Absolutely brilliant!
This book will take you on a ride of heartbreak to love. The two main characters are intelligent, strong-willed and have a ton of devastating history to overcome. Between the two, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll be swept away into five star read.
absolutely recommend.

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Jillian Grant, a 42 yr. old romance writer has lost quite a few people in her life. While leaving the hospital after visiting another sick relative, she sees a man who looks just like her newest character and hires him for her cover photo. Raine McDonald is a 24 yr. old student working to make ends meet after the death of his mother caused his plans to crash around him. This opportunity is just what he needs and it doesn't hurt that he thinks his new boss is hot! I was hesitant about this story at first. Let's face it, Jillian is close to my age and Raine is the same age as my son. I just couldn't imagine that this wouldn't end up feeling creepy. But Raine is an old soul and I began to root for him and even get angry with Jillian when it seemed she was going to do something stupid and throw away her chance for happiness.
You've heard about a magical connection? Well, these two have it in spades. It's a beautiful book with tender moments and hot love scenes. This is an inspiring story of two very different people becoming friends, then lovers, and believing in second chances. I was given an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to read my first book by L.G. O'Connor. I'll definitely be reading more!

I received this NetGalley ARC in exchange for an honest review. Usually, I am not a contemporary reader but this book changed my mind.

Ms. O'Connor has given her characters such depth and appeal you can never forget them. Both Raine and Jillian come to life from the pages they are strong and damaged. The age difference becomes a brief factor for Jillian but never for Raine..

Raine is mature beyond his 24 years having suffered at the hands of an abusive father. Jillian has lost so many people in her life she has given up on happiness and love.

In reading this book for me the age difference 18 years was never a factor but I interpreted as the strength they both needed. The twists and turns in the story to bring it to a full circle are exquisitely done by this author. I would highly recommend this book and looking forward to the upcoming sequels.

This is my first L.G. O Connor book. Needless to say, this wouldn't be my last!

Writing a romance novel around two individuals with an age difference of around 2 decades can be quite challenging. But she has done the story well - you don't see the age difference much as the characters are made for each other and it shows in the author's writing.

Jillian a 42-year old widow and Raine who's a 24-year old find solace in one another. Though Raine is younger than Jillian his hard life with his abusive father and other instances make his wise beyond his age and Jillian has her own insecurities due to her age and when both of meet - sparks fly.

It is a beautiful story where two people who complete and compliment each other meet and decide to take the plunge - risk their heart for the ONE.

It is a heart-breaking read, so you will need tissues! But worth your time as their journey is bittersweet and you will fall in love with the characters.

Well now, color me impressed!!

When I first read the blurb of this book, my mind immediately went to that Mrs Robinson place, so of course I jumped at the chance to read this ARC for L.G. O'Connor. And I'm really glad that I did.

I loved everything the author did in this story. She didn't make the age difference in our leads anything more than what it was, a number. She didn't focus on it to the point where it took away from the beautiful love story she presented. She didn't take the baggage that both Jillian and Raine brought into their journey to HEA and make it so agnsty that it deterred from the love story. Don't get me wrong, it's there, and in true romance novel form, it does rear its ugly head but it just isn't over the top.

I also loved how the author took Jillian and Raine and made them almost complete opposites but yet absolutely perfect for one another. For where one lacked, the other made up for. Honestly, I really REALLY love this story!

Another prop the author gets from me is that she made sure that although Raine was young in age, he was not young in mind and heart and soul. THAT is what made this story work for me. Like I mentioned earlier ... it was just a number.

I really loved the ride L.G. O'Connor took me on with this book. It will make you laugh and cry and laugh some more, you will want to scream and slap someone a time or two, but best of all, it will give you hope and it will make a believer out of you! #TRUST

ARC received by the author for review

I picked up Caught Up in Raine because I’m an absolute sucker for a well-done older woman/younger man romance, for reasons that I’ll get into later. But that isn’t all there is to this story. There’s a bit of an unusual second chance at romance thrown in, as well as a heaping helping of Romancing the Stone. Not in the sense of near-death adventures in the jungle, but the part of that story where a romance writer meets the real-life version of her hero, and finds herself living one of her own stories.

