Title: Falling Again
Author: Paula Kay
Date: 2023
Publisher: Paula Kay
Quote: "She was going to do it. Now or never, do or die, or whatever. She was going to tell him how she felt."
She was fifteen. He was nineteen, about to ship out with the Navy. Heedless, or so she tells herself, that if he'd responded to her declaration of undying love in the way she thought she wanted, and anyone had ever found out, everyone would have wanted him locked up under the prison for life, Janet threw herself at her big brother's best friend, squawking about love and even forcing a kiss on his startled mouth. Then she spent the next ten years feeling indignant because her hero, Rick, told her he did not return her feelings and went off for Navy Seals training. During these years they've been living in the same town, not dating other people, noticeably, but ignoring each other. They have their own businesses. She feels successful. He's a billionnaire.
It takes something like Harold, the overtly obnoxious representative of a loathsome "development" corporation, harassing Janet at her business to motivate big brother Evan to force Rick to start protecting Janet's business, as he's never admitted wanting to do. Whereupon, the minute Evan's out of the way, Janet immediately throws herself at Rick again.
Because this is a sweet romance, it works.
In real life, I'd believe that characters like this pair had a chance at happily-ever-after if I'd seen some character development, but...young women need to know that (1) our society forces men who want to live to reject the advances of lovesick fifteen-year-old girls, and (2) lacking that constraint, very few men will resist the advances of 25-year-old women even if those women are as naive as the girls, but (3) most men will feel dang funny about a woman who's thrown herself at them--the minute they finish yielding to their socially sanctioned hormonal reactions.
This super-short romance is recommended to mature married women who don't care how unrealistic it is, but just want to fantasize about having a chance to vent emotions they've been stifling for ten years.
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