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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.

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Small town and enemies to lovers yes, yes and more yes. This is the first book at the start of a new series. There was a suspense in the story that I wasn’t expected to see, it was a nice addition to give the story more depth. Cassandra was hated in the town because of her dad. When he passed she came back to town so that she could fix up the house and sell it. Moving back home she had a realization that she was right where she needed to be she was tired of being a famous actress. Patrick knew all the reasons why people hated Cassandra’s dad, he was a little apprehensive about her being back in town but the more that he got to know her the more he realized that she isn’t like her dad at all. With Cassandra being back in town people were treating her unfairly and Patrick was wanting to help her and protect her from the hate. the connection that these two have was fantastic to read, the family drama dynamic just everything about this was bittersweet.

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