RETURNING TO EDEN, Katy Ames’ latest, started as a “Choose Your Own Romance” for her Instagram followers. She introduced us to Eden, Jude and Noah and week by week, we’d check in and vote A or B on the next move. It was a fun way to get to know these characters and it created the heart of a full-blown second-chance romance.
Full disclosure, I beta read the novel, so I’ve had a little more exposure to these characters than a first-time reader would, and that may be part of my love for this book. That said…
I’m not prone to writing squee reviews. I don’t give out 5 stars like they’re participation awards. So when I say Returning to Eden is nothing short of amazing, please believe me. It’s an emotional, sexy as hell, second chance romance about how complicated it can be to go home again. If you haven’t read Katy Ames before, Returning to Eden is a damn good place to start.
Eden, Jude and Noah were like the Three Musketeers growing up. Just as Eden is about to leave for college, she impulsively asks Jude to go to New York with her. Something happens to drive a wedge into their budding relationship. Eden leaves for college and doesn’t look back. She travels the world as a war zone photographer, then life forces her back to her hometown, where she has to confront what she ran from: Jude.
Ames’ writing sucks you right in. The book artfully pops back and forth between past and present, just enough to establish the history and relationship among these characters. In real life, I might not have gone along with the core conflict here, but it works to create the “what the what?!” drama needed to propel the story forward.
Once Eden is back, Jude is at the same time tentative and keen to make up for lost time, but Eden lays it down, “We’re good at silence and secrets. Fuck, we’ve practically perfected them. And as fun as our little trips down memory lane have been, I think it’s time we face facts.”
Yet…Jude is also very persuasive.
One of the things that makes Returning to Eden so enjoyable is that it’s not a straight line from reunited to HEA. Eden voices her doubts and insecurities and reservations and confesses all the things she’s kept buried and whoa, the payoff!! The other thing that I really appreciated is that Ames delivers the HEA, but she doesn’t force checking all the boxes on us. It’s a really satisfying ending (and epilogue!!).
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