Katie’s wildest dreams have come true. She’s a Hollywood actress, booked and busy, and campaigning for her first Oscar. Sure, she still struggles with sexist media malignment and unimaginative roles, but from where she stands today, her hometown of Dutch Ridge, Pennsylvania feels far away—and that makes it all worth it.
Because Dutch Ridge can only ever represent Drew. Every street is filled with memories of their shared adolescence, how they were each other’s first everything, the hours they spent planning for the future. Drew was the only person in Dutch Ridge who didn’t make Katie feel crazy for dreaming big, because he did, too. Was it their extraordinary level of ambition that brought them together at sixteen? It was definitely what drove them apart in the years after.
But now, a promise to her sister forces Katie to return for Christmas to Dutch Ridge, where she runs into Drew, who seems to have followed a different path from the one they once dreamed up. And strangely, he seems...happy. As their run-ins heat up and the two can't keep themselves away from each other, Katie begins to wonder whether her accolade-filled Hollywood life really fulfills her after all.
Back Where We Started is an emotional second-chance romance, a story about allowing oneself to change, the addictive nature of achievement, and how we make room in our lives for what matters most. (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads.)
Back Where We Started combined two elements I really enjoy in a book, movie, or television; second chance love, and celebrity backstory. I thought giving us the present time along with plenty of snippets of the past allowed me to really understand who Katie is and the depth she will go to in order to keep away from her toxic past. Dutch Ridge, PA was never really home for her. The only thing that represented home for her is Drew, the one who got away.
Drew and Katie could do anything and everything, with big dreams and aspirations. I thought it was interesting that over time, Drew falls into a life that he feels works for him, without the all-encompassing dream he’d originally set out to live, but Katie struggles with any delineation from their original goals. In some ways despite wanting to run from her past, she’s stuck there. And even though she’s living the life she always wanted, falling back into Drew makes her face the reality of what she really has, and how much of a microscope she’s really been under. Is that true happiness?
Drew’s sister really bugged me. She was a bit of a bully when Katie was young, and even after Katie is now known to the world as Blair, the sister still can’t stand Katie. There is a decent amount of background information provided that gives reasons behind the behavior, but it did nothing to alleviate my dislike for her. I loved my reading experience with this book and it’s worthy of the five-stars I’ve given it, and really, the one tiny thing I wish would have happened is some sort of big face-off between the two characters. Especially after Katie grows into her own and recognizes nasty behavior for what it really is, I wished for more from Katie, maybe for all of us who dealt with our mean bullies from our childhood. It was nice to have a nemesis, though, and Drew’s sister fit that description perfectly.
I felt like in a lot of ways, I had a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to reach celebrity status, the extreme highs and the awful terrible lows that we’re often not privy to. I felt really bad for Katie when she realizes that despite how hard she has worked to get to where she is, that all that glitters isn’t the glitz and glamour she imagined for herself, and the honesty of friendships, loves and insight in the celebrity realm can at times be only as deep as the popularity of that person at the time. I imagine it would be tough to know who can be trusted. Drew is always her guiding light in extreme darkness, which was a beautiful relationship to witness, but not without its own troubles. Back Where We Started was a really enjoyable read, a sweet celebrity second-chance experience!
Thanks to Viking for the book in exchange for an honest review.
Also by Becca Freeman: The Christmas Orphans Club
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