"For Quinn Collins, buying the flower shop in downtown Harbor Pointe fulfills a childhood dream, but also gives her the chance to stick it to her mom, who owned the store before skipping town twenty years ago and never looking back. Completing much-needed renovations, however, while also competing for a prestigious flower competition with her mother as the head judge, soon has Quinn in over her head. Not that she'd ever ask for help.Luckily, she may not need to. Quinn's father and his meddling friends find the perfect solution in notorious Olympic skier Grady Benson, who had only planned on passing through the old-fashioned lakeside town. But when a heated confrontation leads to property damage, helping Quinn as a community-service sentence seems like the quickest way out--and the best way to avoid more negative press.Quinn finds Grady reckless and entitled; he thinks she's uptight and too regimented. Yet as the two begin to hammer and saw, Quinn sees glimpses of the vulnerability behind the bravado, and Grady learns from her passion and determination, qualities he seems to have lost along the way. But when a well-intentioned omission has devastating consequences, Grady finds himself cast out of town--and Quinn's life--possibly forever. Forced to face the hurt holding her back, Quinn must finally let go or risk missing out on the adventure of a lifetime." -- p.4 of cover.
For Quinn Collins, buying the flower shop in downtown Harbor Pointe fulfills a childhood dream, but also gives her the chance to stick it to her mom, who owned the store before skipping town twenty years ago and never looking back. Completing much-needed renovations while also competing for a prestigious flower competition-- with her mother as the head judge-- soon has Quinn in over her head. Olympic skier Grady Benson had only planned on passing through the old-fashioned lakeside town, but a heated confrontation leading to property damage has him helping Quinn as a community-service sentence. She thinks he's reckless and entitled; he thinks she's uptight and too regimented. Will they risk missing out on the adventure of a lifetime?
Abandoned by her mother when she was 9, Quinn’s need for control was overpowering at times. It wasn’t that she was bossy for the sake of being in charge – she needed to feel like she had at least a semblance of a possibility of having things work out the way she hoped. The “perfect” world she worked so hard to create was safe but caused her to miss out on so much. She became a creature of habit and was shackled to the town she loved, fearing to travel or change her routine.
I couldn’t help but fall for Grady. True, he had a terrible temper. True, he was cocky. True, he didn’t exactly live an exemplary life. But there was a hint of vulnerability to him and as the layers of his heart were revealed, it became obvious that he was a broken and hurting man, doing his best to handle the guilt that ravaged his soul.
Reading Just Let Go was quite an adventure! At one point in the story, when Grady thanked Quinn in the diner, I was laughing so hard I had to stop reading. I seriously don’t remember laughing that hard while reading a book for a while. Once I could contain myself, I read a little more but started laughing again as I thought about it. He was so arrogant and such a rat for intentionally saying what he did! Then, in the next chapter, just a few pages away, my heart ached as I got more insight into what happened with Benji and Grady’s motivation to ski and to win.
As with all of this author’s books that I have read, there were just so many things to love. I make a habit of highlighting lines as I read, marking ones that I want to come back to later and consider posting on my blog. I knew that I was highlighting a lot, but didn’t expect it would be more than 30. Oops!
Being a part of Grady and Quinn’s spiritual journeys was such a joy. This is a book that I want to read again and again.
I would like to thank Celebrate Lit, Netgalley, Tyndale House Publishers for giving me this copy of the book. This gift did not influence my opinion or review.
