Exhales a deep, deep sigh of relief.
The third book in Sophie Andrews’s Stone Family series, Right Next Door, is much better than the first two installments. I think Sophie Andrews is good at angsty emotional escapes, and I’m glad she’s embracing it. I do really appreciate when authors stretch themselves, even when it doesn’t work, and I’m always going to embrace Sophie Andrews’s progressive values.
Nicole is thrown into an existential crisis when her husband asks to open their marriage shortly before he leaves for a month of field work. She’s always been well behaved and hates the thought of being the subject of gossip. In the previous two books in the series, it’s clear that Ian Stone has a thing for Nicole, who owns the bookstore next to his tattoo shop. Ian doesn’t pursue women in relationships, so he’s planned on yearning. When Ian finds Nicole crying into a cinnamon roll at the bakery, he gives her some suggestions for research and tells her she is stronger than she thinks she is. After doing some reading, Nicole lets her husband know that she sees his request as a sign that he has a problem with her and their marriage, but she agrees to a trial period and they will reassess at the end of the summer. If her husband wants to explore outside of their marriage, Nicole sees no reason to stay in her good girl box.
Ian is a yearning fool. He will bend his own rules to have whatever time with Nicole he can get, even though he doesn’t expect she will want to jump from her marriage into another long term committed relationship. even if she leaves her husband at the end of the summer, which is not guaranteed. Nicole wants to explore, and Ian wants to help her, within some agreed on parameters – he will be in charge of the power exchange, and they will keep it secret so that there’s no gossip. Of course things get messy, in fun ways and not so fun ways. Over the weeks of their agreed upon adventure time, Nicole grows in self confidence and Iam realizes how much he has locked down to take care of his kids and protect himself from hurt. I like the way Andrews gives them both room to grow.
Throughout the book, there are interstitials with Ian trying to stay connected to his younger brother. The next (final?) book in the series will be the youngest Stone sibling, Roman. I’m interested to see where Andrews takes his story.
I received this as an advance reader copy from the author. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.