Love on the Lake by Helena Hunting
Love on the Lake by Helena Hunting
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Angsty and Healing Romance
4.5 Stars
What you need to know about “Love on the Lake”:
✔ Return to the world of Pearl Lake
✔ Dual Point of View
✔ Grumpy x Sunshine Romance
✔ Teagan Firestone, Van’s (from Love Next Door) sister, 26
✔ Aaron Saunders, works construction with Dillion
✔ Enemies to Lovers Romance
✔ Lakeside #2
✔ Can be read as Complete Standalone but recommend reading “Love Next Door” first
Teagan Firestone is going through a bit of an existential crisis. This is due to the fact that after the fallout from the previous book in the series, “Love Next Door”, Teagan and her father have had to downsize their lives and reduce their previously lavish lifestyles. When Teagan’s Dad has his new girlfriend move in with them, Teagan decides to escape to Pearl Lake to visit her brother, Van and his fiancee, Dillion.
Teagan is realizing that she’s mostly lived her life to please her father and she doesn’t really know herself. Van suggests that she extend her stay in Pearl Lake and figure things out.
When she arrives at the apartment over the garage at Van’s house it is still under construction. That is, a seriously hot man is working on it and she disrupts him. It turns out that the hot man is Aaron who works with Dillion. He acts a little surly towards Teagan for unknown reasons.
At first glance Teagan is a real sunshine character but there is also damage lurking beneath the surface. She’s trying to find out what she likes so she takes on a variety of jobs with a smile and her innate smarts. It’s similar to “It Happened One Summer” by Tessa Bailey, in which someone the other characters might underestimate shows how incredibly competent they are. I love this trope. However, this first impression is very deftly subverted in this book.
Aaron is a bit of an enigma to Teagan and the reader as he doesn’t have a chapter devoted to his point of view until 32% of the way into the novel. He has a bit of a reputation in Pearl Lake and he hasn’t done anything to dispel the rumors.
The romance is slow to start with the first quarter of the book more about Teagan laying down roots in Pearl Lake and Aaron remaining a grumpy mystery. When they do finally have a meaningful conversation they quickly move to a sexual relationship. It seems sudden and we don’t know much about Aaron other than he’s hot and available but I think that’s exactly the point.
Helena Hunting is great at creating this slow slide from the reader thinking that Teagan is doing well and is really put together to us finding out that all is maybe not as it seems. Teagan’s coping mechanisms are poor and the book is fantastic in revealing them in a slow and insidious manner.
Aaron is also keeping some secrets. He’s been holding everyone at arm’s length to keep those secrets but now, being with Teagan is starting to threaten his status quo.
“…there are parts of my life and my past that are the kind of ugly even I can’t face.”
Love on the Lake starts off light but eventually becomes a book about two broken people fighting their demons of grief, guilt and substance abuse.
“I want to fix all his broken pieces.”
The romance gets back burnered in the majority of the last quarter of the book and becomes secondary to the problems and healing of its protagonists. Helena Hunting handles Teagan and Aaron’s issues really well and realistically. It’s angsty, vivid and dealt with with great sympathy and sensitivity.
I really enjoyed this book and finished it in one sitting. I would have liked the romance to have been given a little more focus but I appreciated getting to know the main characters’ struggles and watching them develop into two people who are truly ready for love. Part of that is being able to love oneself.
I received a review copy of this angsty romance and this is my honest review.
View all my reviews
Purchase link: https://amzn.to/3IXGoXL
Synopsis
Teagan Firestone has always been the dutiful daughter, especially since her mom died. But as her father finally begins to move on, it’s her turn to do the same. Her destination: Pearl Lake, a close-knit community with an entrepreneurial spirit and secrets of its own.
One of them is Aaron Saunders, who dropped out of college to work construction for Pearl Lake’s upper class. He’s a mystery and has a playboy reputation—that is, until he meets Teagan. Neither of them is looking for love, but in a town this small, it’s hard not to let your heart get involved.
As their romance heats up, Aaron’s elusive past comes to light and Teagan is there for him, bringing them even closer together. But when Teagan is forced to face her own demons, her inability to accept the support of friends and family threatens the life she’s worked so hard to build.
Can Aaron love her, even when she can’t love herself?
Meet Helena Hunting
Helena Hunting is the author of The USA Today and NYT bestselling PUCKED Series. She lives on the outskirts of Toronto with her incredibly tolerant family and two moderately intolerant cats. She writes everything from romantic sports comedy to new adult angst.
Helena has another book releasing in a couple of months! I hope you love “Love on the Lake”.
To read my review of the first in the Lakeside series, click here.