Special thanks to Jaqueline Snowe for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

TL;DR: Sliding Home is a great second-chance romance featuring two tough MCs who are easy to like and whom you almost immediately want to root for! Michelle and Brooks were great characters individually but together, their romance gave angst and a whole lot of (delightful) tension! I loved their “will-they-won’t-they” dance and found myself fully invested in their HEA. While this is very character driven, there was also a mini-suspenseful plot that made sense to the story, but I found the reasoning behind the third-act to be a bit frustrating, even if I did understand how it fit into their story. Overall, this had the character depth I feel I have been missing in a lot of the (indie) romances I read these days, and I loved it! If you’re looking for a non-sports heavy “sports romance”, a second-chance romance where the characters work to reach a good place, and plenty of open communicative moments, then I would recommend checking this out.

I have to admit that I was a bit surprised by how good this was and that’s not a slight against the author at all. I feel like in many of the (indie) romances I’ve read recently have had ‘surface level’ character development and I find myself constantly repeating that I want more character development. Of course, it’s subjective but all this to say: I loved how much emotional vulnerability and depth we get in Sliding Home!

Michelle and Brooks were great opposites and although I don’t normally gravitate towards second-chance romances, I really enjoyed theirs, even if it does hit the ground running. They had an intense fling years ago until she cut it all off and despite having no connection at all after that, it’s clear from the moment they meet again in the present day that whatever feelings formed still linger and the chemistry between them was absolutely electric! I’m not kidding when I say I felt tingles running down my arms whenever they’d wind up in the same room together—their connection was just that good. It goes without saying that the sexual tension was fire and I loved their ‘will-they-won’t-they’ dance as they got to know each other again and fought against hope and their feelings. But I eagerly anticipated the moment they’d both let their walls stay down and finally get together, and as expected, it was explosive when it happened and I couldn’t get enough of how well they complemented and grounded each other. They really gave each other the safe space they needed to be themselves without pretension and I felt like their connection embodied the saying: “it feels like coming home”.

As much as I loved them together, I also loved them individually. Michelle had a great deal of childhood trauma to process to finally accept that she deserves good things and just because she’s happy, doesn’t mean that it will be snatched away. She’s hardheaded, has a killer work ethic, and although she runs scared most of the time, the people who get into her heart, have a safe and warm place there. She certainly acts older than her mid-late 20s and it fit with having to grow up faster than she should’ve due to an incredibly toxic and abusive home. Even though there were times I wanted to shake her and say “Look! He’s not going anywhere! He trusts you! Look and actually see him!” (especially during that third act), I understood her fears well and again, it fit with the way someone who hadn’t worked fully through childhood trauma would act.

In contrast to her darker personality, Brooks was an absolute ray of sunshine, cinnamon roll, and golden retriever. Basically, all the Good Egg Energy™️ from this guy and I loved him for all the ways he was patient, nurturing, and attentive towards Mitch and how he showed her exactly what she deserved. I can’t believe I ever thought that I might not like his character because he came off too cocky at the start, and I clearly couldn’t have been more wrong! 😂 The more we got to know about him and everything that he’s dealing with behind closed doors, the more I fell in love with his character. This part of his story hit super close to home and it made me empathise with him even more! There’s this part in the story where he gets really emotional and oof, I got more than a little teary eyed and I was ready to reach into my Kindle and give this man the longest panda hug ever. 🥹 He deserves all the good and I’m glad that Mitch was able to return that love to him in the end.

Overall, as you can probably tell from this review, I had an awesome time reading Sliding Home and I finished it in one-sitting because I simply couldn’t put it down! I would definitely recommend it but I would also recommend viewing content warnings as some parts of the character’s stories can potentially be triggering.

Have you read Sliding Home or is it on your TBR?

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