Synopsis:
Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Cabot is a people pleaser. It’s exhausting, really, always following the rules. Mac has dreams of her own but to please her parents she moves to the beachside town of Avalon Bay to get her college degree.
Twenty-year-old Mac has had plenty of practice suppressing her wilder impulses, but when she meets local bad boy Cooper Hartley, that ability is suddenly tested. Cooper is rough around the edges. Raw. Candid. A threat to her ordered existence. Their friendship soon becomes the realest thing in her life.
Despite his disdain for the trust-fund kids he sees coming and going from his town, Cooper soon realizes Mac isn’t just another rich clone and falls for her. Hard. But as Mac finally starts feeling accepted by Cooper and his friends, the secret he’s been keeping from her threatens the only place she’s ever felt at home.
Review:
This book was the perfect quick escape, and I honestly couldn’t put it down. I ended up reading it in one sitting, completely immersed in the charming characters and their quirky, hilarious journey. It’s one of those rom-coms that gives you all the warm fuzzies, with just the right amount of tension and laugh-out-loud moments to keep you hooked.
That said, while it was an absolute joy to read, I couldn’t quite give it a perfect 5/5. Some parts of the plot felt a little rushed, especially toward the end. I would’ve loved to see a few more moments for the characters to really explore their feelings and connect on a deeper level. The romance felt a bit too quick to wrap up in such a neat bow, and I was left wishing for a little more depth in those final scenes.
Still, despite those small flaws, this book is an absolute delight and the chemistry between the leads is spot on.
Overall, a solid 4/5 — a feel-good story with just a few bumps in the plot that keep it from perfection, but still a blast from start to finish!
