All I Ask

Corinne Michaels
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Release Date March 17, 2020

From the New York Times bestselling author of One Last Time comes a breathtaking story about first love, second chances, and starting over.

Teagan Berkley is trying her best. A single mom raising a precocious teen, she may have given up on her dreams, but she's accepted her life in her small beachside hometown. Now the one person who abandoned her when she needed him the most has returned, bringing back memories of what might have been.

Derek Hartz arrives in town with a teenage daughter - and he's full of guilt over his failed marriage and the way he ended his friendship with Teagan. He's determined to set things right with her, but first he needs to gain her trust. Something he's not convinced he deserves.

As Teagan and Derek open up to each other and confess their deepest secrets-it's impossible for them to deny what's always been between them. But just when their happily ever after is within reach, their complicated history surfaces again and threatens to keep them apart. Forever.

This is a beautiful story of friendship, loss, reconnection, and second-chances. Teagan and Derek were unlikely friends to begin with. She was the cool girl in school, cheerleader with the football captain boyfriend and pack of mean girls around her. He was quiet and a bit nerdy. But when paired together for tutoring, they somehow clicked. They became the best of friends, confidantes, and each other's biggest support. But they also hid their true feelings for each other and their lives took converging paths. And when she really needed him, he was forced to make a difficult choice and let go.

Teagan is now a single mom to her sweet and smart teen, Chastity. Teagan found herself stuck in their hometown, working for her parents, and just surviving. She still feels anger, loss, and disappointment, and has trust and abandonment issues from losing her friendship with Derek. But she has never really had to face it...but that is about to change.

Derek is back with a teenage daughter of his own named Everly. He has suffered over the years in various ways after leaving and is guiltridden and full of regret. He has his hands full dealing with a surly, mean girl teen and helping his family, and is a bit overwhelmed.

Now Derek and Teagan are back in the same town and forced to reveal their secrets, issues, guilt, and deal with the ramifications of the past. And they are dealing with their girls who are opposites and are making each other's lives difficult.

Derek knows what he wants. She makes him feel alive for the first time in years. But Teagan is scared, untrusting, and dealing with self-worth issues. She needs a real and solid reason to believe that she can finally have something go right in her life.

They might have found what they have been missing for years, but is it their time to finally find their happy ending or will their lives get in the way again?

This is an intense and heartfelt story about choices, hope, risks, timing, and second chances. I really loved Derek and Teagan together. My heart broke for them so many times over their impossible choices and failure to communicate. I wanted to shake sense into their girls at times. Being a single parent is not for sissies and meshing the needs of the adult and child is sometimes challenging. This alone makes the storyline more realistic and current. The judgmental small town and some family dynamics added more depth. All of the characters had opportunities for growth and change. I loved this story and devoured it in one night. 

Teagan pushed pause on her dreams when she had her daughter 13 years ago, when the man she loved cut off contact with her, as did the father of her baby. Now, raising her daughter by herself, she is resigned to the life she built living in the small apartment above her parent’s antique shop. She has been more or less stuck where she’s at, barely making ends meet and putting her daughter at the center of her whole world. But now Derek has returned and she has to face the hurt for her past that she worked so hard to bury.

Derek is back in town with his own teenage daughter. His reasons for returning are complex and have him struggling to find his footing as he returns home with his daughter and a load of grief. He is also facing the woman he cut off contact with 13 years prior, the woman he didn’t realize he loved until it was too late.

Thirteen years is a long time to hold on to secrets, pain, and hope, but Teagan and Derek both have kernels of all three. Derek has his work cut out for him to build up trust with Teagan again, especially with all the ways she has been hurt over the years. These two have so much chemistry, that even when they are trying to build back the friendship they lost it is clear they are fighting more.

I loved the way this story was built. It was as much between Teagan and Derek as it was between their daughters. Derek and Teagan were a bit of a mismatched pair in high school, and their daughters fit the same molds, only in reverse. The struggles Teagan and Derek worked through in high school echoed the struggles their daughters faced when they met.

This story had all the feels and is a great second chance at a first chance kind of story. I loved the way their history played into how everyone around them saw their interactions in the present. I was pulled into this story and even when I had to put it down, found myself wondering what was going on in the book.