In this novel, a Los Angeles transplant falls for a small-town Colorado cop on her journey of self-discovery.Beatrice Archer is 35 years old and going through a crisis. She quits her LA job as an advertising executive when her overdue promotion for a corner office goes to inexperienced, less competent Kevin Colton. Tired of playing by the rules of corporate drudgery and dealing with her family's expectations of straight-laced, white-collar feminine perfection, she throws a dart at a map and moves to Credence, Colorado. What follows is a series of rule-breaking behaviors that would shock all of LA: trading in sexy lingerie and elliptical workouts for beer and pie breakfasts, bunny slippers in public, and day-of-the-week underwear. Newly liberated from social expectations, Bea confronts a rising urge to break her personal rules arising from family trauma. Exploring a long-suppressed love for art and striking up a fiery romance with Austin "Junior" Cooper are the two biggest rules she shatters. Austin is a 25-year-old policeman happy with his life on a ranch and on the force. After Bea meets the handsome cop, she notices "the truly fabulous way his broad shoulders filled out his shirt and the seriously effortless length of his stride." When sparks fly with big city girl Bea, he is just as eager to follow them as she is wary. As they fall into an inevitable dalliance featuring a trifecta of friendship, pie, and carnal pleasure, they must handle uncertainties relating to their age difference and potential life paths. Bea faces a pivotal choice: reenter the corporate jungle for conventional success or traverse the dangerous road her artist mother navigated-and follow her heart. Andrews' touching, sexy book is a rare gem in the romance genre, balancing both a woman's relationship with herself and with her lover. Credence is painted vividly as a perhaps slightly too idyllic setting, but the characters are designed with nuances and flaws. The author cleverly subverts romance genre tropes with a messy mid-30s female lead and a realistically naïve yet astute younger man. Social dichotomies of "love or career" and conventional ideas of beauty are dismantled cleverly through the plot structure.An insightful, steamy, and poignant romance.

Andrews (Playing It Safe) proves herself a master of romantic banter in this snappy small-town tale. When Beatrice “Bea” Archer is once again passed over for a promotion, despite over a decade of loyalty and hard work, she quits her job, throws a dart at a map, and moves where it lands—quiet Credence, Colo.—trading pencil skirts, trendy health food, and the 9 to 5, for sweatpants, copious amounts of sugar, and binging all 15 seasons of Supernatural. When she finally leaves her apartment, a concerned resident alerts local police about the disheveled stranger double-fisting ice cream cones on the sidewalk. The cop who arrives is the very attractive Austin Cooper, who finds the situation amusing more than anything else. After proclaiming herself a rule breaker, Bea demands that Austin arrest her for her petty crimes. Instead, Austin offers to help her accomplish some of the more legal items on her bucket list. While Bea’s happy to have a friendly face in town, she’s determined to keep things platonic, as Austin is a decade younger than she is—but their chemistry proves hard to resist. The abrupt third-act conflict seems to come out of nowhere for both characters, but there’s no denying their flirtatious connection. This is a treat. (Feb.)