Review by Library Journal Review
Andy Ducharme was a child star who fled both Hollywood and the woman she loved--her former costar, Nikki Price. Six years later, she has settled in the town where she and Nikki once dreamed of living, working in a flower shop. When Andy learns that Nikki is writing a tell-all book about their shared past on the Nik and Andy show, she feels betrayed. One impulsive, drunken text sets off a chain of events that brings Nikki back into Andy's life and through the doors of her flower shop. While Andy wants nothing more than for Nikki to leave, Nikki seems intent on unsettling the quiet life Andy has built, showing up each morning with coffee, bouquet orders, and the stubborn hope of reconciliation. As old love rekindles amid lingering resentment, Andy and Nikki must decide if they can fix all the hurt between them or if they're setting themselves up for fresh heartbreak. VERDICT Dugan (The Ride of Her Life) writes a story full of aching tension and romantic encounters.--Rachel Hedderman
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Former teen co-stars and lovers face the truth of their Hollywood past in hopes of a future together. Annie Lacy works at In Bloom, a florist shop in Clayborn, Maine, but she was once Andy Ducharme of the teen comedyThe Nikki and Andy Show. She fled Hollywood and her co-star lover, Nikki Colletti, when both her personal and professional lives were in a downward spiral. Now Nikki is writing a memoir and Andy unblocks her phone number long enough to text her a profane message, the first communication they've had in years--never expecting Nikki to track her down and show up at the door of In Bloom the next day. Now Andy is torn between barricading her heart against risk or confronting her unresolved feelings for the girl/woman she loved and who seemingly betrayed her for a movie role and the hard-partying life. Nikki wants them to work together to tell their story and, in the process, they both learn what they got wrong about each other. The novel is written in the first person from Andy's angsty perspective and interspersed with passages about the duo's teen years. Andy feels like the quintessential hot mess, both emotionally and in the way she yo-yos in her responses to Nikki even as an ostensible adult. Her inner monologue fills in for the minimal plot, with passages veering between avoidance and attachment. Nikki quickly becomes a sympathetic figure, to some extent at the cost of the reader's affection for Andy--Nikki's sobriety is signaled very clearly, as is Andy's obliviousness. They fall into bed and the third act break-up and make-up inevitably follow, with recaps of their therapy sessions serving as the bridge between those moments. A Sapphic romance that imagines a happy ending for girls who are exploited by show business. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
