BOOKWORM REVIEW: Bittersweet by Carrie Aarons

July 12, 2023

BOOKWORM REVIEW: Bittersweet by Carrie Aarons

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

SPICE: 🔥🔥🔥

I think I finally figured it out: Carrie Aarons' superpower is the ability to squeeze your heart with her words and have you wanting for more.

Cassandra Mauer's life is filled with torn decisions. Growing up with parents who are complete opposites but equally unfeeling, she should be used to being in lose-lose situations. Yet, here she is at Hope Crest, the small town that had once shunned her simply for being related to her late father, trying to settle his estate and get some peace from her Hollywood life.

Then Patrick Ashton appears at her door.

Patrick Ashton is a member of Hope Crest's beloved family. They own one of the most famous Italian restaurants, and their tomato sauce business is gaining some ground. Cassandra's father and his home have been a stain on the boundary of his family's property, and there is nothing his family wants more than to bulldoze that dilapidated home to expand their fields. Now Patrick is being sent to convince Cassandra to sell to them at all costs.

Their history does not make this mission easy. You see, Patrick and Cassandra are Hope Crest's own star-crossed lovers, except that they have only really loved from afar. Patrick is torn between his family and the woman next door, and Cassandra is still guarded as to what Patrick's intentions really are.

THE. ANGST. Carrie Aarons is a master in delivering delicious longing and heartache in her reads, and this book is no different. The brilliant balance of pining and tension between Patrick and Cassandra will have you turning the pages to see what is next. From the get-go, she builds that fantastic sizzle that draws readers into investing in their romance. They themselves are so relatable that you feel every emotion and torn decision.

THE. SPICE. I am so glad that this was not a complete slow burn, because that initial kiss had me screaming. The first time they gave into their feelings was like a balm to my romance-reading soul, and it just keeps getting better.

This is the first in the Ashton Family series, and it was a great kick-off. Patrick and Cassandra have set the bar high for the rest of the family, but having read Carrie Aarons many times now? I know she will use her magic powers to draw us back into Hope Crest and make us fall in love all over again, and I cannot wait.

** I am voluntarily reviewing an advance copy of this book. Thank you to Carrie Aarons for providing an ARC. **

ABOUT THE BOOK

The last place Cassandra Mauer ever thought she’d step foot again was Hope Crest, Pennsylvania. But once the world famous actress gets the call that her estranged father has passed, and his only living relative will need to settle his estate, she finds herself back in the small town that sent her running once upon a time.

Little do her dilapidated childhood home and her father’s affairs know, Cassandra was in need of a project exactly like this to distract from the glamorous life she no longer wants or recognizes. That is, until she bumps into the man whose family is considered Main Street royalty.

Patrick Ashton is the boy next door, a Hope Crest celebrity, and one of the heirs to the most famous restaurants on the East Coast. He has no problem reminding her just how much the town hated her old man … and in turn her for sharing his last name. But when he realizes she’s going to sell the land their two families have fought over for decades, Patrick might have to change his tune.

As he begins scheming to charm the woman the entire country wants to be or be with, she can’t deny the spark of chemistry between them still exists after all these years. The one that simmered in the shared woods behind their homes where no one else could see.

And when the danger that sent her fleeing as a teenager returns to seek revenge, she finds Patrick genuinely in her corner, despite his family’s objections. In the place she swore never to return, she might have just found the love and life she was searching for.

Except old wounds and unsettled scores might not let her keep it.

Get Your Copy ➡️ https://amzn.to/3PpwPaa

Add to Goodreads ➡️ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/156341039-bittersweet