In her dedication and author's note, Jennifer Hartmann says that this story is for the readers, and my reading experience reflected that. It really did feel like a love letter to the readers who were devoted to these characters from the earlier books and in no way felt like a forced cash grab to just capitalize on that devotion.

Although this was a really difficult book to read at times because you knew the types of trauma Tabitha went through, it also felt like a comforting hug at times to be back with characters you felt so bonded to from Still Beating and Lotus. Every detail in these books gets woven together in some meaningful way as you read along, so I was constantly highlighting and taking note of different phrases or comments and pretty much everything came back together full circle by the end in a beautiful way.

This is considered a follow up to Still Beating and Lotus so you really need to read those first. I even went back and skimmed through Lotus again before starting so I could refresh my memory on Tabitha and Gabe's initial interactions and I'm glad I did. This book overlaps with Lotus in the prologue and then continues on after the end of Lotus. Gabe is helplessly head over heels for Tabitha and her daughter Hope, but Tabitha is still not ready. She feels broken and her nightmares and panic attacks seem to be getting worse, but she can't afford mental health care. So she decides to share her story with a fiction writer who will weave it into one of his books one day. She thinks getting it all out will be helpful for her, but Gabe is afraid it's going to break her. So as Tabitha is sharing her story with Evan, we are getting to see what she went through specifically while she was kidnapped. Alongside of that, Gabe is dealing with his own storyline that's putting things at risk (don't want to spoil it!).

I loved Gabe and his steadfast love for Tabitha so much, despite him thinking it was one-sided. That's a top quality in a hero for me. But I also think his solution for fixing his conflict didn't quite make sense, and I do wish the "big bad" was a little different in this story. But that didn't keep me from enjoying their journey together. I loved Tabitha's growth through the story, even though they were tiny steps, because it allowed us to see her bravery and strength that she didn't believe in. I loved the way stars were woven through the story, too. I was so happy to see them finally have their HEA.

Trigger warnings are all essentially the same as Still Beating, so if you did ok with that one, you should be fine with this one, but here is an extensive list:

Rape and assault by third party (not overly graphic but still on page)

Kidnapping by third party

Forced sexual encounters (in the past but told in real time via interviews)

Violence and mild gore

Graphic sexual scenes

On-page character death (NOT the hero or heroine)