Review: Secretly Yours by Stephanie Rose


Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author.

Secretly Yours is a companion novella to Stephanie Rose's Second Time's the Charm, a standalone novel published in May of 2024. (That being said, you can read this new release without having checked out the other book.) Just like the latter, the former is a second-chance romance, but while Emily Patterson and Jesse Evans were each other's first love who went their separate ways, Sabrina Tirado and Caden Williams were Emily's and Jesse's respective best friends who also happened to be friends with benefits. When Emily and Jesse broke up as teenagers, Sabrina and Caden's own arrangement came to an end. Now, everyone's gotten together for their twentieth high school reunion, and Sabrina and Caden slide into their friendship with ease. So seamlessly, in fact, that he offers to not just be her date to her niece's wedding, but to pretend to be her boyfriend as well. All he has to do is to not make the same mistake he made two decades ago--fall in love with her all over again. 

From the get-go, I seriously liked how the main characters clicked. There wasn't much in terms of awkwardness, and even though their situation-ship came to an abrupt halt when their respective besties split, there wasn't any drama or pent-up feelings of hurt and resentment. Now, I'm not a huge fan of the fake relationship trope, but I did enjoy seeing Sabrina and Caden inevitably fall for each other. While this was a novella, it didn't feel as if the romance was rushed or that anything was missing in terms of character and story development. Stephanie Rose delivers the kind of book that has her readers snuggling in a comfy corner of their favorite reading spot with a blanket on their laps and some hot chocolate to the side. Four stars for Secretly Yours!

Release Date: 26 December 2025

Date Read: 19 December 2025

Learn more about Stephanie Rose.

Pre-order Secretly Yours on Amazon.

 

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