This is a highly emotional roller coaster of emotions. Kennedy and Aaron first turn to each other as they both work to over come issues they have faced over the last year. What starts out as a purely physical night of passion turns into quiet conversation and the beginning of feelings. Guilt begins to slip in and could ruin any chance they might have. Will they be able to get over the guilt and enjoy the life that could be waiting for them?

This is a very well done story and one I would definitely recommend.

This was a really sweet story about loss and learning to love again. It was a nice quick read and given the subject matter, it wasn't that heavy and there was lot in the story to smile about. I adore stories set in small towns and this produced a lot of lovely secondary characters that added a lot of light relief. There was no denying the chemistry between our MC's, however, at times it just all felt a little to "insta love " for my particular tastes and I would have loved the relationship between Kennedy and Austin to have been fleshed out a little more over a little more time. Overall, a nice read that I did enjoy.

I was provided with a copy of this book from the Publisher via Net Galley; there was no inducement or obligation.

This is the first book I've read by Ms. Mae and I really enjoyed it. Kennedy lost the love of her life last year due to cancer. She takes a trip to his home town to spread his ashes and try to move on with her life. While on the train she meets Austin the twin brother of Aaron who were both great friends of Jared's her late boyfriend. When she runs into Aaron instant attraction on both there parts occur, but both seem to fight it for different reasons. Kennedy feels she is betraying Jared and cheating on him, while Aaron feels he betrayed his best friend once and was never able to make it right before he passed away and feels this is a repeat of that past mistake. The secondary characters in this story flowed perfect with the story.
This story makes us realize we can't live in the past and we can't blame ourselves for things that happen in life. Great read and look forward to more of her work. Honest review in exchange for ARC.

This book was a solid 3.5 stars. Overall, it was a very sweet story where both Aaron and Kennedy learned to let go of their pasts, forgive themselves and give themselves permission to move on and love again.

The story starts with Kennedy Walters on a 3 day train ride accompanied by the urn holding her boyfriend Jared, who had died of cancer. It has taken her 2 years to carry out his request that his ashes be scattered on the lake of his home town, of Lyra Valley. Who takes a 3 day train ride these days? She has not been able to move on in these 2 years, but on the train meets a man, Austin, an old friend of Jared's, who she is attracted to- only turns out he plays for the other team. Another few hours from the train station to the town. Where is this place? She is staying at the B&B owned by Jared's sister Chelsea. There she tries to scatter the ashes, but can't let go, or convince Chelsea to do it for her. She meets Austin's twin brother, who was Jared's best friend until they had a falling out in their senior year in high school, when they both fell for the same girl. Aaron has been living in LA, but had tired of the life and come home. The two of them fight their attraction from each other, Aaron out of guilt of what happened before and Kennedy thinking that Jared didn't want to be replaced. After much drama, they realize that Jared would have wanted them together.

The story was well written, but I got hung up on the ridiculous transportation issue and was never clear where Chelsea and Jared had been living. Also, if Jared had been such a great guy (and had made it clear that he would never have married her, because he didn't believe in it), why was Chelsea convinced that he wanted her to be alone the rest of her life.

This review was based on an ARC provided by the publisher via netgalley.com.

This book was good but it didn't pull me in like most of Cassie Mae's early works. I enjoyed the dialogue between the two main characters but could never fully invest into the story.

This was an emotional read. Kennedy loses the love of her life Jared, to cancer, and when she decides it is time to finally spread his ashes as he told her to a year ago in his hometown. She is talks to the ashes because she misses him so much, it is actually sad. When she gets there she meet Aaron who was Jared's best friend while growing up, but they had a fight, because Aaron betrayed him. Aaron is attracted to Kennedy, but feels she is off-limits because she was Jared's first. Kennedy is also attracted to Aaron, but feels that you only have one love, and she had hers and that is she is not ready. Jared's sister gives ok to Aaron, and he goes after Kennedy and she gives in, but then runs because she feels so guilty. Aaron is so brokenhearted, but luckily Kennedy wakes up, and comes back and they get there HEA.

Aaron and Kennedy have come to Lyra Valley for different reasons. Kennedy is on a quest to bring her decease boyfriend Jared's ashes to his hometown to spread them at the lake by his families house and Aaron has returned home to try to and work out some old demons involving his former best friend Jared from when he lived there before. The two bond over memories of Jared and their feelings for each other grow.

This was a great book. It was both a sad and happy book. I loved the intense bond that Aaron and Kennedy had. Great read. I look forward to other books by this author.

A breathtaking book about taking that second chance on love, forgiving yourself, and pillow talk with the people you love. I adored this one!

If you're looking for a simply sweet romantic story about love and loss and love again, this one is for you. Cassie Mae is a master at crafting lovely love stories that can warm your heart and make you smile, without having to relay on drama to carry the story along.

