The first time he kissed me, we kept it a secret.

Tanner and I have been at each other’s throats ever since.

The second time he kissed me, I told myself not to fall.

I should have known something burned beneath the surface and I couldn’t resist him.

The third time led to something more and now one positive test later, neither one of us can walk away.

Only when his past sheds light on every difference we’ve chosen to ignore, we’ll have to fight for each other, or lose everything before we’ve even had a chance.

Tanner and Natalie have watched their two sets of roommates pair up, and though they each secretly harbor feelings for the other, they refuse to accept that the feelings might go both ways. Each are hiding more than just feelings from each other and the roommates: they each have issues that make them feel like they don’t quite fit with the rest of the group, despite the friendships they’ve built. When the two friends who bicker each time they are together give into temptation, they find themselves facing a positive test and an entwined future whether they try a relationship together or not.

I loved these two characters so much. It was clear that they were hiding something from the rest of the roommates, especially through My Next Play, but I couldn’t have been happier with what their story had waiting for them. Though they were the last single roommates, they were by no means thrown together just because. The way they balanced turned to each other and found common ground despite the tension that naturally flowed between them had me rooting for them to open up fully.

This was a fantastic conclusion to the On My Own series. Watching all of these roommates form these forever friendships and relationships has been a joy from the start (ok, not joy the entire time, but you know what I mean!). Ending with Tanner and Natalie, both holding on to their secrets felt like the perfect icing on the cake.

Carrie Ann Ryan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary, paranormal, and young adult romance. Her works include the Montgomery Ink, Redwood Pack, Fractured Connections, and Elements of Five series, which have sold over 3.0 million books worldwide. She started writing while in graduate school for her advanced degree in chemistry and hasn’t stopped since. Carrie Ann has written over seventy-five novels and novellas with more in the works. When she’s not losing herself in her emotional and action-packed worlds, she’s reading as much as she can while wrangling her clowder of cats who have more followers than she does.