Local metalsmith and gift shop owner, Dahlia McGuire, likes her quiet life in Hartwell, Delaware. It’s the perfect place to hide from her family and the tragic events that led to their estrangement. However, when her father, the person she loves most in the world, needs her Dahlia has no choice but to return to Boston to face her ghosts. One of those happens to be her ex-boyfriend’s best friend, Michael Sullivan. The man she was never supposed to fall in love with.

Michael Sullivan has never forgotten Dahlia McGuire. Some might say he’s never gotten over her. For years he lived with the anger of her desertion, and now, newly-divorced, he’s finally ready to move on. That proves impossible when Dahlia returns to Boston and reawakens their explosive connection. Despite everything, Michael wants her back, but Dahlia can’t seem to let go of the tangled emotions of the past. When she flees home to Hartwell, Michael follows, determined to do everything in his power to convince her they belong together.

However, when the unthinkable hits the quiet seaside town, Michael finds himself trying to unravel more than the mystery of Dahlia’s broken heart. It’s time for truths left unsaid to finally be spoken or Michael and Dahlia might find themselves torn apart forever…

Series:

Hart's Boardwalk

Book 3

Book Type:

Contemporary Romance

Review: Things We Never Said

A woman confronts her past in more ways than one, in Samantha Young’s THINGS WE NEVER SAID—the next installment in the Hart’s Boardwalk series.

Dahlia McGuire has built a quiet life in small-town Hartwell, Delaware. There, she’s found a temporary peace—an escape from the ghosts of her past, and the family she’d left behind in Boston.

Peace shatters, however, after an unexpected run-in with the love of her life, Michael Sullivan. He’s the man she should’ve never fallen for, the man who played a part in the tragedy which changed everything.  Dahlia had left him behind too, but despite the many years apart, anger and longing mixed in ways neither could begin to process.

Dahlia only had her dad to count on, and when a phone call makes it clear he needs her, she rushes to his side in Boston, to face a family unlikely to welcome her.

There, she was met with resentment and anger… until she shared the truth she’d hidden for so long. And while some softened with understanding, others remained hardened… refusing to forgive. Others like Michael.

“You left me.” His words caught like stinging cuts on my lips. “You left me and I was so in love with you. I didn’t want to find you because you broke my heart, Dahlia. You broke my fuckin’ heart.”

His words cut the deepest, his fury was impossible to ignore. But despite the hurt and ugliness, their connection never severed. It quickly became clear that through the years, each had been the person they compared everyone else against. And when Dahlia returns to Hartwell, Michael realizes the error of his ways and is determined to never lose her again.

But was it too late? Would love be enough to heal the wounds of the past?

I loved Dahlia and Michael’s story so much. Every moment brimmed with emotion, ready to burst with words unsaid. I was moved to tears by everything Dahlia endured. I felt the heavy weight of her guilt and pain. And when she and Michael were together, I felt their hurt and longing all at once. It was a visceral, beautifully penned story.

With THINGS WE NEVER SAID, Samantha Young once again delivers the perfect balance of emotion and wit, tension and levity. It’s a joy to escape to this small seaside town again and again, to get lost with these wonderfully nuanced and quirky characters that feel as real as can be. This is a gem of a story and one that should not be missed.