she almost did time for embezzlement but she managed to get out of it with three hundred community services that she has to do at homeless shelter where she going with social worker Ellie they have instant attraction but they clash as Lindsay starts to realize how lucky she was and starts to change as they grow closer Lindsay wants to prove she can change but when she has opportunity to save the shelter will she fall for old habits. The characters had great chemistry the angst was good not overdone.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

lindsay has hit rock bottom, she has just managed to stay out of prison for her embezzlement and now has 300 hours of community work to do.... but old habits die hard.....and being an addict her need for a fix is overwhelming..... her drug of choice is gambling

ellie tuttle is a social worker and when lindsay starts her probation work at the homeless shelter she knows its going to be hard work as lindsay still hasnt learned anything from the experience of losing everything... fun times ahead for all

but the shelter is about to get some shocking news....
and lindsay thinks she knows of a way to help out but its a violation of her parole

interesting times ahead....

not a bad read... the angst between lindsay and ellie is fun to read...