After hearing about her father passing away, Kayla Turner heads back to her hometown in order to attend his funeral and be at the reading of the will her father's attorney told her she needs to be present for. She finds out that her father left her a letter that she needs to read in order to get her inheritance but that she also needs to be handcuffed to Daren Ackwood at the same time. Kayla grew up knowing Daren as the spoiled rich kid who worked for her father sometimes. He now drives an expensive car, wears designer clothes and goes through a ton of women. Kayla and Daren are both interested in the inheritance though, and decide to tough out the conditions in order to see what James Turner left behind for them. Daren is struggling to make ends meet while he tries to atone for his father's sins. He doesn't let anyone know the truth about what is really going on in his life, and is determined to make things work with Kayla because he needs the money more than anyone knows. Although things start off rough for Kayla and Daren, they quickly realize that things aren't as they appear for either of them and they end up sharing more with each other than they ever have with anyone else before. As they go from letter to letter on the scavenger hunt that James planned for them, they begin to see that maybe the money wasn't the only thing that Kayla's dad left behind for them.
I wasn't sure at the beginning of this story if I was going to like Daren as well as I ended up liking him. After the first book, he came across as a bit of an arrogant jerk that often acted without care and recklessly. But I was so glad that we got to see how much more there was to him beneath the surface. He was a really good guy that was going through a lot and he was all alone. He was trying to make things right that weren't his fault at all, and I really admired how he went out of his way for others. He judged Kayla pretty harshly at the beginning, but she did the same with him. It was great to see them both realize how wrong they had been, and how much the actually had in common. Kayla had also been through a lot, and she had a lot of things revealed to her over the course of this book. She thought that she knew so much and it turned out that she had been lied to and was misinformed on so much. I felt really badly for her, but I was glad that she had Daren to lean on. These two had fun together, and had a lot of chemistry. But what made their relationship so great is that they were supportive of each other and completely understood everything the other was going through. They were a great match, and I liked watching them fall for one another.
Overall, I would have to say that this book was really great. I liked the characters and I liked that they grew and changed over the course of the book. They were able to find someone who made them a better person and they were better together than apart. I was glad that we were able to see Kayla find out the truth about why her dad hadn't been a part of her life for so long, and it was really great to get to see his letters to Kayla and Daren. I really liked following along with the scavenger hunt that they went on. This book was fun to read but there were also a lot of really emotional and touching moments too. It was great to see these two troubled and broken people find something they never knew they were looking for and come out better off for it. I thought that they judged each other a lot and made assumptions for a bit too long in this story though, and I would have liked to have seen them realize things a bit sooner. But otherwise, I didn't have any complaints. Their story was real and believable and I was interested right from the start. If you are a new adult fan, I highly recommend checking this series out. I can't wait to read more from Chelsea Fine in the future and I look forward to reading the next book in this series.
**ARC Provided by Publisher**
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