Macey and Derek have been childhood friends. Macey has returned from her Peace Corps service and is sent by the mothers to help Derek come back to life after the death of his fiancée a year ago. He is going through the motions of running his uncle's bar. Macey goes and helps with the bar and fights to bring him back to life. Is she successful? Will he come back to life or was it a bust?

I liked this story. It's a good start to the series with good world building. I liked Macey. She keeps trying no matter how often Derek pushes her away. Derek is a shell. There is a lot of pain in this story. Derek's pain of losing his fiancée and Macey's pain of watching Derek grieve in silence. She is there for him and is hurt by him. I would have given up but Macey never did. She backed away then came back. I liked how she did it.

I look forward to more of the series. ( )

This is a good example of cliches, if you need one. Free isn't cheap enough unless your brain is tired and you want something without challenge.

The writer's style is good, but her heroine is a self-centered bitch and her hero is in need of therapy, and whoever else read this and thought it was ready for publication were idiots to let this kind of sloppiness go to press. And it's fine if you give it five stars, maybe this is just the gooey non-challenging read you needed. I've enjoyed my fair share of such things. But for everyone else, nah.

If you've read this and wonder why I'm so down on Macey, it's because her motives for "helping" Derrick are all tangled up in her own wants and needs and assumptions - there is stated sympathy, but her actions speak more of impatience and anger and her own disappointment than they do of any desire to do whatever might actually help him. And Derrick is stupid. Grief is hard, and there is no set timeframe for working your way past it, but guilt and self-denial call for therapy, not seclusion. And then, his epiphany? COME ON. This guy couldn't reason his way out of a wet paper bag. I'm glad he's fictional.

For a book I finished reading, this is not great. Free is not cheap enough. ( )