Reader Score
84%
84% of readers
recommend this book
Instant USA Today, Amazon Charts, and Publishers Weekly bestseller.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fourth Wing comes a new contemporary romance about the summer a celebrated dancer returns home and unearths years of family secrets and deep regrets with the Coast Guard rescue swimmer she never forgot.
Elite ballerina Allie Rousseau is no stranger to pressure. With her mother's eyes always watching, perfection was expected, no matter the cost. But when an injury jeopardizes all she's sacrificed for, Allie returns to her summer home to heal and recover. But the memories she's tried to forget rush in and threaten to take her under.
As a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, Hudson Ellis knows that hesitation can mean the difference between life and death. He's always prided himself on being in the right place at the right time, especially when it came to Allie Rousseau...until the night he left for basic. After the biggest regret of his life, the secrets he keeps mean he can never be with the one woman he wants more than his next breath.
When Hudson's niece shows up on Allie's doorstep, desperate to find her birth mother, Allie finds herself in an unimaginable position. Allie and Hudson's past and present might be endlessly complicated. The thread that tied them to each other all those years ago may have unraveled, but the truth could pull them back together, or drive them apart forever.
Rebecca Yarros is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over twenty novels including Fourth Wing and In the Likely Event, with multiple starred Publishers Weekly reviews and a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. She loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for over twenty years. She's the mother of six children, and is currently surviving the teenage years with two of her four hockey-playing sons. When she's not writing, you can find her at the hockey rink or sneaking in some guitar time while guzzling coffee. She and her family live in Colorado with their stubborn English bulldogs, two feisty chinchillas, and a Maine coon cat named Artemis, who rules them all.
Having fostered then adopted their youngest daughter, Rebecca is passionate about helping children in the foster system through her nonprofit, One October.
To catch up on Rebecca's latest releases and upcoming novels, visit www.RebeccaYarros.com.
"If you loved her dragon rider series, you’ll be delighted to know her contemporary romance novels are every bit as gripping... Yarros has a talent for writing likable characters and extraordinarily swoony men, and she’s frankly an artist with the smoldering slow burn."
"Yarros keeps the twists coming as her complex but lovable characters find their way back to each other in the face of impossible odds. Readers who like their romance on the soapy side will be more than satisfied"
As seen on CBS Mornings
A New York Times Book of the Week
A People magazine Best Book of November
Audiofile Earphones Award Winner
"Rebecca Yarros's stand-alone romance novel is a graceful departure from her bestselling fantasy juggernauts Fourth Wing and Iron Flame. With shades of The Summer I Turned Pretty and Bunheads, this winter-appropriate beach read begins with an ocean rescue off the coast of Cape Cod. Hudson, a local Coast Guard swimmer in training, swoops in to save Allie, a wealthy young ballerina, from a sinking rowboat. Metaphors and plot twists abound as Yarros's story bobs neatly into the future. A decade later, her star-crossed characters land back where they started, for different and equally complicated reasons. The question of whether they'll find their way back to one another is a fun one to ponder over a slice of leftover pie." --Elisabeth Egan, The New York Times
"Yarros keeps the twists coming as her complex but lovable characters find their way back to each other in the face of impossible odds. Readers who like their romance on the soapy side will be more than satisfied." --Publishers Weekly
"A gifted storyteller." --Kirkus Reviews
"Variation delivers on every single romantic expectation Fourth Wing has set...a stunning second-chance romance between Allie, a famous ballerina, and Hudson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer...Yarros executes the complexity of their relationship dynamic perfectly...[Variation] offers readers plenty of swoon-worthy scenes full of witty banter and steamy chemistry." --Screenrant
"Yarros has a talent for writing likable characters and extraordinarily swoony men, and she's frankly an artist with the smoldering slow burn." --The Observer
"Rebecca Yarros writes words that are pure, sweet, sizzling poetry." --Tessa Bailey, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author