Everyone thinks they know what happened to former child star turned infamously self destructive Fiona St. James. Nearly a decade later, Fiona is fiercely private and determined to keep it that way when her former co-star Sam Fox reappears in her life, hoping to convince her to bring back the show that made them both famous, Birds of California. To their mutual surprise, they find that they genuinely enjoy spending time together and that their childhood attraction to each other is still present–and decidedly no longer PG. But Sam still doesn’t know the truth behind Fiona’s self-destruction all those years ago and Fiona isn’t sure she’s ready to talk about it–with him or anyone else.

This is a much darker and serious contemporary romance than its bright and sunny cover suggests, but it's all the stronger for it. Sam and Fiona have intense chemistry that feels authentic to their teenage friendship and complex history. Fiona is clearly dealing with some trauma and it wasn’t terribly hard to figure out what might have happened, which also makes complications in their relationship feel realistic and grounded. I don’t want to give more specific content warnings because they would be major spoilers, but please feel free to ask about them in the DMs if you are curious. I really liked this and its more serious tone and almost literary writing style--my only compliant is that I wished it had been a little longer!