Note: This ARC was provided by Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review. The full review can be read on Dog-Eared Daydreams.

Sigh. This book was just...gah! These two twenty-three-year-olds may not have seemed to have a lot in terms of quantity stacked against them, but the baggage could have very well been insurmountable had either one of them given up on themselves and each other. Neither Levi nor Harper is at the point where they're over what happened with his ex-girlfriend and with her first love, though in Levi's case. I don't want to go into specifics, though if you've read book one in the series, then you'll have some idea what Levi's ex did and why Levi's friends hate her as much as they do. Harper's back story, particularly the one to do with her high school boyfriend, is heartrending, and there's a particular point in the story where she reveals to Levi what occurred when she and her boyfriend were sixteen that had me reaching for a tissue. It put everything that I knew about her up to that point into perspective.

Lips Close to Mine still brings with it moments of levity and lightheartedness that were a constant in Talk British to Me. However, this second in a series did have more angst but it's a warranted kind of angst. You'll get what I mean when you read the book, and I'm seriously encouraging--imploring!--you to do just that. Read this book. Read both books (in order, please, even if they can absolutely be read as standalones). I'm going to qualify my next statement by fully admitting that I haven't read ALL of Robin Bielman's books, but based on the ones that I have read, I'm going to say that this is her at her very best. She isn't telling you a story, and neither are her main characters. Nope, Bielman has made it possible for her readers to experience what Levi and Harper have and are going through. She made me feel and she so made me believe in the healing power of love. This book was everything. Five-plus stars. ♥