Review - Far from the world we know by Harper Bliss

After an extremely traumatic event, Laura Baker moves to the small town of Nelson, Texas. She moves in to the house owned by her Aunt Milly who has just gone into a resthome.

Tess Douglas was born and raised in Nelson, and the moment she lays her eyes on Laura she knows that there's the potential for something special.

But Laura's trauma - and her caution - runs deep, and Tess knows if she pushes Laura too fast and too soon, she could lose something truly remarkable.

The women agree to be friends,  and both find themselves exploring unexpected emotional depths.

I really enjoyed this. Both Tess and Laura are late 30s-early 40s-something, and so they both have life experience. Everything that they've gone through feeds into the way they negotiate their new relationship - especially for Laura, who has real and solid reasons to be wary of a new relationship.

The novel builds in a very satisfying way, and the emotional payoff is well worth it.