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Formats
Ebook Details
  • 11/2020
  • 978-1-999275310 B08GJTVYLH
  • 453 pages
  • $3.99
Paperback Details
  • 11/2020
  • 978-1-999275303 B08GJTVYLH
  • 453 pages
  • $16.95
Jacquelyn Middleton
Author
Say Hello, Kiss Goodbye

Adult; Romance; (Market)

WILL HER FLING BECOME HIS FOREVER? Leia Scott has sworn off love. Fresh from a messy, public divorce from her hockey player ex, the twenty-six-year-old fashion designer temporarily trades New York for London to heal and embrace her freedom. Her vow? To protect her heart, steer clear of relationships, and say yes to flings without strings. She throws herself into designing upcycled dresses and exploring London with her sister. But Leia’s carefully curated plan encounters a flirty complication with an irresistible British accent. Wealthy, charming, and devastatingly attractive, Tarquin Balfour is tired of meaningless hookups and dates that go nowhere. For years, he has played the bon viveur with reckless abandon, throwing decadent parties, sleeping with a parade of women, and diving into extreme sports around the globe. But now the young property developer wants more. He craves love and commitment, to prove his kind heart matters more than the abundance of zeroes attached to his bank balance. Struggling with undiagnosed depression, Tarquin worries he’ll never find The One…until he meets his princess, a fashion designer named Leia. Afraid of falling in love and fearful of being alone, Leia and Tarquin enter into an entanglement that threatens to hurt them both. From Jacquelyn Middleton, the award-winning author of UNTIL THE LAST STAR FADES, comes a sexy story of love, second chances, gratitude, and finding beauty in the broken and the forgotten.
Reviews
In this smoothly written contemporary romance, Middleton (Until the Last Star Fades) effortlessly touches on mental health issues and their effects on personal relationships. Leia Scott married her high school sweetheart and supported his professional hockey career for years, but the relationship went sour. At 26, she’s a divorcee stuck in a part-time job she loves while struggling to launch her sustainable fashion line. Determined to live for herself, Leia has sworn off dating and complicated relationships, but a chance meeting with handsome property developer Tarquin Balfour threatens to change her resolve. The two enter a no-strings-attached, steamy relationship that quickly becomes tangled.

Leia and Tarquin’s chemistry sizzles from their meet-cute during a blackout in a London IKEA store on New Year’s Eve. Although the plot centers on their budding romance, Middleton smoothly blends aspects of their personal lives into beautifully interwoven subplots set against the backdrop of life in London and New York. The playful and racy banter between Leia and Tarquin is delightful. The heavy internal monologue and British slang may give some readers pause, but others will appreciate the insight it sheds on the characters’ motivations and actions.

Middleton elegantly balances the romance and sensuality by exploring challenges such as post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression. While readers swoon over Tarquin’s wealth, good looks, and love of Star Wars, they also get to see a strong man’s perspective on struggling with mental illness. Leia’s gratitude journal entries throughout the story add depth to her character and plot, simultaneously highlighting an effective coping mechanism for depression and anxiety. The heaviness in certain scenes is quickly lightened by the characters’ quirks and heightened sexual tension. This sultry, yet sweetly heartfelt romance is a winner.

Takeaway: Fans of contemporary romance will rejoice in this story of falling in love through and despite mental illness.

Great for fans of Candace Bushnell, Alexa Martin.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A+
Illustrations:
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 11/2020
  • 978-1-999275310 B08GJTVYLH
  • 453 pages
  • $3.99
Paperback Details
  • 11/2020
  • 978-1-999275303 B08GJTVYLH
  • 453 pages
  • $16.95
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