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Available 4.15.24


Then He Kissed Me

Then He Kissed Me, July 2016
Cottonbloom #2
by Laura Trentham

St. Martin's Press
Featuring: Nash Hawthorne; Tally Fournette
320 pages
ISBN: 1250077648
EAN: 9781250077646
Kindle: B0191KRCHI
Paperback / e-Book
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"Beta Heroes are the Best Heroes"

Fresh Fiction Review

Then He Kissed Me
Laura Trentham

Reviewed by Kristen Donnelly
Posted June 21, 2016

Romance Contemporary

Do you like beta heroes? Read this book.

Do you like second chance romances with sassy women and the quiet, but strong as hell men who love them? Read this book.

Do you like small town romances that avoid saccharine and surrender to real? Read this book.

THEN HE KISSED ME is the second book in Trentham's Cottonbloom series and this one centers on Tally and Nash. We read about Tally's brother Cade and his true love Monroe in the first book, and I was delighted to get into Tally's life for this one. (I would say these could be stand-alones, though, for the record. There's a richness in the story-building that's worth your time for the whole series, but it's not mandatory. Trentham guides you well, so newcomers won't be lost.) Tally has loved Nash since... well, forever. And Nash the same with Tally. When Nash returns to Cottonbloom after a decade-long absence, Tally has some demons to wrestle with.

Nash is coming back to his hometown as a newly minted PhD in history (Charlemagne is his specialty) to teach at the local college. He's a genius who struggled with social connection throughout his adolescence and adulthood. When he figured out how to connect, he realized there was no one he really wanted to romantically connect with but Tally.

I adored Nash. He's my perfect hero and I loved watching Tally realize that he was worth her time, her trust, and her heart. The 3rd-person, alternating POV Trentham allows us to see inside the heads of each character, and there were times I wanted to shake each of them. They're real, grounded, and flawed, which makes their love so beautiful. I cheered at the end of THEN HE KISSED ME and I think you will too.

Learn more about Then He Kissed Me

SUMMARY

Can two hearts come together in one divided town?

As a boy, Nash Hawthorne spent countless afternoons on the Louisiana side of Cottonbloom with Tally Fournette, wading in the river, peeling oranges and catching frogs. When illness stole his mother, Nash yearned to take Tally and run away—for good. Instead, he crossed the state line to live with his aunt. It was a short distance as the crow flies, but it swept him into a whole new world…

After Nash left, Tally managed to struggle through her own losses without him. But now that she’s crossed paths with him again—at Cottonbloom College, where the grown-up, gorgeous Nash teaches history—she is reminded of their cherished youthful connection…and an attraction that has only gotten stronger with age. Between Tally’s possessive ex and Nash’s snobbish aunt, no one thinks they belong together. In a town torn apart by old resentments and rivalries, can they find their way back to the life they once shared—and turn their long-lost dreams into a real and lasting love?


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