The Hideaway Inn captured my attention right away and held it from start to finish. The only reason I didn’t read it in one session is that real life required my attention. This is the first book I’ve read by Philip William Stover and one of the first in the new Carina Adores line.

The story is told in first person POV, with most chapters told by Vince and about one-third of them by Tack. One thing I found a bit disconcerting at first… the chapters told from Tack’s POV are labeled with his name at the top but when the next chapter switched back to Vince there was no label. I love books where we get the POV of both of the MCs but I’m used to seeing each chapter labeled with the name of the character speaking in that chapter. After the first couple of shifts I finally caught on to how this book was being done and didn’t have any issues with it going forward.

Second chance stories are one of my absolute favorite romance tropes so I was really drawn to this one. Vince and Tack didn’t exactly have a relationship in high school but Vince definitely felt there was a connection and he was deeply hurt when he realized that Tack didn’t feel the same way.

In high school, Tack couldn’t acknowledge that he was attracted to “Skinny Vinny”, something he later lived to very much regret. While Vince returns to New Hope intending only to make a quick buck by flipping The Hideaway Inn, Tack sees it as a chance for him to right a wrong and reconnect with Vince.

This story has lots of feels going on. Tack has a child and he and his ex-wife are wonderful parents to them (yes, that is the right pronoun for his child). In the beginning Vince is all bad-ass and distant with the locals. But he is gradually won over by the town, Tack, and especially Tack’s child. I really fell in love with all of the characters and the town of New Hope. I hope we get to see more of Vince and Tack in the upcoming books in this series. I’m really looking forward to reading more.

Reviews for Philip William Stover

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That summer Vinny would come by and see me almost every day, usually with a new book. I loved hearing him talk. He described the spiritual journey of Siddhartha, the complicated plot of King Lear and even read some of James Baldwin’s poems to me that were so riveting I almost ham¬mered my finger to a post. At school I was in a class called “Reading Foundations” and even I was smart enough to know it was for kids who were barely passing. I never felt dumb around Vinny. He treated me like I was just as smart as he was and after hanging out with him for a few weeks, I started to believe it.

Being alone with Vinny was easy. We were so different but also had so much in common. My mom died when I was a kid and he never knew his father. I never talked to anyone about not really having many memories of her and wanting more. He only had a single picture of his dad and never wanted to know more. We fit like opposite pieces of a puzzle that click when joined. Being alone together at the edge of the farm felt like freedom. But when the fence was done and school started, the world shifted back to where it was and whatever we had evaporated.

A small-town high school is a network of territories with strict borders. Vinny didn’t belong anywhere and it made his life miserable but it made me admire him more because he didn’t need to. He did what he wanted, how he wanted to do it.

My life felt like an endless list of obligations. I followed some script then and I don’t even know why or where it came from. I had to place at the meets, have the hottest girlfriend, drink like an animal at parties on the weekends. These things were expected of me or I expected them of myself. At the time I couldn’t tell the difference. I couldn’t imagine a life being anything other than the one that was already attached to me, but meeting Vinny put a crack in that heavy iron chain.

Once school started, Evie came back from her summer job down the shore, football practice began and chores on the farm took over my life. At least, that’s what I told my¬self. I couldn’t find a way to make Vinny part of my life beyond that summer without making my entire world explode. I ignored him at school, pretty much, even though alone in bed at night I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I kept those worlds separate because they seemed to be in completely different orbits. It was a shitty thing to do. I know it now and I even knew it then.

I left The Hideaway mad as hell at Vinny—or rather Vince—for the way he treated me in the kitchen, but the truth is I deserve everything he said to me and more. How could I ever get him to understand the choices I made back then and why I made them? How could I explain to him how hard I have worked to undo everything I did back then? Then I remember how I already started on the wrong foot. He asked about Evie and I went all mysterious and vague. I should have told him we got divorced. I should have told him that we still co-parent a wonderful, funny six-year-old. I should definitely have told him that I finally came out as bi. But picking him up on the side of the road was such a confusing surprise that my brain wasn’t functioning at full capacity.

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Seasons of New Hope Series

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