2.5, maybe.I was a little disappointed with this one actually. Think my expectations were too high! Could not really connect with either character. She came across as the more naive of the two. He leaned toward her. His face was close to hers, too close. He was making her uncomfortable again, as he no doubt intended.That notion stiffened her spine."What?" she all but snapped."I had a major case of the hots for you when I was in high school. I still do.” I haven't much more to say about it real...

This book got me soaring. SOARING!Oh. My. Gosh. "You know what I used to dream about, in stir?" His voice was hoarse, the words low and fast and faintly guttural. "I used to dream about you. You were the only clean and good and decent thing left in my life, and I would dream about you. I used to dream about taking your clothes off piece by piece, and what you would look like naked, and how it would feel to fuck you really good. I used to dream about that in high school, too. In fact, I got off...

1/5; 1 star; DI actually finished listening to this but am not glad I did. I kept hoping for some massive improvement. Things I liked:The narrator, Anna FieldsThe portrayal of the kids and their mom.Things I didn't like:Everything else. Besides the fact that most of the characters were thoroughly unlikable, the mechanics of the book were clumsy and poorly executed. I don't think I'd recommend this to any of my romance reading friends or my suspense friends or even my paranormal reading friends.

Rachel Grant is a thirty-four year old teacher in a small town in Kentucky who causes a big stir when she allows Johnny Harris, a man who was convicted of murdering his girlfriend during their senior year of high school, to work in her hardware store on parole from prison. Rachel was Johnny’s English teacher in high school, where Johnny was the typical bad boy from the poor part of town but she was able to bond with him over a shared love of reading. Rachel does not believe Johnny killed the gir...

Not even those hot tight buns could save this romantic thriller that was way more romance than thriller with a ludicrous ending and a romance I couldn't get behind at all.You mean to tell me that you didn't come back to your hometown to find out who really killed your high school girlfriend so you can prove your innocence after ten years of being wrongfully imprisoned; you came back so you could boink your English teacher?!Get your priorities together, man.

The first time I read this was years ago and I’m glad to find out that it’s still a 5-star read after all these years. Johnny’s unwavering love and devotion to Rachel over the years is wonderful. Love this couple!

This was very compelling. Definitely dated but still a good time.4/5 stars

This is a hard-to-find audio book well worth searching for. Thank you to my friends for loaning it to me!Two things make this book a listen to remember, and a book I'll probably revisit in the future. First, the narration was incredibly good. Anna Fields/Kate Fleming was perhaps the most talented narrator for contemporary fiction in her time. Her voices, inflection, timing and delivery are simply perfect. Secondly, the love story has a realistic feel (the ups and downs and hesitations feel real

I was a bit surprised that I hadn’t posted a review for this book as it’s in my top 10 of all-time favourite books and I was sure I would have done a review if only to share the love I have for One Summer. But I’m making up for that now so hopefully other romance readers might be interested in giving this book a read. It’s a book I simply have to read every couple of years if not more and in fact when I switched to ebooks it was one of the first reread books I purchased and I have the comfort of...

The story of a couple that that is meant to be together despite their differences, whether those are the 5 year age difference, the fact that Rachel used to be Johnny's teacher, or the fact that she is an upstanding member of the community while he has just been released from a 10 year prison sentence for the murder of his high school girlfriend.She has agreed to give him a job so he can get out on parole, but he is far from the young man she remembered, and not nearly as grateful as she would h...

I loved this book, despite its perfectly corny ending. (I kind of like corny endings, though, so I was pleased). First of all, the beginning was great. It really hooked me in and made me want to keep reading, plus it was laced with my kind of humor. We really dive straight into the story without getting huge info-drops or long-winded background stories. I ADORE Rachel. She is one of my favorite heroines. The way she stood up for Johnny made me want to give her a hug. She was strong, but also kin...

The first 60% of the book was depressing, but the rest was very good romantic suspense and emotionally fulfilling.STORY BRIEF:Johnny and his siblings were raised by an abusive, hateful, low income father. Rachel was Johnny’s high school English teacher. She saw Johnny’s love of reading which he hid from others. She cared for him as a teacher. A girl Johnny slept with was killed. At age 19, Johnny was wrongly convicted of the murder and sent to jail. Ten years later he writes to Rachel asking her...

Well-done whodunit suspense story with a wickedly bad boy hero and an honorable intelligent heroine with a bad driving record.Rachel was Johnny's teacher when he was accused and found guilty of murdering his latest squeeze. When he's up for parole he asks her for a job as she is the only one who thinks knows he's innocent. That and his ulterior reason that he's been in love with her for years. Before you go, "Euw", he is only five years younger than her, and she never had feelings for him when h...

A decent story that was bogged down by the suspense side plot, this book was about 100 pages too long. Although this book had a lovely romance that featured good-girl-falls-for-bad-boy and older-woman-younger-man, I just couldn't pull myself past a general indifference to anything else happening in the book that DIDN'T feature the smokin' hot hero, Johnny Harris. Rachel Grant, the heroine, reminded me of the heroine from Lightning That Lingers in that her sheltered good girl (and somewhat insipi...

5 stars – Contemporary Romance/Romantic SuspenseIf you’re a romance lover who enjoys emotionally moving stories that tug the heartstrings, then I highly recommend this fantastic read. Thank you Melissab for giving notice to this great book because it would have been a real shame to miss out on it!Johnny Harris is the local hell raising bad boy of his small Kentucky hometown who comes from the wrong side of the tracks. His father is an abusive drunk, and he and his siblings are all considered no

I loved this book! Thank you so much Melissab for bringing it my attention! First I want to say that the age difference between the H&H is 5 years. He is 29, she is 34. I don’t consider that a May December romance in my opinion.Johnny was unjustly convicted of murder 11 years ago. He’s just gotten out of prison and returned to his small home town in Kentucky. Johnny’s family was considered white trash. His father was an awful mean abusive drunk. He was the classic rebel teen that was always in t...

I absolutely LOVE this book!!! I just read it for the 2nd time today and loved it just as much as the first time. Cover to cover, I just enjoyed every element of the book. I will admit, though, that's it's probably not for everyone. I know some really dislike romance stories where the woman is older than the guy, and I know some wouldn't like how crude and abrasive Johnny is for over half the book. Plus there's a small paranormal element to the story that some would hate. But if you don't mind a...

I was a little skeptical of this book because of the age gap between the characters, I prefer when the male is older than the female not the other way around, but in this case it didn't bother me at all. I liked the story although there was a lot of little talk and information I really didn't care about.

Raising this a star on second reading. I really enjoyed it.Older woman story. The author made it fairly easy to get over any squick factor about her having been his high school English teacher. It was pretty well written, the story was interesting and moved pretty rapidly. I'm fond of both the ex-con and the older woman tropes so a double win for me.

I bought this book years ago but for some reasons I never got around to read it. I'm glad I finally did. When high school teacher meets bad boy..."Then explain to me what trash is, Mother. I want to know. If being poor, or black, or drinking, or being abandoned by a parent, or spouse beating, or being divorced doesn't do it, I want to know what does."Elisabeth spluttered, "I may not be able to describe it, but I know trash when I see trash, and what's more, so do you!"Rachel felt herself trembli...