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.

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