Ahh romance. The forbidden art of romance that I apparently like to torture myself with because I end up crying because of whatever cute stuff ends up happening. But I love Harlequin so much for approaching me to be a part of their Romance and Women’s Fiction blog tour for Winter, and I have been so loving the books that I ended up getting to read from them! Don’t sleep on Harlequin books, fam.

Told in Emily Belden’s signature edgy voice, a novel about a young widow’s discovery of her late husband’s secret and her journey toward hope and second-chance love.

Twenty-nine-year-old Charlotte Rosen has a secret: she’s a widow. Ever since the fateful day that leveled her world, Charlotte has worked hard to move forward. Great job at a hot social media analytics company? Check. Roommate with no knowledge of her past? Check. Adorable dog? Check. All the while, she’s faithfully data-crunched her way through life, calculating the probability of risk—so she can avoid it.

Yet Charlotte’s algorithms could never have predicted that her late husband’s ashes would land squarely on her doorstep five years later. Stunned but determined, Charlotte sets out to find meaning in this sudden twist of fate, even if that includes facing her perfectly coiffed, and perfectly difficult, ex-mother-in-law—and her husband’s best friend, who seems to become a fixture at her side whether she likes it or not.

But soon a shocking secret surfaces, forcing Charlotte to answer questions she never knew to ask and to consider the possibility of forgiveness. And when a chance at new love arises, she’ll have to decide once and for all whether to follow the numbers or trust her heart.

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EMILY BELDEN is a journalist, social media marketer, and storyteller. She is the author of the novel Hot Mess and Eightysixed: A Memoir about Unforgettable Men, Mistakes, and Meals. She lives in Chicago. Visit her website at http://www.emilybelden.com or follow her on Twitter and Instagram, @emilybelden.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Netgalley, and Graydon Books for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

Sorry for the mix-up earlier fam. Spending hours in the ER and totally spacing on making sure I had this review up the right way was not on the priority list unfortunately, but here we are, and thanks for the early likes!

So this book pretty much broke my heart because I personally couldn’t imagine losing my husband like that. Even in general, I don’t know if I could imagine having to deal with my husband dying and then having to deal with the aftermath. So low and behold my true feelings when I read more about Charlotte trying to move forward in her life, and doing a very good job at it, if I do say so myself.

And she’s such a young widow too. It’s not common to have storylines about late twenty-year old widows, and while this immediately makes me think about young military widows – ha, my husband is in the military so that is a constant fear of mine whenever he has to go out to sea – I know that it’s not always the case. I also felt a certain type of way that she totally immerses herself into risk-analytics to try to make sure that she doesn’t take any negative risks in her life ever again. How sad is that though when you think about it? But if I was smart enough to calculate that too, I know I would do the same thing.

Charlotte even handles things better than I do because I don’t know if I would be able to handle having any memories of my late husband around me, mostly his mother or his best friend. It would just be too painful, and honestly I don’t know if I could even bring up the courage to talk to them ever again. I know their pain would probably be worse than mine, but still. Just don’t know if I could do it.

But despite some of the tears that this book brought up for me, there were moments of happiness, some silliness, and it gave me some sort of hope that Charlotte would be okay no matter what. Grief is a process and I think that this may be a part of getting through it.