Review: Back to Before by Tracy Solheim

When his father’s sudden death puts his family’s construction business in serious debt, architect Gavin McAlister is forced to put his dream career in New York on hold. Making matters worse, his fiancé called it quits. Desperate to return to his big-city life, he discovers an opportunity to save his family, one that has him reluctantly starring in a home restoration TV show.

Former soap star Ginger Walsh hopes this job as a TV makeup artist will lead to better things. So far it’s only brought her to a hamlet full of people who don’t like her—except Gavin. After a wild night out leads to Ginger waking up at Gavin’s loft—and the rest of the town talking—the two of them soon wonder if getting back to before is what they want. Because being in each other’s arms certainly feels like what they need…

 

Tracy Solheim has created such a fantastic cast of small town characters in her Second Chance series.The characterization in the story is fantastic, and it’s hard not to love the two leads and their friends and family. I was crying in so many places with how sweet and heartbreaking the story is—and I still can’t believe I almost didn’t give it a chance at the start!

 

The romance in this book is slow but it was so worth it. I found myself so invested in the story, my emotions took me on a wild ride. I was angry, and sad, and happy and everything else in between. I was angry that the towns people took everything out on Ginger, angry and disgusted about how they had treated her. I think that as an adults we know the difference between acting and real life. But I loved Gavin and Ginger, I loved their interactions and watching the way Ginger had of letting herself be happy again.

 

As I mentioned earlier the book does have kind of a slower pace to it, there is a lot of build up.There's a lot of everyday activities taking place within the book, which does help to make the characters feel like ordinary people, but it does keep the pace a little bit on the slow side, which made the book feel pretty long to me. The characters in this book are pretty well developed, and the secondary characters in this book really work, they are definitely not after thoughts, and really help make the storyline into what it is.

Overall, I liked the book, I liked the build up of tension between Ginger and Gavin and the payoff in the end (although I did kind of thing the end result was too rushed). If you like small town romances, or romances that have a little bit of mystery thrown in, then you might want to check out this book.