Big news: This is my first McAlister book and it won’t be my last. 

This is a perfect enemies to lovers romantic story that if you are used to these kind of stories, you’ll love. If you aren’t used to dipping your feet into the romance genre, like me, I still think you you’re going to love it. 

I could go into the interesting setting. The overall story arc that pulls in the reader and then slows down in the middle to build intimacy, and then ended with a beautifully tied bow. (Note: The slowness in the middle has to be mentioned and probably where she lost some of the readers.) And finally, the lack of interesting conflict from outside characters or the lack of strongly built storylines from outside characters is also missing. There are critiques here.

There are a lot of reviews that will cover more what you are looking for if you want an overall picture that I summarized above.

I’d like to focus on how realistic this book fell. As someone who loves more dialogue driven stories, this is some of the most authentic dialogue I have read in a long time. I love the bickering in the back-and-forth. The back-and-forth flowed very naturally. Even though you are being introduced to these characters, you could feel the history and depth right from the beginning. The author didn’t need to tell you they had a history, she showed you through her writing, the choice of dialogue.

The writing is really the strongest point here. It’s extremely well done and less fluff and more depth. Which I sometimes, probably unfairly, I associate with the romance genre. 

McAllister has changed my mind on romance books and cheesy covers. I look forward to not only reading her future stories, but digging into the back her back catalogue as well.  I would obviously, recommend this to my reader friends.

Stats: 384 pages – Expected publication November 11, 2025

**Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.