Beneath the Stars: A Small Town Second Chance Romance (Sugarlake Series, Book One)

I originally picked this book up because I was looking for an audiobook to listen to at work and this was free on scribd. I’ve been wanting to read Emily McIntire’s books so thought this was a great place to start. Holy wow did I not expect to be so sucked in to this book though. I started as an audiobook but switched over to an ebook because I needed to devour this faster than I could listen to it. 😂I loved Chase and Alina’s story and how it grew and evolved from when they were just kids till they were adults. The side characters were all fantastic and I love how intertwined all of their stories are too. A must read for small town, second chance romance 💜

Okay, this book took me by force!!Chase, Aliana, Jax, Becca…Lilly..How I would love to be beneath those stars.Read this book! READ THIS BOOK!!!You’ll feel everything, and your going to want to just keep reading.I was entranced, I could not put this down!5/5💋💋💋💋💋

This story is all kinds of sweet with many dark twists and turns. Just when you think Emily will take us right, she goes left. Emily has written an amazing characters with storylines that have intertwining storylines. I can see why this is a four book series. You want to see everyone with their own HEA. I am rooting for everyone to find their soulmate, and if we get to read the spicy, steamy parts, then good for us. The story flows, the writing is giving all the angst, fun, sadness, spirals, jot and love, and you do fall in live with the characters. Enjoy.

“𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣’𝙩 𝙜𝙤 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜.”-small town romance-childhood friends to lovers-best friends brother-second chance-book one in Sugarlake series-available on Kindle Unlimited- 1.5/5 🌶️After reading all of what’s out of Emily’s popular Never After series, and absolutely loving them, I had to pick up her first series! I really enjoyed this introduction in to the town of Sugarlake.The main characters, Alina and Chase, don’t have an easy journey to happily ever after and it’s definitely an emotional one. It shows various points of time throughout their lives. Both of them see a ton of character development over the years and it’s beautiful but at times heartbreaking to see.I don’t want to talk about the plot really at all, because I feel like a ton of it would be spoilers. But a big standout of this story for me was Chase’s journey to healing. He has a very troubled childhood and he really takes the time on his own as an adult to heal from it. Therapy is a big theme and I loved that.Recommend giving this series a try if you love small town and/or Emily’s writing! Although keep in mind that it’s very different than the Never After series! Sugarlake is a four book series and you meet the other leads in this one. They are technically interconnected standalones. But even though I’ve only read the first, I’m going to recommend picking them up in order as stories arch throughout! I cannot wait to continue the series 💙

I couldn't put this book down. I absolutely hated having to do things like cook, clean, or do laundry instead of reading this book. The characters, the writing, and the story were fantastic! Definitely recommend you read it.**Be prepared for discussion about addiction**

I really enjoyed these characters and the story overall. I love the authors other series so decided to give this one a try. The only reason its not a 5 star review is I did not like how the book was writtern. The first half of the book was like a YA story with the characters starting out at age 11 and going until early 20's before the 2nd half of the book started in the here and now. I would have prefered the early years to be woven in to the story that was being told as they were adults coming back together for a second chance.

This book was a Beautiful, emotional, poignant roller coaster of a ride! This is a new to me author and I absolutely loved this book! On to book 2!

If you're looking for a second chance romance that rips out your heart and puts it back together this is it! I thought this was going to be light and fluffy..... It is not but I loved it! I cried quite a few times and I cursed Chase more than once lol but I loved this story and all the characters. There were a few loose ends but I think you have to read the other books for closure on those . Over all 5 stars for me and probably 2-3 on spice highly recommend!

É uma leitura bem leve, nada muito sério, aquele livro HEA que todo mundo curte ler com cenas bem quentes, recomendo a leitura.

