Coming Apart At The Seams

By Jenna Sutton

Synopsis

Love can take some time to break in…

Teagan O’Brien, heiress to the Riley O’Brien & Co. denim empire, is anything but a spoiled rich girl. She’s worked hard to secure her place in the family business and can hold her own, in and out of the office. Only one man has ever been able to get under her skin—sexy football star Nick Priest. Years ago they crossed the line from friends to lovers, but he left her heartbroken. Since then, she’s been determined to keep him at arm’s length—no matter how tempting he looks in his jeans…

Nick has fortune, fame, and looks that make most women hot and bothered. But he doesn’t have the woman he really wants. He knows he screwed up when he walked away from Teagan, and now that he has a second chance, he’ll do whatever it takes to win her over—no matter how tongue-tied he gets…

Review

Nick has known Teagan and her family for fifteen years through a friendship with Teagan’s older brother, Quinn. Four years ago, Nick found out he moved to the same city as Teagan after being traded and reached out to her for some company. Friendship slowly turned into something more, until Nick freaked out and shattered Teagan’s heart, leaving her a shell of the woman she used to be. Years later, Nick is back and desperate to make amends. He’s been trying for nearly two years to get a chance to explain, but as far as Teagan is concerned, he had several chances years ago and didn’t take any of them, and she’s not interested in hearing it now.

I liked that Nick acknowledged he treated Teagan terribly and was upfront about what he wanted from her now⎯her heart. I really hurt for Teagan over everything she went through with the breakup. He obliterated her trust as a friend and a lover and he really had to work hard to earn it back. There’s a lot of inner monologue about Nick’s stutter and his non-existent relationship with his father, and I have to admit I found that annoying. We know he has a stutter. We know that his father is a jackass. We get it. Let’s move on.

COMING APART AT THE SEAMS is told in dual POVs and starts in the present before we’re catapulted four years into the past to find out how Nick and Teagan went from friends to lovers. It’s book two in the Riley O’Brien & Co series and while it can be read as a stand-alone, I think I would have benefited from reading the first book. There are incidents mentioned involving Teagan and the previous couple that had me feeling like I was missing something pretty big. I quite enjoyed this book and I have to say it’s probably the most realistic friends-to-lovers story I’ve read.