My review: 4⭐

I could smell what was going to happen as if it were sitting right in an alley dumpster in NYC.

Arya Roth and Nicholai Ivanov were summertime friends, harboring, unknown to each other, crushes, when they were teenagers. Since Nicholai’s mother is the housekeeper for the Roth’s, Arya is deemed off limits. As you can imagine, it does not go very well when Conrad Roth walks in on their first kiss.

Arya is a successful PR firm owner. She never thought she’d have to help her own father when he’s accused of sexual harassment in his workplace. She just can’t believe the man that raised her, mostly by himself, could be guilty of such a thing.
Side bar ~ surely this lady that gets $500 haircuts has heard of a Brazilian blowout? Girl, tame that unruly hair.

From a poor boy named Nicky to a millionaire hot shot lawyer named Christian. When Amanda Gispen walks into Christian’s office and tells her story of harassment by his nemesis, Conrad, he can hardly believe that he’ll finally be able to get his revenge by taking him down.

Of course there’s an attraction when these 2 see each other again after 20 years, but the problem is that Arya has no clue it’s her teenage crush because she thinks he’s dead. And Christian takes way too long to tell her the truth because he thinks she’s to blame, too, for him being sent away all those years ago.

The story goes back and forth between Arya and Nicky/Christian’s perspectives and in both the past and present, which I loved.

Most of the characters are quite unlikable for most of the book. I did warm up to some of them towards the end though.
I LOVED the epilogue!

Overall, this was a great friends to enemies to lovers, second chance, slow burn romance full of family secrets, cockiness and revenge.
This is my 2nd book by LJ and I will for sure be looking for the rest of this series.

*Thanks to Netgalley, Montlake and L.J. Shen for the ARC. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*

Book blurb: Release date ~ May 3, 2022

From Wall Street Journal bestselling author L.J. Shen comes an enemies-to-lovers romance about the fine line between seeking revenge and finding love.

When she was young, Arya Roth became best friends with her housekeeper’s son. Soon, friendship turned to young love, and when Arya dared him to kiss her, a chain reaction of disastrous events led to the boy being sent away and out of Arya’s life.

Now, two decades later, Arya is an on-the-rise publicist with her beloved father as one of her biggest clients. So when her father is sued by a former employee, Arya sets out to prove that her father is not the monster he is accused of being. The only problem is the attorney who is determined to destroy her father’s good name. Christian Miller is charming, ambitious, and devilishly good looking, and Arya has no idea he is that same boy who kissed her all those years ago.

Past and present collide as Arya falls hard for Christian. But when she finds out who he really is and about his obsession with getting revenge on her father, can she choose love over family?