Olivia “Livvy” Kane and Nicholas Chandler were teenage sweethearts, growing up as neighbours, heirs to the successful grocery chain their grandfather’s worked together to found. Then a tragic car crash changed everything. Nicholas’ mother and Olivia’s father both died, and shortly after the funerals, Nicholas’ father bought Olivia’s mother’s shares for far less than they were worth. Olivia’s twin brother was arrested for suspected arson of the flagship store, and the Kane and Chandler families, who had been so very close for three generations became bitter enemies. Nicholas broke Livvy’s heart by breaking up with her, just as she was dealing with the utter chaos her life had turned into.
Not that Livvy has been able to forget Nicholas entirely. One night a year, on her birthday, they meet for one night of pure passion, never speaking of the gulf between them the rest of the time. Nicholas can’t make himself tell Livvy that he clears his entire schedule and waits impatiently for her text message summoning him to each new encounter. Then, when Olivia turns thirty, there was no message. He waited in vain.
Now Olivia is back in town. Her mother is injured and Livvie is determined to do right by her, even if it means living entirely too close for comfort to Nicholas. He can’t stay away from her, even as he knows his father will never accept them resuming their relationship. Can Nicholas atone for the hurt he caused Livvie in the past. Can the two work through their differences and rebel against their warring families’ wishes to reconcile or are they both doomed to heart-break once more?
This contemporary romance take on Romeo and Juliet (with a decidedly better final outcome) has been very favourably reviewed on a number of romance sites I frequent online. It was a book club selection book at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books in August and is October’s book club selection over on Heroes and Heartbreakers. Having never read anything by Alisha Rai before, I figured this might be a good starting point, and I was not disappointed.
Full review here.
Sounds intriguing, and different!
It’s almost a 4.5 stars for me, I liked it a lot, but some of the soap opera-y drama of the plot made me roll my eyes a bit (and Nick’s dad is a bit too much of a stereotypical villain), hence the 4 star rating. I know I’m one of the romance readers that tend to be generous in my rating, but even now, weeks after I finished the book, I still remember bits of it that I really enjoyed, and I’m already considering re-reading it.