A spicy, emotional second chance romance with shared history, forced proximity, and one very lovable single dad.

Goodreads | The Challenge

Release date: July 22, 2026

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Synopsis:

Nothing says welcome home like accidentally moving in with your first heartbreak…and his little girl.
Coming back to my small Wyoming hometown was supposed to be temporary. I only planned to stay long enough to help my ailing mother and sort through the mess of my family’s old belongings. 
Instead, I somehow ended up living in Evan Ricci’s house. The single dad now owned a bunch of properties and one of them was the place I’d rented. He’d taken it off the market and moved in before I got there. I just never got the memo. Unfortunately, there was no other place in town available, so Evan let me stay.
Evan—the guy my parents took in years ago after his mother died.
The same Evan who used to dare me into ridiculous challenges that somehow always made me stronger—a game we’d dubbed The Challenge. 
The same guy who ultimately rejected me before I left for college after I’d finally garnered the courage to shoot my shot.
Now Evan was a rugged single dad with an eight-year-old daughter, a cocky attitude, and a dangerous ability to make me forget every reason I should still hate him.
Sharing a house with him should’ve been unbearable. Instead, it felt dangerously familiar, nearly making me forget that I had a life and a job to get back to in Chicago. I realized the biggest challenge wasn’t surviving living with Evan Ricci.
It was not falling in love with him all over again.

Review:

Single dads will get me every single time, and Evan was exactly the kind of romance hero I love. He’s completely devoted to his eight year old daughter, Effie, and I loved how clearly she came first in every decision he made. His relationship with Chloe also had so much more depth than a typical second chance romance because these two share such a long, complicated history. They grew up together, knew each other before adulthood changed everything, and already had a genuine bond underneath all that unresolved attraction. It gave their romantic relationship a strong emotional foundation and made their eventual connection feel earned rather than rushed.

There’s plenty happening outside the romance, too. Chloe has returned home to help her mother through an illness, while Evan is navigating single parenthood with an essentially absent co parent. Those heavier personal storylines added some emotional weight without taking away from the chemistry between Chloe and Evan, and there is PLENTY of chemistry. This was sexy, spicy, and seriously hot when it needed to be, but I appreciated that Ward balanced that side of their relationship with the family dynamics, their shared past, and the question of whether Chloe’s return home could ever become permanent.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Connor Crais and Desireé Ketchum, and they were fantastic. At this point Connor Crais seems to be in my headphones about once a week, and I am certainly not complaining, but it had been a while since I’d listened to Desireé and I’d forgotten just how wonderful she is. She has such a sweet, warm voice, and she was especially adorable voicing Effie. The narration made an already enjoyable romance even better and reminded me just how much the right narrators can add to a story.

Perfect for readers who love:

• Single dad romances
• Second chances and shared history
• Forced proximity
• Small town settings
• Childhood friends to lovers vibes
• Adorable kids who actually add to the story
• Family drama and emotional storylines
• Plenty of steam and chemistry

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to Must Love Audio for my review copy

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