Jillian Grant is a romance writer in her early 40s. She’s also a widow. And the love of her life died in an automobile accident when they were both 18 and just ready to embark on their happy ever after. In spite of the contentment she found in her marriage, her late husband just wasn’t the person she felt she had been meant to be with. She settled. Or perhaps she punished herself for having been the driver in that long ago accident when her car was t-boned by a woman in the middle of having a stroke while behind the wheel.

Jillian’s current life takes a sharp left turn into the unknown when she meets Raine. He is the spitting image of her long-dead love, Drew. Which also makes him the perfect model for the cover of her next book – because Jillian is trying to expiate her ghosts by writing them into her fiction, and a slightly altered Drew is the hero of the romantic suspense novel she is in the middle of writing.

When she asks Raine to model for her, she is studiously ignoring her attraction to him, especially since there is an element of uncertainty. Is it Raine she’s attracted to, or just his uncanny resemblance to Drew? And their 18 year age gap keeps her from noticing that Raine is just as attracted to her as she is to him.

Raine and Jillian need each other. Jillian is just the woman that Raine has been searching for. The amount of trauma that Raine has survived, and in some ways is still living through, have made him grow up harder and faster than his years would normally allow. And Jillian needs someone to pull her out of her own head, help her stop clinging to the past, and get her to look towards her own future and her own happiness.

Even though they shouldn’t be, they are a perfect match. And in spite of some disapproval and concern from Jillian’s family, as well as a vicious attack by Raine’s crazy dad, they put together a life that is filled with love and joy.

Until a seeming miracle occurs, and the realities of their situation, that Jillian is hitting mid-life while Raine is still chronologically relatively young, hit them sideways. Jillian decides that it is better for her to cut Raine loose now, before he tears her heart out later. When she tears his out instead, it looks like a happy ever after for these lovers is not meant to be.

But it is.

Escape Rating A-: I said that I have a soft spot for a well-done older woman/younger man romance. I’m also in a position to judge just how well it’s done, because I’ve been living one myself for the last 15 years. Been there, still doing that, got a whole closet full of the t-shirts.

Like some of my favorites in the genre, Dating a Cougar by Donna McDonald, Fallen from Grace by Laura Leone, Knight in Black Leather by Gail Dayton, and On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves, Caught Up In Raine is one where the relationship is done right. All of the doubts about even the possibility of this relationship that go through Jillian’s head are so very real. And while Raine is a bit too good to be true in some respects – not only is he gorgeous but he’s also a gourmet chef and a personal trainer! – the experiences that he has lived through make it feel right that he is looking for someone with more maturity instead of what one might usually expect, a pretty girl a couple/few years younger than he is. He’s experienced too many of life’s hard knocks much too young for what society sees as standard to work for him. He needs someone who has also been through enough to understand where he is coming from.

At the same time, they aren’t going to be going through the same things at the same time. Jillian’s expectations of the rest of her life are different because she’s at a different place in her life than Raine is in his. They can get past that, but it is a very real issue that has to be dealt with for the relationship to work. (That’s also true with an older man/younger woman relationship, but the situation is generally glossed over because that pattern is more expected.)

The tragedies that they have each separately experienced bind them together – the joys that they face together almost drive them apart. But this isn’t a misunderstandammit, the situation feels very real.

And the storybook ending is sweet, intense and totally earned.

I enjoyed this story of an older woman and a younger man. Raine is more mature than others his age because of his home life. He knows what he wants and is willing to go for it. Jillian has decided to take a chance. Despite some misunderstandings, they take that journey to learn about themselves and each other. This book had me in tears (for their joy and their pain) as well as a little laugh here and there. I recommend this book highly.