The Town that Built Us by Jesse J. Thoma

Fifteen years ago, Grace moved from the tiny village of Garrison, in Rhode Island, to California, to study at Stanford, thanks to the villagers’ financial help. Her girlfriend Bonnie had just broken up with her and for years, Grace saw Garrison as a hostile place because of that, while she thrived at her marketing job in Los Angeles. In the meantime, Bonnie became very close to Grace’s father, who left his house, Grace’s childhood home, to both of them. Grace comes back to Garrison to find out that neither Bonnie nor she moved on.

The Town That Built Us is a nice second-chance romance. The chemistry between the MCs works well and the secondary characters are endearing. They bring both depth and comic relief, especially Grace’s best friend Madison and Bonnie’s posse of nicknamed guys.

There was a lot of potential in this story but the execution fell a bit short for me. It’s nothing big, a couple of inconsistencies added to writing that doesn’t feel smooth. I enjoyed reading but not as much as some of the author’s other novels (the Serenity Prayer books are my favourites).