A second chance story that will steal your heart. After leaving Max 5 years ago Kira had gotten on with her life in Colorado while Max had become the famous artist she knew he would be. Read this wonderful tale to find out what happens when they are reunited. An achingly raw and beautiful story. I recommend this one. ( )

Five years have passed. Kira must now face Max against her will to prevent nude drawings of herself from being sold to the highest bidder and displayed publicly. The Belle Femme collection was the ultimate demonstration of Max's love for Kira, and now, these charcoal drawings are bringing them back together again.

All this time, Max has harbored a deep anger and disillusionment against Kira. She abandoned him without much of an explanation after a one year relationship. Now is his turn to teach her how much it hurt to be dumped by her. Kira and Max must come to terms with their past. The undeniable attraction between them has survived five years of isolation and loneliness, and becomes the driving force in this story.

Focus is on the impact of selling out and running away from your dreams. Both actions will deeply affect our characters with ramifications far more complicated than they can foresee. Extreme ambition or cowardice to life can hurt your loved ones, even when you may be protecting them.

This is a profound love story and both Kira and Max must make the effort to understand and accept who they have become and start rebuilding from there.

In her unique storytelling style, Inara Scott allows us to journey with these characters in search for answers and a happily ever after. Their artistic gifts and their stubborn resolve will be tested to the limit. Dreams long forgotten become alive again. In the end, two souls will find their balance and embrace a future that is meant to be. Loved this story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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Given the role that the weather plays in this novel, it felt especially appropriate that I read it on a day that we had a "cold" day off from school. It was perfect to read all snuggled up with a nice, warm beverage on a blustery day!

This was my first novel from Inara Scott--who I found out from the blurb at the back of the book was also born in Buffalo, too cool!--but I'll definitely be reading more from her, and soon. There were layers here—to both the story and its characters—that weren't immediately apparent as you read. The need to reveal the truth behind Max and Kira's breakup five years earlier kept me snuggled under the covers and turning pages quickly.

On the surface, this seemed to be a simple second-chance at love story in which their first chance was ruined by a simple misunderstanding, one that should have been easy to remedy. That—and the somewhat silly title—might have kept me from picking this one up in the first place. But, as I mentioned, I was snowed in—and noticed that the characters were going to be as well—so I figured it clearly was meant to be.

I am so glad I gave it a chance.

When the reasons for Kira's leaving Max without any explanation are finally revealed (I'll admit, not until I spent a lot of time asking her why she didn't explain it all to him earlier!) I absolutely understood why she made the choices she had made. I was afraid when the explanation came that it would seem lame or forced, but it really didn't—actually, it broke my heart a little to hear Kira's reasons.

Both Kira and Max had made mistakes in the past and were making even more the second time around. Inara Scott did a fantastic job of allowing them to grow and change, realizing their shortcomings and righting their wrongs—without resorting to convenient plot devices or easy fixes.

The chemistry between these two characters in fantastic; I especially loved the scenes where they were creating art—both the tame and the sexy ones! I thought the author did a great job showing the creative process and the frustrations that Max felt when he was unable to create.

The one aspect of the novel that I wasn't crazy about was the blatant manipulation that Kira's aunt put into action to bring the two back together again. It felt overly manipulative, and I had a hard time believing that she'd want to risk her niece's happiness on the good will of a guy she (the aunt) had never met. It seemed like a pretty big risk to take, given the nature of the pictures that she was holding hostage—it could all have gone so horribly wrong if Max had been a different kind of guy. It almost did go so horribly wrong. Really, though, the rest of the novel was so well done that I can forgive the over-the-top machinations that got the plot moving in favor of the happily-ever-after they achieved.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. I though the story line was very entertaining and the characters have really great Chemistry! I hope to see more of the other characters in the other books of this series as well as there was a few of them I really enjoyed too! Inara is definitely an author to keep a look out for! I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ( )