This was an okay read. It started off very slow and didn't really pick up until the halfway point, then it went into over the top territory that dragged down the rating. Grace is the owner of the flower shop in the town of Thunder Point, OR and has never been kissed or any other experience with love and sex due to her childhood/teen/young adult years spent being a world class figure skater. After she walked away from the limelight and the sport, Grace is self sufficient, kind, and smart but also lonely. Troy is an OIF veteran and high school history teacher who likes to be outdoors and have fun. He had a crush on Grace's BFF, but said BFF got married and now Troy is single and ready to mingle. He just randomly chooses Grace since his loneliness senses her loneliness. They take it slow at first, eventually getting into a routine together and then sex. Everything was fine, slow but fine, then I got to the mid-way point of the novel.
Grace never told anyone in Thunder Point who she is/was (she goes by her middle names) but once she got a disturbing letter in the mail that relates back to one of her stalkers (yes, as in more than one which is one way this leads to OTT), the one that kidnapped her for a while, she has to come forward to her small group of friends and Troy. Then in the same weekend, her estranged mother manipulates her into seeing her mother. Turns out Grace is a world class skater and a heiress of much means. Mother is dying of ALS, so turn on the guilt trip-o-meter and mother and daughter have a lot of rift-healing to do as well as get the estate affairs in order. Troy is freaking out because as a teacher, he doesn't make a lot of money (he also bartends on the side) and tends to spend his money on fun things like kayaking and camping.
In the midst of all this, Grace "forgets" to follow the instructions her friend/doctor gave her when Grace went to see her for birth control pills. By the time Grace takes the pregnancy test, she is well into the chaos part of the book and low and behold - it comes back positive. Virgin until about two months ago (maybe) and she gets pregnant. Troy has always used condoms, so he asked her to go on birth control to double their prevention odds. But Grace "forgot" to hold up her end of the bargain. She doesn't tell Troy until after he is putting a little distance between them so he could work out his issues with her being much wealthier than him. Grace gets pouty and blurts out she is pregnant, and Troy is less than thrilled, making Grace go deeper into hystronics. Meanwhile, two other couples from previous books also are pregnant and I had to read their birth announcement chapters as well - fan service that I can appreciate, but it made the flow choppy to read about characters I didn't know taking up space in another character's book. It seems this book was all about BABBIES = HEA, which I didn't like.
What started off as a slow burn romance turned into a typical contemporary mess that make me stay away from the sub-genre. Also don't drink the water in Thunder Point, you'll end up pregnant.
3
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