This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒💒
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧
Overall View: ✨✨✨✨


First Impressions
This installment, The Year We Hid Away, is book 2 in the "Ivy Years" series and I absolutely adored this book. It was utterly delightful. While its not a perfect read, it kept me hooked and I read it super quick. I really enjoyed this splice of life type of new adult romance. Its romance was quite endearing and there wasn't quite the communication issues as I would have expected considering the type of secrets that are involved in this story. Could those issues been handled better? Sure but by young peeps? Probably not haha And there was a solid plot to the story that kept me hooked all the way through that I really appreciated.

First Line
The minute I heard the hum of the garage door opener, I was in motion.

The Main Protagonists
The Hero: Bridger Macaulley
Protector and athlete, a history of being a playboy but isn't really one, taking care of his sister as his mother isn't available to help raise her and working his butt off to get through school for her.

The Heroine: Scarlet Crowley
Scarlet, has changed her identity and while she was once had a promising future as a hockey player, when her father is charged with being a pedophile, she is determined to find her own way in life and find a fresh start.

Summary
The Year We Hid Away starts off with our heroine, Scarlet, escaping from her parents home and their bodyguards with a fresh new identity and to start fresh at the university. We have our hero Bridger, who is working three jobs and attending college full time while having to hide his sister away when his mother falls off the deep end into meth and will do anything to protect his sister even if that means staying hidden from his friends at the university. But then he meets Scarlet and instant chemistry sparks between them. Both Scarlet and Bridger find common ground with each other and a friendship that neither of them thought that they would find. But both of them have secrets and when its all revealed, will their relationship survive?

What I Loved
The Year We Hid Away is a superb read and I had such a blast with it. I really enjoyed the premise of the story and its executed pretty well. Sarina Bowen is a delightful author to read. This is a classic series that is so well loved. And I can definitely see why these are so well recommended. They are just original new adult romances that everyone can fall in love with. In this one we have some interesting setups for our characters. We saw Bridger in the previous book and I was highly eager to see how his story would be developed and get more depths to his character. He was such a man of mystery and a bit of playboy so I was curious in how Bowen would handle his story. Well this was definitely NOT the story that I expected for Bridger haha but it was just as delightful.

Both of our character have to go on their own journey to finding themselves but when they meet, they build such a solid foundation of chemistry and friendship. They instantly build a trust with each other and one of my favorite elements to the story was their easy going relationship. They have such common ground with values that matter and the way in which they have each other's back when their secrets were revealed was perfection. I respected that the drama was kept to a minimum with this one here. Its definitely different from other New Adult romance from its time. Both characters are so likeable and its easy to get behind them and want to cheer them on towards their HEA. Definitely eager to see what is next in the series.

What I Struggled With
This book isn't perfect. The pacing was a bit off at times. The communication could have been better. I wasn't necessarily a fan on the side of the heroine why she didn't come clean with the hero earlier. He revealed his secrets much earlier and I am not sure why she didn't do the same with him. They both have big secrets so I would have liked to see an heroine sharing all parts of herself as the hero was willing to do for her. So it just comes off as Bridger being willing to do more in the relationship than Scarlet. But it was still a solid story just not up to five star par for me personally.

Overall View
This tale is a superb blend of new adult atmosphere, ome hockey feels, solid secrets that have dimension and a romance that delivers in beautiful foundations and strength!

Favorite Quote(s)
My trick is understanding that there aren't any tricks. You just have to wade through each moment as it comes.

Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult
Character Types: Students, Athletes
Themes: Sports-Hockey, Kids Involved, Secrets
Tropes: Friends to Lovers, Instant Love Connection, Secret/Mistaken Identity

Book Perspective
Duo POV

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
A mix of both

Song This Book Inspires
Cloud 9 by Beach Bunny

Recommendation For Reading Order
I would recommend reading this series in order

Steam/Spice Explanations

Warmin' by the fire- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments.

This was a great book! Things flowed a little better than the previous, which is always good. I loved bridger in the first book, and he’s so awesome here. Scarlet is a solid character too. I loved the twists this book took, and the serious tone. I do feel that the feelings progress a tad too quickly in this series, but it’s not a massive complaint. Another great book!

tears were shed. bridgerscarlet we love you!!!!!!

I’m so glad I’m rereading these. I missed them, and I love Scarlet and Bridger so much 🥺

⭐⭐⭐.75

3.5 stars

Find this review and more at kimberlyfaye reads . Sarina Bowen hit my radar pretty recently. I saw a couple trusted blogs raving over The Year We Fell Down and decided it sounded like it would be right up my alley. And you know what? It was. I loved it. I was so excited to learn it would be part of a series and I began eagerly anticipating the release of the upcoming books. The Year We Hid Away was wonderful. It tackled two difficult issues but did it with so much heart that I thought my own was going to burst in the process. Scarlet and Bridger were both brilliant and complex characters. They both had baggage and had been dealing with things no one should have to, let alone people their age, but rather than buckling under the pressure, they rose to the challenge and forged ahead. They were both hiding parts of their past, and in Bridger's case, present day situation, but the reader knew the story nearly from the beginning since this book was told in dual POV. The relationship between them developed slowly and naturally over time. It was real and heartwarming to watch them find a source of strength in each other. Scarlet's family situation is icky. It's pretty much ripped straight from the headlines of the Jerry Sandusky story out of Penn State. It made me nearly as uncomfortable in this book as it did in real life. It was real and realistic, horrifically so. I can't imagine the heartbreak that must come with the realization someone you trust is capable of committing such awful acts. It definitely had a huge impact on her life. Bridger's family situation was just sad. It about broke my heart. He stepped up on such a huge level. That alone made me fall in love with him. There's not one single thing I could change about this book. It had some devastating moments, but the overall tone was hopeful. I felt the feels and cried the tears. I loved the sweet times and the sexy ones. Even the side characters added something special to this book. It's one I won't forget for a very long time.