Lily Danville grew up in Cedar Ridge, Colorado, and loved hiking the mountain trails or climbing the rock faces in the summer, or skiing the challenging slopes in the winter. She was happy there, until tragedy struck and she lost half her family over the course of a few weeks. She’s never forgiven herself and wasn’t ever planning on returning. Having lost her job in a fashionable salon in San Diego and pretty much been blacklisted in the industry, she desperately needs a job, and has no choice but to return to her home town, to work for her friend Jonathan. She dreads going back for a number of reasons, but most of all because it will mean seeing Aidan Kincaid again, the guy she used to dream of, but could never have.
Aidan Kincaid is part of a large and close-knit family. He and his brothers run the Cedar Ridge Resort, which they’re trying to keep afloat, despite some serious difficulties thanks to debts run up by their dead-beat dad. Aidan works as a firefighter and volunteers for the local Search and Rescue-service, when he’s not co-managing the resort and trying to keep his younger siblings out of trouble. He’s got a reputation as a ladies’ man, not one for serious commitment, but that’s because part of him has been pining for Lily, since the summer when she disappeared from the Ridge. Now she’s back and he’s more attracted to her than ever. But how long is she going to stay this time? Is she going to leave and break his heart once more?
The blurb of the book led me to believe that Lily and Aidan had shared much more of a passionate romance before Lily left Cedar Ridge, when the fact is that they were both teenagers, who spent quite a lot of time together, but only really had anything romantic going at one school dance. Lily, always in competition with her sister, who had admitted to fancying Aidan, as a result never really let herself get too close to him. Once the tragic events that tore her life to pieces occurred, she is incapable of forgiving herself, and she certainly can’t allow herself to have feelings for Aidan, as that would feel like a betrayal to her sister.
Full review here.