The Wilder Brothers series from NYT Bestselling Author Carrie Ann Ryan continues with an enemies to lovers, workplace romance where Wyatt Wilder meets his match.

The moment I found out my ex-wife was cheating with my former best friend I knew I’d hit rock bottom, and it was time for a change. With the freshly signed divorce papers in hand, I want nothing to do with my old life as I start my new one with my brothers and our new distillery and bar on the Wilder Retreat.

Only when I see my former best friend’s ex, Ava, in need of a job, I can’t say no. Not when she has their eight-year-old daughter in tow and nowhere to go.

Now I’m forced to work with the woman from my past I’d rather forget. We both want to move on, but every time we’re near each other, the fire hadn’t known we could have burns between us even brighter.

We should say no. The complications would break us. Yet we can’t walk away.

Even when it would be safer for all of us if we do.

Wyatt is working to move past his divorce with his brothers in their new whiskey distillery. When he runs into Ava again, his ex-best friend’s ex-wife, he doesn’t like the reminder of his marriage, but he also has a pull to help her. Offering a job at the distillery is an easy way to help her and it helps him too. But as they work together, they realize there is a spark between them that is more than the pain of their shared past.

Ava is struggling to keep everything together in the year since her own marriage fell apart, a casualty of the same affair that broke Wyatt’s marriage. She didn’t get any of the physical property in the divorce, but the only thing she fought for was custody of her daughter. Her job has never been flexible about her single parenthood, and when that is the reason she is fired, she knows she needs something that recognizes the sometimes last minute nature of parenting. Accepting Wyatt’s job offer means moving her daughter, but maybe that is exactly the fresh start they both need after a tough year.

I absolutely loved this story from start to finish. Wyatt is recovering from an attack that happened at the bar, but his protective streak runs too deep to look away when he realizes Ava has nothing after her own divorce. He knows the lifestyle his former best friend is living and can’t believe Ava would be living like she is as a result. Ava’s little girl pulled my (and Wyatt’s) heartstrings with her sweetness.

There is a lot going on here, from both Wyatt and Ava healing from their divorces to finding themselves in close quarters for the first time in a long time. And in the background I couldn’t forget that Wyatt was attacked in the bar at the end of the last book. I couldn’t help but watch for that threat in the background as well.

I love returning to the Wilder Resort through the Wilder cousins. This whole family is fantastic together and I love the way they work and live in close proximity, making up for lost time together.

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, Wilder Brothers, Promise Me, and Elements of Five series, which have sold millions of books worldwide. She’s the winner of a RT Book of the Year and a Prism Award in her genres. She started writing while in graduate school for her advanced degree in chemistry and hasn’t stopped since. Carrie Ann has written over one hundred 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.