In this one, she delves into the realities of prematurely losing a loved one and coming to terms with the fact that you are allowed to feel joy and love again. That moving on does not mean forgetting, nor does it negates the love you felt for that person.

And she shows this dilemma, this inner conflict very well through both our heroine and our hero.

Sweet, gentle Kennedy has just lost Jared a year ago, but his death feels as fresh today as it felt the day he passed and the silence that accompanies her whenever she attempts to talk to him a stark reminder of her loneliness.

Quiet, thoughtful Aaron has lost Jared years before his actual passing, but his pain--and guilt-- is just as strong as Kennedy's, if not stronger. His fallout with Jared and his inability to breach the gap before his passing haunts him. Their lost friendship and the lost chances were heartbreaking to read off.

These two people, haunted by the same person, meet at his hometown and in a course of a week come together, find solace and a sense of peace within each other. But they shouldn't, should they? Not with Jared's ghost hanging around them.

Cassie Mae does a really good job in making you forget these people only know each other for a week because she spends so much time letting us sink into their conversations and their meet ups. She deftly crafts this relationship, this falling in love, through conversations and looks and smiles, that make you feel as if it has been much longer. When the characters themselves wonder at the short while they've known each other, I was shocked to realize it hadn't been months.

That being said, I didn't connect to this one as much as I normally do with Mae's stories, because of my personal belief system and by no fault of this novel, because I truly believe this novel will connect to and move many a heart.

But while I definitely bought Aaron and Kennedy's romance, I didn't buy quite as easily their healing process. I felt like these people have hurt for so long, and their love for Jared was so alive, that their actual healing came much too fast for me. On a personal level, this is something I don't believe. I think it's a much longer process, and I always struggle with love being shown as this magic cure.

But this is, again, such a personal matter, and I highly recommend reading this novel or any other novel by Mae (Reasons I Fell For the Funny Fat Friend and Doing It For Love my current faves) to experience the joy her writings can bring.

I really enjoyed PILLOW TALK by Cassie Mae...it is the first of her books that I have read and I plan to read many more. Kennedy is grieving the loss a over year ago of Jared the love of her life. She goes back to his home town and falls for his childhood friend Aaron.....they both feel guilty... I loved when Kennedy went ridding quads in the mud with Aaron and his twin. It reminded me of good times my family had doing the same. This is a story of loss and new love....I really enjoyed this book.

I found this book depressing and tedious. The premise is that the heroine, Kennedy Walters has come to her boyfriend’s hometown to stay with her boyfriend’s sister while she prepares herself to fulfill his final wishes about where to dispose of his ashes. He had died tragically early from some type of cancer a year ago and she is having deep problems recovering from his loss.

She meets his former best friend, Aaron, and is, despite herself, attracted to him. Aaron’s lifelong friendship with the former boyfriend had ended when he’s slept with his girlfriend years ago. So he feels guilty now to be attracted to another girlfriend. But romance novels being what they are, they have trouble resisting each other. No one else seems to care and everyone else thinks that it’s time for Kennedy to move on and that Aaron, despite his own views of himself, is really a decent guy.

If that had been what the novel was about, it might have been better. But way too much time is spent with Kennedy dithering about giving up her boyfriend’s ashes. She sleeps with them in bed with her and talks to them. She just can’t give them up. It might be her way to cope with her loss, but I found that pretty darn creepy. There was too much of her sorrow and not enough of this new romance for me to really recommend this book.

Great story about being able to have enough love in your heart for more than one person and allowing that to be OK. Also a great story about fate and healing with someone unexpected.

I volunteered to read a copy of this from the publisher and net-galley. No payment was received.

This was an okay read for me. I enjoyed getting to know Kennedy and Aaron. I like both characters.

Both Kennedy and Aaron are grieving a loved one.. The same loved one... Jared. Both are having trouble moving on from the pain, but when things get easier pain was guilt kicks in for both of them. For Kennedy its a promise she made to allow Jared to hold her heart forever, and for Aaron its for wanting Jareds girl.


This story made me feel all kinds of emotions, the only reason I am giving it 4 stars instead of 5 was that there was a little to much of holding on to the past for me. I say one click this book when it releases on April 4th

Kennedy has been grieving for a year and it still is hard to let go of her first love. Aaron has returned to his hometown also grieving but swimming in regret for lost opportunities to rebuild a friendship. When they meet it seems like fate has stepped in. But one person seems like a wall between them, Jared, Kennedy's first love and Aaron's former best friend. Guilt on both sides despite different reasons is so very hard to overcome but love, it seems, is stronger.

