A heartening romance of friendship, second chances, and the healing power of love…
Mackenzie Hart has made a career out of writing about eternal love, so when she finds her perfect match in Hunter Kane, she decides to put it all on the line. Irresistibly charming and drenched in alpha-male swagger, Hunter isn’t just the catch of the town -- he’s Mackenzie’s best friend. Only someone beats her to the altar. After a fresh start and three years to recover, the last thing Mackenzie expects is for her old life to come knocking…
Recently divorced, musician Hunter Kane wants to reconnect with the woman he left behind. Admitting his biggest mistake comes first. What comes next is up to Mackenzie. He hopes she’ll give him a second chance. He may have been the one to break her heart, but he knows he can also be the one to mend it.
As a tenuous friendship turns into something more, Hunter’s life on the road beckons once again. Will love be enough to keep them together, or will their wildly different worlds be too much for them to overcome?
A very emotional friends to lovers and second-chance story. Mackenzie is a talented songwriter and has been working with Hunter Kane and his band for a while. She and Hunter are friends and writing partners, but she wants more. Unfortunately, she's waited too long to tell him, and Hunter is about to marry another woman. Unable to handle the pain of seeing him with another woman, Mackenzie walks away from the celebrations and disappears.
Three years later, Hunter is divorced and the band is in trouble. Their last album tanked and Hunter is having trouble getting his songwriting mojo back. Their record label is threatening to drop them if he doesn't accept one of their suggested songwriters to help. The problem is that the songwriting duo that Hunter wants to team up with isn't cooperating. Hunter really irritated me in this scene, as he comes across as very arrogant. He's so certain that he can charm the writers that he wants that he refuses to consider any other option, even blackmailing his cousin into setting up a meeting.
What Hunter doesn't know is that the songwriting "duo" of Mack and Muttley is Mackenzie and her Seeing Eye dog. At the time of Hunter's wedding, she had just found out that she suffered from the same hereditary eye disease that her mother had had. The same disease that had made her mother dependent on Mackenzie and derailed her own plans. Mackenzie never wanted to be dependent on someone that way, but finding her way in her new reality has been harder than she expected. Brody works to convince her that it's time to face Hunter again, but Mackenzie is afraid of being caught up in Hunter's take charge personality and losing herself in the process.
I ached for Hunter when he found out the truth. He was stunned, confused, and angry. I was a bit angry at him for walking away without a word. His confrontation with Brody opened his eyes to what Mackenzie had been through, and it took him some time to process it. In spite of what Brody told him about her need for privacy, he was determined to get her back with him.
I enjoyed the development of the relationship between Hunter and Mackenzie. It started out rough because of the way that Hunter forced himself back into Mackenzie's life. I was pretty irritated with the way that he steam-rollered right over her objections. Some of those objections were just because she was afraid of leaving her comfort zone, but some of them were legitimate concerns. Hunter is one of those guys who has a Superman personality. If he sees something wrong, he wants to fix it. He also tends to assume responsibility for a lot of things, such as the band and everything that makes it a success. Mackenzie is most desperately afraid of being dependent on someone else, the way that her mom was dependent on her. I loved the ease with which they were able to resume their working relationship. Just being with Mackenzie again made Hunter able to get past the writer's block he'd been suffering from, mostly because she was the rudder that steered his thought processes.
Seeing Mackenzie again made Hunter finally admit to himself that he'd always had feelings for her. He had buried them before because of their age difference, and that he didn't want to screw up their working relationship. Now he's ready to do something about it, but he realizes that he has to get past all of Mackenzie's walls, especially her refusal to accept help. It was interesting to see his complex run up against her independence. Mackenzie also had a habit of holding herself back, lacking the confidence to believe that she can do it. I liked the confrontation between Mackenzie's sponsor and Hunter, as she laid out for him what Mackenzie's issues and challenges really were. I liked that he saw her point and made changes in his actions that would help Mackenzie the right way. I liked seeing the progress that she made, but it was still painfully slow.
Unfortunately, Hunter still has something of a blind spot when it comes to their relationship. He sees the progress they've made with their writing, and that she has made with her independence, in the context of their future as he sees it. The success of their collaboration propels the band to the next level, and he sees Mackenzie at his side through it all. It takes Brody pointing out that she may not see things the same way before Hunter gets a glimmer of the problems. At the same time, Hunter has pushed Mackenzie into an activity that she doesn't feel quite ready for, and it comes back to bite him in the butt. I ached so much for Mackenzie because of the fear she felt, and how overwhelmed she was by what happened around her. Those fears led her to push Hunter away. His pain at her words was intense, as was his anger at the way she refused to give them a chance.
It was satisfying to see his misery as he gave her the space she wanted. It was even more satisfying to see Brody point out to Hunter just how selfish he had been. I loved Hunter's "light bulb" moment as he finally saw the light. His timing in going after Mackenzie was perfect. She has spent the last week wallowing in her misery but was finally pulling herself together. Her realization that she had allowed herself to push Hunter away was eye-opening for her. What followed was a terrifying period of time that had my heart in my throat. I loved seeing her use the strength she didn't know she had to get through it, just in time for Hunter to find her. I loved the perfect combination of caring for her and supporting her that he showed. I was thrilled to see that they finally actually talked and listened to each other. The ending was fantastic and showed that they had finally found the balance that they needed.
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