You Weren't Mine Then by Lily Baines

Synopsis:

Once they had it all. Now they want it back.

Finn Brennen, swim team star, and Anne Drecher, the wallflower who tutored him, sparked an unlikely friendship that turned into a love so breathtakingly deep that they couldn’t imagine life without the other.

But their happiness was short-lived. Torn apart by horrible timing and a twist of fate, for over a decade they are forced to hide their mutual past.

Devastated by a love neither could forget, Anne built a life away from it all while Finn strove to give his son a stable home. But every family gathering brought them into the same room and served as a torturous reminder of what-ifs and could-have-beens.

Now Finn is divorced and ready to fight for what his heart wants and needs. Anne tries to resist but yearns for the love she thought she’d lost forever.

Family is forever, but what if love is, too? Is a second chance even possible when their love could tear a tightly-knit family apart?

Review:

I adore all the feels this small town stories raise, the slow burn and the second chance at love are perfectly delivered.

Anne and Finn met each other at the high school, she was a junior who tutored the senior swimmer, they became fast friends and years later they shared the best week of their lives, until a surprising and unpleasent news broke their dream of a future together. Years later they meet again in Riviera View, their feelings are still alive but there still are some hardles on their path. Will they risk everything in order to get the chance to freely love each other?

Ann and Finn are two good characters, they are really strong and they have a high ethics, they tried to stay away from each other, they tried to forget about each other but true love is undying. 
Their story is sad and frustrating, it looks like a Shakespeare's tragedy at times, but I was glad to see they don't shy away from their problems once they finally find their way into each other lives again.

Lily Baines made an excellent work weaving together the past and the present of these characters don't letting the flash backs ruin the flow.

I recommend to read this novel and the previous books too, I enjoy Riviera View so much I'd like to live there with these characters.

Release Date: 08.08.2022