Stats for my copy: Pdf, pub date 3/18/23.
How acquired: Received via BookSirens.
First line: Dawson turned his ball cap around backward and wiped an arm across his sweaty forehead.
(Goodreads synopsis below.)
My thoughts: This is the third book in the author’s Huckleberry Ridge series. I loved the first book, and realized when I received this one that I must have missed the release of the second book, but I bought it as soon as I finished this one!
While volunteering at for an annual forestry event that aims to teach kids about conservation and protecting natural resources, Dawson inadvertently sort of meets Kara. Sort of, because she stays turned away from him and then flees. Dawson is intrigued, and determined to learn more about her.
Kara has been living with her mother, and her father before he died, in the family home for some twenty years, but nobody in Huckleberry Ridge even knew she’d come home. Celebrating graduation with friends, she had suffered burns to one side of her face and down her arm. Her boyfriend at the time promptly dumped her, and she’s kept herself hidden from the world ever since.
It’s been about a year since I read the first book, but I believe there was quite a bit more angst in this one. Not that I’m complaining, I love good angst, and Kara deserves to have all the angst she wants. But there is also a lot of humor, and laughter, and some wonderfully funny and flirty banter between Kara and Dawson. I loved watching them get to know each other. Dawson was so patient with Kara, slowly drawing her out and encouraging her to face the world again, a little at a time. When his family finally met Kara, they too were all just wonderful to her, welcoming both she and her mother her to the fold. My heart broke for Kara and the pain she had suffered, not just physically but emotionally.
There’s a big misunderstanding on Kara’s part, which I did not see coming, that drives a wedge between them, to Dawson’s perplexion, and then a smaller misunderstanding, which I did see coming but which fortunately was resoled within a few pages. And some more angst over the difference between their ages, which I totally understood and was there for. And then of course the HEA, and it was all just so heartwarming and fun and delightful. And I don’t understand why the author’s books don’t have a bigger audience.
*received via Booksirens and voluntarily reviewed*
Goodreads Synopsis: If only she could be invisible…
Kara
Grissom has spent twenty years in hiding. Ever since suffering a
severe facial burn the night after her college graduation, her only
refuge has been the childhood home she shares with her mother. She’s
long since given up on any possibility of finding love, so when a
handsome stranger suddenly invades her safe place, Kara’s stunned
by the sudden awakening of desires she thought had died years
ago.
Dawson
Wickham loves life as a bachelor. With his own home, a great family,
and the perfect job, he’s got everything he needs. But he also
loves mysteries, and when he accidentally stumbles upon the reclusive
Kara and she flees from him, her bizarre reaction is a mystery he
just has to solve.
Kara
knows that no man who sees her face could ever love her, so she does
her best to rebuff Dawson’s interest. But he’s not the type to
give up easily, especially once he begins to fall for her charm, wit,
and intelligence. But will his love be enough to break through Kara’s
phobia of rejection and convince her to trust him? Or is she destined
to live out her days alone?
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