I’ve been a single dad for five years. Then the wrong woman rented the guest cabin behind my house, and I knew right then she was going to ruin everything.
When Baylor’s mother walked out, I made a promise—I’d be enough. Just the two of us. No one to disappoint her. No one else to leave.
Then Emelia Greene rolled into Echo Lake in a Mercedes and a power suit to convince the townspeople to change what makes our small town great. She’s everything this place isn’t.
Emelia’s not supposed to be kind. She’s not supposed to be good with my daughter. She’s definitely not supposed to be the one I find myself confiding in at the end of my dock every night.
She’s leaving in three months. I know that.
The problem is, I can’t stop wondering what it would be like if a woman like her belonged in a place like this.
In a life like mine.
Sunny Shelly’s Review: 5 Stars
Holding Ground was a wonderful start to the new Mercer Family series, also tying in Piper Rayne’s Greene Family series! I loved how grumpy single dad Elliot Mercer fell for out-of-towner Emelia Greene (the daughter of Jed & Molly from My Sister’s Flirty Friend).
This story delivered exactly what I wanted: a grumpy single-dad, enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity story. But more than that, it was about finding where you belong, learning to open yourself up, and so much more. Both Elliot and Emelia have trust issues, so it was so fulfilling to see them open up to one another and figure out how to trust in what was happening between them.
Aside from the delicious slow-burn relationship between Emelia and Elliot, I really liked the relationship that developed between Emelia and his daughter, Baylor. There were some great parallels there with Baylor being left by her mom as an infant and Emelia never knowing her birth mother.
Holding Ground features a full cast narration, with Jason Clarke and Callie Dalton perfectly voicing the main characters. I am looking forward to what comes next in this series! I received a complimentary copy and voluntarily left a review.
Sunny Shelly Reads 