I absolutely adored this novella! It made me feel so many emotions and I definitely needed tissues to finish it. Highly recommend it if you like small town, it was always you and spice.

This was a BEAUTIFUL debut novella. I cannot wait to read more from Maple Ridge. Giana and Leo’s love story was the kind of second chance romance I love. Definitely recommend.

I really enjoyed and loved reading this. Through the ups and downs part of it made my heart smile. I’m not sure if this author has other books but I may go check now

I received this book for free for an honest unbiased review from Netgalley.

I wish more books were this well written. Characters were witty and the setting fantastic.

This was a beautifully heartwrenching novella. It really pulls at your heartstrings. I did not know this was an insta-love trope which I really do not enjoy, strangely it worked perfectly for Giana and Leo. This novella is an origin story for the Leanne's upcoming series Maple Ridge.

It was definitely a super sweet book with a lot of spice considering the length of the novel. I was invested in their story from the start, once I picked it up I didn't stop until the end.

I was surprised that I felt so much emotions for these characters in such a short span on time. I was in a complete chokehold at a certain point and my heart just broke entirely. Giant and Leo are seriously swoon worthy they are so perfect together and their little nicknames for one another are to die for.

I would've loved for a certain part to go differently and for their second chance to happen earlier, I felt like they missed out on so much of this beautiful love story. I really loved Leanne's writing style and I am super looking forward to the next in the series.

If you're looking for quick beautiful, sweet second chance romance pick it up!

✨️Thank you to @netgalley & @authorleanneaugust for my free ARC in exchange for an honest review. (Sorry for the late review)

This book just failed to hold my interest. I had trouble getting more than a few pages read at a time, it just didn't grab my attention at any point.

Why doesn’t Leanne have a backlog?! I devoured this so quickly and wanted to immediately return to Maple Ridge to see what happens next! I’m glad that she’s got more scheduled and can’t wait to return to MR and meet more of the characters.

This book really just took me for a ride. I loved the build up, the character development, and the writing. I would definitely read more from this author! It captured me immediately and was the perfect read to get me out of a reading funk!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this book.

THIS BOOK. I did not expect this trope but I absolutely loved it. I wish I could reread this. A couple that I will root for forever.

A story that once you start you want to get to the end, yet I don’t know. Giana meet Leo 40 years ago and he arrived for a wedding in Colorado he was from Texas and they were each taken by the other. Life though has a way of coming in between love though at times yet others might say things differently. This was a quick read so maybe the author couldn’t go into everything or she wanted us the readers to just follow along, anyway a good book.

A great quick read. This Novella is the intro to Ms. August’s upcoming Maple Ridge series. The story is told in duel POV’s and duel timelines. The story starts with Giana remembering the summer of 1969 when she met Leo and bought her dream cabin. The story was very emotional: found love, love separated by circumstance, lost love and finally rekindled love. I don’t want to give away any plot, but you will not regret picking this one up. I can’t wait for Author Leanne August to bring me back to Maple Ridge.

Thank you NetGalley, Expresso Book Tours and LeAnne August for the ARC of this book which I voluntarily read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Absolutely fucking heart broken. I loved this story from the very beginning and felt everything they felt. And I’m so mad at the ending I might just explode. This is a beautiful story of love and how it never dies. I’m going to be recommending this books to everyone!!!

Giana has been saving up for her dream house for years... A grungie cabin thay needs a lot of work. Her summer is going to be spent working her butt off to save up the rest of the money and celebrating her best friend who is getting married.

Leo is in town for two weeks for the same wedding, and the minute he meets Giana he knows he is in love. He decides to stay the rest of the summer... Helping her fix up her dream home.

Novellas are not my favorite, only because I struggle to connect with the characters. And while this insta love went pretty quickly, the heartache felt like it slowed the book down. But in a good way!

This was a heartbreaking story and a very quick read! Make sure to check it out!
3.5 stars

It's 1969 and Maple Ridge, Colorado has so far remained fairly sheltered from the realities of the Vietnam War. For Giana, an independant young waitress, all she sees in her immediate future is double shifts so that she can buy the delapidated cabin she adores.

As her best friend Nettie's wedding to Pete approaches, she's thrown a curve ball in the form of his Texan cousin Leo. Visiting for the wedding, infatuation takes them over and soon he has committed to spending the rest of the summer with Giana, renovating the cabin they've now purchased together.

But the summer can't last forever, and soon obligations to both family and country will separate the two lovers. What will become of two star crossed lovers after the summer ends?

This novella is an origin story for Author Leanne August's upcoming Maple Ridge series. It's a dual timeline, dual point of view instant love story and as with many first loves, there is a lot of passion = many spicy scenes in the book 🔥

Personally I enjoyed Giana and Leo as a couple. They're young, with a full summer ahead where they can simply enjoy each other and dream of a different future. We know from the first few lines in the book that Giana is looking back on that summer from 40ish years in the future, and it does set the tone to wonder what happened to them both individually and as a couple.

Without giving away any spoilers, I had a good cry towards the end and felt a huge range of feelings for the characters as we learnt their fates. For a novella, I'm impressed that I was connected to the characters in such a way!

Thank you to @authorleanneaugust @netgalley & @xpressotours for providing this ARC. My review has been written willingly and all opinions are my own.

I received an advance review copy (ARC) for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I'd give this story a 2.7 out of 5.

This is one of those story themes that could have left you sitting in a puddle of tears, yearning for love lost, etc. But I felt the connection wasn't fully there. It may have been the fact that it was a novella so the length didn't give us enough time to build on the characters. A story plot like this needs the readers to be fully invested in the love story and the characters.

The beginning love story is super fast they knew each other for less than a few days and already were ready to buy a cabin together and be madly in love.

As it nears the ending I felt like we just jumped through MAJOR plot lines and BAM we get a HEA (if you can call it that). The title of this book alone had be ready to be pining for a love interest to "come back" but I didn't feel that (and I realllly wanted to).

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This book was addicting, I couldn’t put it down, and when I was done I needed more. I need more Leanne August! This book will tug on your heart strings, make you wanna cry, but also make your heart happy, you will fall in love with Leo just like Giana did! highly recommend! Loved this book!

A solid 3 stars
Warm, comfy, sweet and short.
A perfect bitesized romance that's not going to start any fires but certainly keeps you warm enough for the moment.

3.75 🌟
4.5 🌶

Giana and Leo met through their mutual friends, Nettie and Pete in the summer of 1969.
Giana and Leo had one of the most sweetest and steamiest summer of love.

This book’s romance made me feel like I was experiencing my own summer romance. There was something so precious about Giana and Leo’s relationship. Their sexual tension was through the roof!! I was rooting for their relationship the entire time, even after summer had come to an end.
Unfortunately, some summer romances are just meant to last for a summer.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read an ARC!

This is a sweet novella with the spice thrown in. It wasn't my favorite, but I do think I would have liked it more had it actually been a full length book. I enjoyed the time frame it was set in.

My problem with this kind of book is that even if I like the story, being so short makes it impossible to emotionally connect with the characters.

I think that the story was really good, with a bitter-sweet ending (HEA, but still bitter-sweet), that shows that life doesn’t always go as planned, but with it being so short it shows only the surface of everything, while it would have been really interesting seeing Leo's and Gianna's emotions more in-depth, with a slower pace of events, without the feeling of seeing everything rushed together.