Holding Ground — Piper Rayne
Title: Holding Ground
Author: Piper Rayne
Series: The Mercer Family #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance | Small-Town Romance | Enemies to Lovers | Forced Proximity | Single Dad Romance
Format: eARC + Audiobook
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — 5/5
Synopsis
Emelia Greene grew up in a small Alaskan town but left small-town life behind to build a career in the city.
Now her job has brought her to Echo Lake, where she'll spend several months getting to know the community before her company moves forward with a proposed development project. She's there to listen to residents, understand what local businesses need and determine how the project could benefit a town that thrives during the summer but slows considerably during winter.
Unfortunately, not everyone believes her company has Echo Lake's best interests at heart.
Especially Elliot Mercer.
A devoted single father, Elliot has spent the past five years building a stable life for himself and his daughter, Baylor. The last thing he wants is an outsider arriving and changing the town they love.
It doesn't help that Emelia is renting the guest cabin on his property.
And when a storm makes that cabin temporarily unlivable, keeping their distance becomes considerably more difficult.
My Thoughts
Sometimes I finish a romance and have approximately seventeen things I need to discuss.
And sometimes I finish one and I'm just like...
Yep. That was cute. I had a great time. Give me the next books, ASAP!!!
Holding Ground was definitely the second kind for me.
Emelia grew up in a small Alaskan town but left for the big city and eventually built a career working for a development company. Her job brings her to Echo Lake for a few months, where she's supposed to actually get to know the community before her company moves forward with a new project.
She needs to talk to the locals, learn what businesses need, figure out what's missing and basically determine how they can help a town that thrives during the summer but becomes considerably quieter during the winter.
Sounds reasonable, right?
Right???
Well, try explaining that to a small town where approximately nobody wants an outsider arriving with the word DEVELOPMENT anywhere near her job description.
And the loudest person against everything Emelia represents just happens to be the man whose guest cabin she's renting.
Elliot is a single dad who has spent the last five years raising his daughter Baylor, and he is VERY protective of the life they've built together.
He's convinced Emelia and her company are going to change the town for the worse, so these two aren't exactly exchanging friendship bracelets when she arrives.
But Emelia slowly starts becoming part of the community, and somewhere along the way, the line between I don't like you and okay, maybe you're not completely terrible starts getting a little blurry.
It doesn't help that Baylor likes Emelia too.
The little moments between those two were adorable, especially Baylor wanting Emelia to help with her hair before school.
And then...
A storm damages Emelia's cabin and makes it temporarily unlivable.
Oh no!
gasps... lol
Where EVER could she possibly stay?
Certainly not inside the house of the attractive man she's absolutely supposed to maintain a professional relationship with.
That would be terrible.
Anyway... Forced Proximity Strikes Again (cough) ...
This is where I really started having fun with them.
They're suddenly eating together, spending considerably more time around each other, bantering, getting to know one another properly and discovering that the attraction they've been trying to ignore is becoming rather difficult to...
Well... Ignore.
I also liked that their relationship didn't exist in a little romance bubble.
Emelia genuinely gets involved with Echo Lake and starts caring about the people she's supposed to be working with, while Baylor becoming attached to her adds another layer because Elliot has very understandable reasons for being careful about who he lets into his daughter's life.
Things eventually get more complicated on both sides.
His past brings some unexpected emotions back into their lives, while Emelia starts questioning some things surrounding the project she's been working on.
I'm staying intentionally vague because I don't want to spoil either storyline, but I really liked seeing what Emelia chose to do once she had to decide what and who actually mattered to her.
And I especially loved seeing Elliot stand beside her when it counted.
Audiobook Experience
I listened to the audiobook while working on my paint-by-numbers and honestly?
Excellent life choices were made.
This was exactly the kind of romance I love listening to while doing something relaxing. I could settle into Echo Lake, enjoy Emelia and Elliot's banter and chemistry, and happily continue painting away while their supposedly antagonistic relationship became increasingly less antagonistic.
Was I productive?
Yes.
Did I get my romance fix at the same time?
Also yes.
We love multitasking.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this was just such an enjoyable small-town romance.
We have enemies-to-lovers-ish vibes, forced proximity, a single dad, a sweet relationship with his daughter, plenty of banter and chemistry, small-town shenanigans and enough outside conflict to keep things interesting without taking away from the romance.
I had a ridiculously relaxing time with it and honestly don't have much to complain about.
Sometimes that's exactly what I want from a romance.
And since this is only the beginning of the Mercer family...
Yes, hello. I'll be needing the next couple immediately.
Did I mention this already?
Anyway... :D
5⭐
ARC/ALC Disclaimer
Thank you to Hambright PR and Piper Rayne for the opportunity to read and listen to Holding Ground. All opinions are my own.
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