✰ Bianca ✰ Janeane ✰
• 20 July 2021
• standalone - but PLEASE read the amazing first 7 books too! ☺
• check out our ► Review ◄ for book #4
•
•
•
It’s a tale as old as time: the bad boy meets the good girl.
He makes a daring proposition. Then the boy gets a mysterious head injury and
loses a year of his life…
The first time I meet Rickie, I don’t know what to make of
him. The second time we meet, he doesn’t remember the six hours we spent
together. Or standing me up afterward.
I’m not the same, either. I’ve got secrets. I’ve told lies.
Bad boys aren’t my type, anyway. Even the ones with troubled gray eyes.
But now we’re roommates. Cue the awkward moments in the
hallway when he’s wearing only a towel and a smile. He’s determined to win me
over, and his talented hands weaken my resolve.
It’s all fun and games until my past rears its ugly head and
his secrets come to light, shaking our fragile connection, maybe even breaking
it…
Note:
this is Daphne Shipley's story. Contents include Vermonty ice cream flavors,
nerdy awkwardness, tattoos, and a playboy grandpa.
And what happened to Rickie? Why can't he remember that he met Daphne before???
This book was just as beautiful and adorable and funny and sweet and sexy and heartbreaking and farmish and Vermontish as all the other books in this amazing series!
It started a tiny little bit confusing for me. I'm not even sure why though. I read the blurb and then started reading and it didn't really fit with what I just read about the story... but it got better really fast.
I loved this book. I loved alll the people - the Shipley's and the neighbors and Dylan's roommate Rickie! I so need to read his book next please!
(Did anyone else get massive Win from the Myron Bolitar series by Harlan Coben vibes from Rickie??)
I never want this series to end!
Now that I read Rickie's book ... the Win vibes got a bit lost for me. I still loved him and he's still amazing, but he's also just way too jokey flirty silly for my tastes.
He's using all his charm and fun flirting to cover up his pain. Poor guy.
What else it there to say.... I just love this series. I loved this 8th story. I never want this series to end. And I need these books to be on Netflix asap! PLEASE!
I just adored it!
Run to your nearest amazon for your own Rickie - he'll be sold out in no time!!! ☺
• EXCERPT •
I read all the way to the highway exit, but I only get
halfway through the first article. It’s dense and full of statistical analysis
that’s over my head.
By the time Rickie rolls down the exit ramp, I feel the
onset of a full-blown case of imposter syndrome. Dr. Drummond is expecting me
to be sharp. What if they ask me to work on this type of analysis, and I can’t
do it?
“I see the ice cream place,” Rickie says. “But there’s no
entrance back onto the highway. What the hell?”
“Doesn’t matter,” I mumble. “It’s three miles down a side
road to exit 6.” I close the journal with a sigh. I feel so panicky right now.
I’ve always tried to be the smartest girl in the room. But it’s all an act. I’m
obviously the worst kind of dunce—the kind that can’t see her own mistakes
until it’s way too late. (See: the last twelve months of my life.)
Is it normal to have a midlife crisis right before your
twenty-first birthday?
Rickie rolls into the gravel parking lot of the Dreamy
Creemee and puts the truck in a shady spot. He rolls down the windows before
killing the engine. It’s getting toward dinner hour, so there aren’t many
people here. Just a couple of moms pushing toddlers on the swing set.
And I’m quietly having a panic attack in the passenger seat.
I take a slow but shaky breath. Do I even want ice cream? Is
there a flavor on that signboard that could take me out of my own head? I reach
for the door handle, but Rickie stops me.
“Look," he says. "About that time we shared a ride
home from Connecticut...”
“No,” I say forcefully. If he makes me relive that
embarrassing experience, I might lose my cool. “Just forget it, okay? So what
if you ghosted me?”
His eyes widen. But my rant is only picking up steam.
“None of that matters. I didn’t even blame you. And the only
way I'm going to make it through this year is if I put Connecticut behind me,
okay? Just leave it alone.”
My voice cracks on that last word, and I realize that I
might actually cry. Which is a thing I never do. But Harkness College was my
dream, and I blew it. My damn eyes get hot and my throat constricts.
“S-so just forget it," I squeak. “It's already in the
past. It can just stay there.”
Rickie's gray eyes are soft now. And they're moving closer.
To my utter surprise, he leans forward and presses a kiss to my lips.
So soft, my brain sputters.
“Shh,” he says against my lips. His kiss is warm and
unhurried. Like a ray of sunshine when you’re shivering.
For once, my squirrel brain forgets to scurry. And I just
let it happen. He kisses me again. It’s still gentle. His bright eyes measure
me. I don’t know what he sees. But whatever it is, he decides he likes it.
Those soft lips brush and press. Again. And I'm only human.
Rickie's surprisingly tender kiss has caught me at a vulnerable moment. I lean
in, experimenting with the slide and pressure of his mouth against mine. A
sizzle of heat flashes across my skin. It’s the strangest sensation—as if he’s
transferred an ounce of that devil-may-care attitude across the steering column
and right into my soul. I drink him in, lips parted. Ready for him to take it
further.
But then it ends. Rickie sits back, his head cocked to the
side, as if in deep contemplation.
I’m bereft. “Wh-what was that for?” I stammer.
I expect a smirk. But his expression remains soft. “You
seemed a little freaked. So I brought you to an ice cream place on a hot
summer’s day. But that wasn’t enough, apparently. You needed even more
distraction. So I gave it to you. And I’m good at that. A real specialist.”
Replying is impossible. All I can do is sit here and try to
process that kiss. That lovely kiss.
He really has some nerve.
🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎 The True North Series 🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎
BOOK #1
BOOK #2
BOOK #3
Book #7
Charli & Drake!!
The Accidentals - YA
