On the one hand, she’s a twenty-nine-year-old VP at her dad’s multibillion-dollar real estate development firm and living the high single life with her two best friends in a swanky downtown penthouse. On the other hand, she’s considered a pair of sexy legs in a male-dominated world and constantly has to prove her worth. Plus, she’s stuck seeing her narcissistic ex-fiancé - a fellow VP - on the other side of her glass office wall every day.
Things get exponentially more complicated for Piper when she runs into Kyle Miller - the handsome new security guard at Calloway Group Industries, and coincidentally the first love of her life.
The guy she hasn’t seen or heard from since they were summer camp counselors together. The guy from the wrong side of the tracks. The guy who apparently doesn’t even remember her name.
Piper may be a high-powered businesswoman now but she soon realizes that her schoolgirl crush is not only alive but stronger than ever, and crippling her concentration. What’s more, despite Kyle’s distant attitude, she’s convinced their reunion isn’t at all coincidental, and that his feelings for her still run deep. And she’s determined to make him admit to them, no matter the consequences.
Though her family was very extremely wealthy, when Piper was sixteen, her mother got her a job at a summer camp as a counselor. Her mother, who didn't grow up rich, had gone to this camp and had fabulous memories and wants her daughter to experience the same thing. Piper wanted go to Europe like her friends but soon changed her mind when she spied fellow camp counselor, Kyle. Even though Kyle was poor and most of his family is in prison, they fell in love over the eight weeks. Their relationship didn't survive the summer and Piper's heart was broken.
Thirteen years later, Piper is working for her father's company, being groomed to take over. She has recently broken up with her ex-fiancé, David, who works for the company and whom Piper's dad loves. Piper, though, still thinks about Kyle and what could have been. Then she discovers that he is working as a security guard in her company's building and wonders if she should confront him to find out what happened all those years ago and perhaps pick up where they left off.
I've read and liked many books by this author ... but this one didn't do it for me. I knew going in that it was a romance and while I don't mine romance in stories, I like there to be some substance besides that. But because I like this author, I went ahead and read it.
It's written in first person perspective in Piper's voice. The story alternates back and forth between the summer at camp and now (the chapters are labeled). I found the characters a bit stereotypical ... an overbearing controlling rich dad, an older employee who does all he can to sabotage our heroine, the brother who was strong enough to break away from the family and do what he wants, the quirky friends, the poor boy ~ rich girl combo, etc. As a head's up, there is swearing and adult activity.
I had a hard time believing that Piper was still obsessed about Kyle. Piper had it all ... friends, money, education, a high-power job and even an ex-fiancé ... but she still pined over a boy she fell in love with 13 years ago for eight weeks when she was 16! No way! I wasn't buying it. The Piper of today sounded just as immature as the Piper from 13 years ago, which was not realistic.
I couldn't decide who the target audience was for this book. When it was back in the camp days, it seemed more directed to young adults. I found it icky as an adult reading the details of teenagers Piper and Kyle making out or thinking about making or talking about making out in the summer camp. In the "now" timeline, it seemed more directed to adults ... though it was basically a repeat of what they did and felt at the camp but in a nice condo rather than in a cabin or on rocks.
