I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I have really mixed emotions about this book. The synopsis really made me think I would like it a lot. I’m a huge CoHo fan and it sounded like the plot of one of her books. On one hand, it kind of was, but on the other hand, it was kind of creepy and weird to me.

I was very sympathetic with Leah Jones – our main character. Recently, Leah and her parents were involved in an accident where both of her parents were killed. Once a fun-loving and artistic young woman who enjoyed life, Leah now suffers from PTSD and keeps mostly to herself.

After the accident, Leah’s older brother Oliver stepped up and took on the responsibility of being her caretaker. He took on a job and has really blossomed in his career. So much that his company wants to transfer him across country to Sydney for a year to work there. The problem is, 19-year-old Leah is completing her senior year (she had to do it over because of the amount of school she missed after the accident) and he can’t pick her up and move her.

This is where Axel Nguyen comes in. Axel is Oliver’s best friend and owns his own home. Axel agrees to let Leah stay with him for 3 weeks out of every month (Oliver comes home for a week once per month). Leah has always been like a sister to Axel, and though it means he’ll need to chill out on his party boy ways and be more present for Leah, it’s something he feels like he needs to do.

Leah has a secret, though. She’s secretly had a crush on Axel for years, and as Axel pushes her to get out and live again, she finds it more and more difficult to hide her feelings for him.

The rest of the book is about Leah finding herself again, and the development of the relationship between Axel and Leah. I think my biggest problem with this setup was the age difference. Axel was 10 years older than Leah. He was also a bit of a party boy, a womanizer, and the relationship that developed between him and Leah felt kind of creepy. I get that technically Leah was at a consenting age, but it still felt weird that he was having sex with someone he’d thought of as a little sister for so long.

I also felt that Axel was really demanding of Leah as far as forcing her to go out and do things. I felt like his approach could have been less forceful and more sympathetic. At times, it came across as almost mean, which made it difficult to believe that Leah would have fallen for him. I get that she had had a crush on him for years, but I feel like that would have grated on my nerves and made me want to be with him even less.

I was bothered by the way Axel would always call Leah by name in almost every sentence he spoke to her.. “Are you hungry, Leah?” “Do you know what I’m saying, Leah?” A lot of the scenes were with just the two of them. I feel like she would have known who he was speaking to without calling her by name. She had PTSD, not amnesia. I wonder, though, if that way of speaking is common in the author’s native country which may have influenced this.

While sympathetic to our main character, none of the other characters really grabbed me, and as you can probably tell, I didn’t get Leah’s attraction to Axel. In the end, this book didn’t really grab me. I know this is the first in a series, and while this one ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, I don’t know that I’m invested enough to continue with the series.