Been There Done That by Hope Ellis

First, let me tell you how excited I am about a brand new series in the Smartypants Romance book world! In the first Leffersbee series, readers meet Zora Leffersbee, and she is a force!

Zora works hard in her research position, often spending the night in her cluttered office at the university. Though the Leffersbee family and all of Zora’s siblings work in the family business of banking, Zora has never been interested in joining them. She spends all of her time writing grants and trying to earn tenure so that she and her staff can continue to work and be paid. Unfortunately, the major grant she needed for tenure has not panned out, and she’s in a bit of a funk. Couple this with the fact that on a rare day she worked out and then went to work, a blast from her past shows up at her office door, completely throwing her for a loop. How is she supposed to focus on work when after hearing nothing from him for 12 years, the only man she ever loved in back in town because his highly successful company has chosen to team up with her university on a new project?

As fate would have it, Zora is chosen by her superiors to shepherd the charming, handsome, and very rich Nick Rossi around town, showing him their facilities and explaining the research they are doing with their medical staff and patients. As if he could look any better now than he did to her 12 years ago. Wow, not only did he ghost her after claiming to love her forever and giving her an engagement ring, now he’s back in town out of the blue with a different last name? Zora and Nick Armstrong had been best friends and then so much more, and they had a plan for their future…together. There was no question that they were the forever kind of soul mates. But then one day, he disappeared, leaving a short note with Zora’s mother claiming that he would be back. Well, spoiler alert, he didn’t come back for 12 years, causing Zora to become bitter and forcing her to try to push thoughts of him out of her mind in an effort to try to ease the pain. Little does she know, Nick never wanted to leave Zora. But in the circumstance he was in as an 18 year old kid facing a huge decision, he took the high road, which in the process threw a huge roadblock in he and Zora’s love story.

Now he’s back in Green Valley and Zora has to hold it together before he takes his fancy clothes, private plane, and ridiculously sexy self back to the big city where he’s made a life for himself. Thankfully, she and one of her best friends, sheriff’s deputy Jackson James, have a relationship agreement which benefits them both and keeps both sets of their eager for grandchildren parents at bay. Nick knows Zora and he is no dummy. He can see through their “relationship” almost instantly. Now he just has to bring himself to tell Zora the truth about that night 12 years ago, when he made a choice. A choice that changed everything for both of them.

I loved this second chance, small-town romance. The characters were well-developed and the romance was super sweet, and also pretty hot! I can’t wait for the next book in the series. I would highly recommend this book to romance and contemporary fiction readers. At times I was laughing out loud at the banter between Jackson James and Nick. I can’t wait for Jackson’s time in the spotlight, as well, when we can peel back some of his interesting layers. He’s quite a character!

Thank you to Smartypants Romance for allowing me the opportunity to read and early copy in exchange for an honest review.