Review: Love ripped apart by secrets and lies...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 25, 2013
Juliette is the daughter of a widowed mother who works as a maid. Moira, the mother, gets a dream job.  She is hired to be a maid for one of the richest families in America, The McNamaras.  Juliette and her mother live in a nice servants quarters on the property and Juliette enjoys the run of the families large back yard.  Juliette also becomes best friends with Lucas, the McNamara's oldest son.  Juliette and Lucas, both 11 years old when they meet, begin to spend all of their time together. As they get older friendship begins to slowly evolve into the beginning of a young love. When they turn 14 years old they are ripped apart when Moira is fired from her job.  Juliette thinks that her mom got fired because she and Lucas were too close and the McNamara's didn't approve. Now homeless and jobless Juliette and Moira struggle to get by...at times living out of a car. Forward to Juliette's freshman year in college.  Juliette has lots of friends and is outgoing.  She also has a boyfriend who commits the ultimate betrayal.  Unable to live with the humiliation Juliette transfers across the country to another school and changes her last name hoping to start her life over.Juliette's plans are ruined when she runs into Lucas.  Julie is full of resentment towards Lucas although he doesn't know why.Lucas meanwhile is rebelling against his parents who expect him to take over the McNamara Empire.  His way of coping with the stress placed on his shoulders is to bed a different woman almost every night and drowning in booze.Juliette is forced to deal with Lucas when they are paired up by their teacher on a school project. Over time Juliette can't deny that the attraction that she and Lucas shared as children is still there.  Once they begin seeing each other Lucas tells his mother about reuniting with Juliette and he notices his mother is acting weird about his love relationship with Juliette.  He is confused because his parents always raised him to treat all people as equals.Lucas's mom, Rebecca, is hiding something.  This is where the author begins to throw in twists and turns that will surprise you as each new secret becomes revealed. I loved this part of the book although I don't want to write about it because it will give too much away.Ellery Rhodes develops her characters well.  She also makes the story very believable but using a situation that could easily happen today.I truly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in contemporary romance that also has a lot of mystery and intrigue involved.