Review: Not Since Ewe

Not Since Ewe by Susannah Nix
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC via the author and Smartypants Romance, all opinions are my own.  As with all of the Smartypants offerings, this reads as a complete standalone.  There are some interconnected characters that are mentioned in other books, however you don't need to read those to understand anything going on in this book.

Tess and Donal were rivals in high school, but they both were secretly in love with each other senior year.  They competed with each other academically, and secretly had a fling that resulted in an unplanned pregnancy.  Being young, immature, and highly emotional, Tess pushed Donal away after he didn't handle news of the pregnancy well.  Tess made the difficult decision to give the baby up for adoption, and now 3o years later their daughter has made contact and wants to get to know her birth parents.  Both Tess and Donal are successful adults with lives of their own, but meeting their biological daughter might just be the thing that heals their relationship and gets them talking again.

I'm not usually a fan of books involving mystery babies or pregnancy, but this one is different.  The pregnancy happens before the main timeline of the book takes place, and the baby is now a grown woman.  This is a fairly emotional story that unpacks alot of different things.  Tess has to deal with her decision to give up the baby at 18, her feelings for Donal both in high school and present day, her feelings of abandonment from her own mother leaving her, and the lost of both of her parents.  Donal also has alot going on but he's trying to bet a better person all around and he doesn't want to lost Tess a second time.

This starts out as a bit of an enemies to lovers and ends up as a great second chance romance.  Donal and Tess take some time to warm up to one another.  They have great banter as they begin to rebuild their trust in each other and the friendship they once had.   It takes her a while, but watching Tess slowly open up and let Donal in was a worthwhile experience.  This had great character development and just the right amount of spice.  I really enjoyed this one!

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