Review of The First One by Tawdra Kandle

Come home to Love in a Small Town, stand-alone happily ever after romances with lots of heat and heart.

Welcome to Burton, Georgia, the farm community where the women are sassy, the men are sexy, and happily-ever-afters are a specialty of the house.

Meet Ali and Flynn . . .

Ali

Flynn Evans was my high school sweetheart. Eager to see the world and leave behind our small Georgia hometown, we planned an exciting new life together after we finished school.

But on graduation day, only one of us hit the road.

I've spent the eight years since then working hard, raising a daughter, and helping my brother keep our family farm alive. Thinking about Flynn and what might have been is a pain I avoid at all costs. . .even when it's impossible to forget.

Flynn

Eight years after I left, an unexpected loss brings me home again. Those dreams Ali and I had so long ago? Yeah, I’ve made most of them a reality. But I did it alone.

When my return to Burton comes with a big surprise in the form of a daughter I didn’t know about, everything in my world is turned upside down—including my feelings for Ali.

Finding our way back to each other will open old wounds and stir up memories as we learn that maybe our first love is worth a second chance.


All of the Love in a Small Town romances can be read on their own. While characters pop up in each other's stories, you can begin reading at any book and feel right at home!

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 **My thoughts**

Ali and Flynn had been high school sweethearts. When it was time to move on post-graduation, Ali was poised to go off with Flynn, but then decided to stay home to continue to help her brother Sam on the family farm. Both were devastated and so angry with each other. In fact, Flynn basically doesn’t even come home anymore. But when his father dies unexpectedly, he is forced to. And that is when we finds out that he is actually the father of Ali’s daughter. Actually, everyone finds out. Not even Sam knew the truth.

ARGH! I hate it when women lie about their children’s parentage. The secret baby trope is one of my least favorites. But I love Ali so much that I easily forgave her, especially after she shared her story. It probably helped that I had gotten to know her in the first book in the series.

[Side note: You can totally read this as a standalone.]

And God bless Flynn, he is angry but steps right up to being a father. It helps that Hannah is such a good-natured child and was so excited to finally have her father.

Coparenting means that the two of them have to spend a lot of time together. And a relationship as strong and intense as theirs was, even at a young age, really doesn’t necessarily fizzle out. Their situation creates a lot of drama that they must overcome, but also allows them to rediscover each other. It’s beautiful to watch.

We get to see some familiar faces and catch up on what they are doing. We also get to meet more new people, whom you know will be featured in the future. I have to say that I got thrown off when Mason suddenly had a chapter from his point of view. I know the purpose is to basically introduce the next book. But it was weird in the middle of Ali and Flynn alternating the whole way through.

For the heat police, the bulk of this story is fairly “clean” but gets heated toward the end. You will have some open door action.

But this story did give me the warm fuzzies. I really enjoyed Ali and Flynn’s story and look forward to more from Burton.