Spanish & English Opinion4🍭🍭🍭🍭ESP ::Había leído algunas reseñas no tan positivas y de todos modos, decidí leer el libro. ¡Qué bueno que lo hice! A mí sí me gustó la historia y el libro es súper fácil de leer e imposible de cerrar.Los protagonistas son Alina y Chase. Hay mucha historia entre ellos y sus personajes tienen perfiles complicados. Lo que más me gustó es que la heroína fue mi favorita. Confieso que muchas veces el rol femenino cae en lo que considero cliché y bobo, pero jamás sentí eso con Lee. Me encanta su personalidad, cómo se conduce, que dice las cosas como son. Ama profundamente pero no es un tapete. Fui fan.Chase, de repente inspira mis ganas de darle un zape, porque se involucra con pura psycho y no es firme en sus negativas. Pero aprende sus lecciones, busca redimirse y en realidad no es un patán. La relación tiene momentos de angustia pero contamos con un HEA inconcluso, que da pie a la siguiente historia: Becca con Eli. ¡Me urge leerla!ENG ::I was almost persuaded into not reading the book thanks to some reviews, but decided to judge by myself and I’m really glad I did! I liked the story and loved that it’s easy to read and a page-turner book that was impossible to put aside.The main characters are Chase and Alina. Their story starts when they are 13 and 11 and they have lots of depth and complicated life stories. My favorite part? I loved the heroine. Lots of times I roll my eyes at the way authors describe female leads (doormats, pathetic at some point or bit cliché) but I never felt like this with Lee. She’s amazing! I loved the way she acted, she thought and she expressed herself.Chase at some points made me wanna slap him, for being blind and somewhat naive where women were concerned. He relate himself with psycho profiles. However, he works on himself, he grows and learns. He’s not a jerk and that was cool. Their relationship has angsty feelings and swoony moments. Their HEA is not over and gives us the perfect way to start they new story: Eli and Becca!

I love childhood romances which turn into second chance romances. I also think this book is written very well. However, much as I as wanted to love it, I just couldn’t. Chase should have been my perfect broken hero who claims his perfect soft heroine who loves him unconditionally, but he just missed each and every opportunity and in the process what the reader gets is basically knowing that they never really get together from the ages of when she’s 11 right upto around when she’s nearly 30. He’s not her first, he doesn’t even know for a year after she gives her v card that he isn’t her first, he doesn’t really care for her during the brief time he’s her boyfriend (they don’t even do it during that time), he doesn’t support her when she’s in a bad spot with her mom and doesn’t even try to right his wrongs in the past part of the story line after what happens to her mom, he doesn’t try to check in on her via his parents or Jax in all that time that he’s away and he’s not even having issues of emotionally cheating on his current girlfriend when he comes back home in his 30s. In the end that’s what makes it disappointing- that it never feels like he loves her - he is very clearly in lust with her though. Also, it gets a bit too long winded and boring towards the end - it needs a bit of editing. It’s well written though - esp considering this is the author’s debut novel

I loved this book so much 🥺I've been wanting to read this for a while and it was worth the wait. Every second was so emotive and I cried, laughed, smiled and cried some more. Emily McIntire took a simple boy-meets-girl story and turned it into a tale of grief, first love, first heartbreak, substance abuse and finding your way in life. It was a wonderful and so unbelievably beautiful way of tackling issues and I was blown away.It also didn't help that it was super steamy and gave me all the sexy romance scenes I need in my life. Who doesn't love a hottie like Chase?! Or a complete badass female like Goldi!?

I saw this reccommended on tiktok so decided to try it.For me, that starting age of this book was way too young and way too intense for they ages they were, so it made me a bit uncomfortable to read.Also, everything is described in so much detail that it takes a long time to actually pick up and give a storyline, although there isn't really one other than the romance plot, it starts to get interesting towards the end but nothing comes of it because it's just setting up the second book.I really wanted to like this book and usually fly through them but this has took me ages to finish because there's just not enough going on to keep my attention and things get repeated a bit when the chapters are being told from different viewpoints.