E. J. Noyes

E. J. Noyes returns with this second chance romance. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries before love sticks around.

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Jude Silberfeld

Getting over a breakup when your ex’s face is everywhere isn’t easy. And maybe Avery Weston doesn’t really want to get over the woman who broke her heart when she chose her career over their relationship. Convinced at the time that being closeted was the best move, Elise Hayes can’t help but wonder if she’s maybe made the wrong choice. An incident on a plane brings the Federal Air Marshal and the award-winning actress together, opening up all sorts of possibilities.

If you’ve read my reviews before, you already know how much I love second chance romance novels. And while this book didn’t wow me as completely as Noyes’s previous books, she brings something to the trope that I haven’t read often, or at least not so well-written and described. She takes time to analyze the breakup, really raises the issues that made the relationship fail the first time around, showing that love and hurt aren’t antithetical even when the loving seems meant to be.

There is no lack of love in this story. In fact, Avery and Elise are always telling the other how much they love them. And yet, all this love, this huge, overwhelming, undying love doesn’t seem to matter, or to be enough at any rate, in the face of so much fear. While I was reading this book, Kristen Stewart’s engagement to Dylan Meyer was announced. And I couldn’t help but think, Elise, if Kristen can come out, you can too.

I love both main characters. They’re endearing, they’re real, they’re strangely relatable for people with unusual jobs. Even when I wasn’t sure where the story was going, I cared about them and what would happen to them.

A couple of things bothered me. While I was hoping Elise would fix the situation, her turnaround felt rushed. One day she can’t see a way out and the next, it’s done. Another regret was the bad guy arc, which seemed simplistic, a word I never thought I’d use for a Noyes book.

As I mentioned above, lack of love was never the problem in this relationship, and neither was lack of chemistry. Sparks fly every which way whenever Avery and Elise are in the same room and it doesn’t take them long to get reacquainted, even as they agree they can’t be together. And as usual, E. J. Noyes delivers on intimate scenes. For me, they’re the best part of the book (with the fact that the characters are very likeable) and made me forget every issue I might have had with the story.

A new release by E. J. Noyes is always thrilling news. Now I’m waiting for May 2022 and If I Don’t Ask, Rebecca Keane’s point of view on the Ask, Tell series. How exciting is that?

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

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