Title:  Always My Girl
Series:  The Shaughnessy Brothers #3
Author:  Samantha Chase
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  July 5, 2016
Publisher:  Sourcebooks Casablanca
My Rating:  4 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Cover Description:

Sometimes the love that’s closest to you is the hardest to see.

Quinn Shaughnessy’s two older brothers have found their true loves … but Quinn’s not about to join that parade. Nope, as he tells his best friend Anna, there’s a lot more to life than getting tied down to one person. He’s positive tomboy Anna will be on his side – except she’s inexplicably developing other interests – even dating! Suddenly Quinn is seeing Anna in a very different light.

Quinn has been Anna’s buddy since they were both five years old. She can tell him anything – except the one big secret she’s been hiding for years – that she’s fallen in love with him. Now Anna is determined to make a life for herself that doesn’t include pining for Quinn. Falling in love with your best friend? Easy. Telling them how you really feel? Impossible.

Read on for my thoughts on Always My Girl.  No true spoilers, promise.

Always My Girl has so many layers to it, not overpoweringly so, just a lot to think about as you read this third installment of The Shaughnessy Brothers series.  On the surface we have an enjoyable best friends to lovers type of romance since Quinn and Anna have been best buds since childhood.  Anna knew that Quinn was the one for her most of her life, she has a best friend love for the boy that has turned into an unacknowledged romantic love for the man he’s become.  Yet, even to that one fateful day, Quinn only saw the best friend, tomboy, companion that Anna has always been.  She’s just part of his life, like his family, always there.  The man is simply clueless even though plenty of hints have been there in plain sight for ages.

Quinn has many of the notable middle child issues, and others are uniquely Quinn’s alone.  Unfortunately, Quinn quits far too soon.  If things aren’t going according to plan, or if roadblocks happen he’s more likely to simply come to a full stop and walk away to something else.  That’s not something that can be done in a relationship, whether it’s friendship or romantic, you cannot simply walk away you need to stand firm and resolve things or nothing is ever gong to come out right for either one.  When Quinn discovers that his friend has been hiding a gorgeous, hot body that says nothing at all about friendship to his emotions – his reality is going to change.  The thing is, will he fight for what he needs in his life, which is the grown up Anna and the feelings he has for her or will he simply let it all fall apart.

There is one plot theme that always makes me a bit sad, mainly because I’ve done it in real life with disastrous, pain filled results.  When Anna makes the decision to change herself in order to either win Quinn’s affection finally or find a man who will love her as she deserves I let out an internal groan.  Not for the plot development, but for the fact that no one should change themselves in order to get, keep or attract someone else’s ideal image of perfect.  It simply does not work for long.  Quinn needed to grow up, man up and put aside his “it’s not perfect so I’m gonna just quit” attitude and get involved in conversations about what makes him and Anna happy – together or apart.  It’s not a complaint, really it’s not, I get how this happens in relationships it simply always tugs on my personal emotions a bit because I want to live in a world where everyone accepts people just as they are without having to change them – a world that I know is more grey than anything else in that department.

Always My Girl gives us Quinn and Anna’s romance with humor, a touch of reality, the danger of some dates and the overall complexity that is family, friends and lovers.  It was a delight to run into characters from the previous books.  Secondary characters always matter to me and there are some really great ones to love and despise in this story.  While this story is part of a series, you “could” read it all by itself – I simply believe that any series is better from the beginning.  But then again, this one may have you going out to find the first two in the series as well.

I enjoyed Always My Girl and would happily recommend it to any Romance reader.  A fun, realistic and heartwarming look into that awkward shift from friends to lovers, This one delivers well.

*I received an e-ARC of Always My Girl from the publisher, Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That does not change what I think of this novel.*

Available in paperback and for the Kindle