Pillowtalk is a little bit different from the usual Cassie Mae books, it's a little bit more poignant, a little bit more melancholy, but it still remains lighter in tone than the subject matter implies. The characters are well developed and deep, as all Cassie Mae's characters are but Aaron and Kennedy seem more fragile emotionally. The romance is paced really well considering where both are coming from. And this is where the magic of Cassie Mae's talent is, she balances every element of this story perfectly. It's so easy to go all out angst here but instead, everything is seamlessly interwoven that you get this truly fantastic story about emotional healing and of course how love plays a part in it. Cassie Mae has evolved in her craft beautifully.

Kennedy has come to the small town to spread the ashes of the man she loved and brings them to his home to do it. She runs into his best friend who he had a falling out with and never made up and she did not know about and there is instant chemistry. What was hard to grasp is this is a year after his death and she is just now doing this and Aaron has come back to town at the same time. What really works is they came to town at the same time, almost like fate. Kennedy and Aaron are so much alike and they both loved Jared it was heart wrenching to watch them fall in love and say goodbye at the same time.

This was a fast read but worth every minute and I recommend it.

**Received and ARC copy for review from the publisher via NetGalley**

It is so heart breaking when a young person dies. It makes you think of the years that they have been cheated out of but when they leave a loved one behind that person too sometimes forgets how to live and the thought of falling in love again is unthinkable.  Kennedy and Jared thought they would be with each other forever but tragically Jared lost his life to cancer. A year after Jared’s death Kennedy is fighting with her emotions to let him go. She knows that she must move on but she just feels guilty to live her life without him and the thought of another relationship is simply not on the cards.  The first step that she takes is to return Jared’s ashes to the town where he grew up but although she goes out each day she can’t lay him to rest and returns with the urn in tact to her sister in laws day after day.
Fate has a way of playing with emotions and  feelings because something has made Aaron come back to his home town too. He use to be Jared’s best mate until 5 minutes of passion with one of Jared’s previous girlfriends ended a life time of friendship. Now it is too late to seek his forgiveness.  Once Kennedy and Aaron set eyes on each other there is an instant attraction but will Kennedy be able to move forward with her life and can Jared get his head around the fact that he isn’t stealing his best friends girl again.
This is a book that plays with your emotions because you can see exactly where Kennedy and Aaron are coming from. I found that I could put myself in their shoes and understand the  frustrations they were feeling.  Cassie Mae has done a fine job in creating a story around such a taboo subject to a lot of people. The guilt of being alive while as humans we are social beings that need love and nurture. Yes this is quite a heavy topic but Cassie Mae’s writing just makes you get at the back of this pair and push for them to learn to live again. To cherish what they had but be able to make new memories not waste the now moments and precious future.

3.5 Stars Pillowtalk is a heart-breaking story of love lost, love found and the pain of letting go. I liked this story but felt the past was still to present for the relationship between Kennedy and Aaron to fully sparkle. Aside from this I did find the story enjoyable and would read more by this author

I really like this author, and really enjoyed this book. Death of a loved one is never easy to get over, and Kennedy is no exception. It's taken a year for her to get to a place where she can finally scatter her first loves his ashes (Jared) near his family's B&B where his sister still runs the business. This is where Kennedy meets Aaron, Jared's best friend from his childhood, but there was a falling out years before Jared passed away, which also leaves Jared at an impasse on how to get over his best friends passing. For those who have lost loved ones, and have had difficulty moving forward, this story is a very touching reminder that love always stays with you, but life moves on no matter what. I loved what happens between Kennedy and Aaron, and how they work their way through very difficult feelings on how to move on, no matter how hard it is. Love the side characters in the story, Chelsea and Austin where a great addition. The town of Lyra Valley was the kind of small town that you would just love to live in, perfect setting for this story. Great book on a very heavy subject, but the author does a great job on making it light and fun. Very well worth the read.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC copy of this book.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was a real and emotional story and I enjoyed the characters in the book. Everyone in the small town, and especially the main characters, were likable. I really enjoyed the portions of the book with dialogue between the characters; it was realistic, fun, and moving at times. The plot did keep me reading because I was rooting for Aaron and Kennedy to get their happily ever after, and I was truly invested in seeing how they would manage to let the past go and move on.

The place this book fell a bit flat for me was with all of the internal reflection. As I mentioned, the dialogue in the story was great, and it didn't even matter whether it was Aaron and Kennedy, the twins, Chelsea and someone, or any combination of characters.. However, because the story was based on an emotional time for the main characters, they were having internal conflicts and, at times, reading the repetitive thoughts plaguing them both was a bit drawn out. Additionally, the sort of insta-love that took place was harder to believe given the inner turmoil both characters were having about being together, not to mention the constant presence of the urn that Kennedy carried around with her,.

All in all, there were elements of this story that I enjoyed, especially the characters. I simply wish the love was not quite so rushed and the story had offered more interactions among the characters and a less analysis of each person's thoughts.