Hold Me Close (Paradise, Idaho #2) by Rosalind James

ARC was kindly provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Kayla Chambers knows what love is—and what it isn’t. When her boyfriend turns abusive, she and her son escape to a new life in a place where he’ll never find them. The idyllic town of Paradise, Idaho, has everything she needs to get back on her feet. Survival is her only goal, and the last thing she wants is another man in her life.

But Kayla’s new neighbor, high school principal Luke Jackson, is determined to change her mind. Luke usually takes the fast lane with women, but he can see that Kayla and her son need help, and he wants to earn her trust—even if that means taking things slow. He strikes up a friendship that soon simmers into something passionate and real. But when Kayla’s past catches up with her, Luke knows he has to find a way to keep her safe…or risk losing her forever.

To make things clear from the beginning , Hold me close is the second book in the Paradise, Idaho series.  This book is about Luke and Kayla's love story. Luke is Cal's brother .Cal's story can be read in Carry me home,  the first book . Yes, even if we get to see Cal and Zoe in this book too, Hold me close can be read as a standalone 

Now I can move on.

Kayla is a widowed mother who lives with her nine years old son Eli and her abusive boyfriend Alan. One day she grabs Eli by the hand and they run away from Alan. The two of them start a new life in Paradise , Idaho.Here she reconnects with Luke , her childhood friend, who also happens to be the high school principal where Eli is about to start his classes.

Books focused on domestic violence creeps me up . Kayla's story was a sad one for me .Alan , as a highly influential person , and his ways of tracking Kayla down scared me. Evil people like him do exist.

So why only 3 stars? The intense beginning got me from the very first pages. Then things got a little too slow for my taste. Luke trying to gain Kayla's trust, Kayla having lots of trust issues .She interprets Luke's every gesture and word as a way of deliberately mocking her . She gets plain absurd at some point.Going back and forth between her desire to open up to a new life and her fears from the past.And Luke, Luke was just too perfect for a human being. His perfection almost annoyed me.