To be found when you’re hiding

Synopsis

PR executive Anna Mortimer has clinched the deal of a lifetime for the hottest celebrity couple to have their wedding covered by a glossy magazine, but when things don’t go to plan and she loses her job, will a well-timed invitation to visit Reykjavik be the perfect distraction while she decides what to do next?

Ned Nokes has just left the safety of the biggest boy band in history to go it alone. With the eyes of the world on him, he escapes to Iceland in search of solitude. He makes friends with people who don’t know who he is but after a lifetime in the spotlight, can he trust anyone who isn’t on his payroll?

Visit Iceland at its most beautiful as autumn turns to winter and find out whether the magic that helped Anna’s friend Rachel find her happy ever after, is still there…

My review

Anna Mortimer never thought that a drone would turn her world upside down. Because a drone flying over the wedding of the hottest celebrity couple that Anna was hired as a PR executive, made sure that an exclusive deal was no longer exclusive. Despite her innocence, Anna finds herself without a job and sees that she has no life outside of work to fall back on.
When her best friend Rachel suggest to spend some time together, in Iceland, Anna sees this as the perfect distraction.
But what are the odds to meet Ned Nokes again? Ned, who was also a guest at the same wedding and also member of the most successful boyband. But who now has no clue of what to do next. Ned needs the solitude Reykjavik offers, and finds so much more. Because never having trusted anyone outside his band, he now finds genuine friendship and perhaps even love.  

Ever since reading the first book of the series, Iceland climbed higher on my bucket list. While waiting for the right opportunity to visit it in real life, I gladly used this book to take me away on another magnificent journey. 

Anna is a character that gave me mixed emotions. While it’s obvious what a great friend she is, supporting Rachel with her new life in Iceland, she also misses her best friend terribly. She is really the kind of friend who puts your own happiness before her own.
So in this case, I absolutely liked Anna from the start. 

Yet I also felt sad for her… because not only does she lose her job without a real good reason (only due a case of excluding other people), she also sees how lonely in fact she is.
While her life in London used to filled with many social events, without Rachel by her side, Anna realizes that in fact, she has no real friends.
It also made me sad to learn that Anna never had a real, meaningful relationship, that somehow she is scared to completely open up with a love interest. 

I know from previously the magical tricks Iceland can play, so I was very happy and eager to discover what Iceland had in store for Anna.
And I was happy to read that the one person who sparked something in Anna, would be playing a big part in her own quest for happiness. 

We all dreamed once in our lives to fall in love with a famous person, a member of a boyband, … but we are all also very realistic to know that those odds are almost non – existing.
But Ned is so much more than just a famous person. And I was eager to discover who Ned really was, together with Ned himself.
I could understand that Ned didn’t know who he is without the band. And also comprehended that he needed to get as far away as possible to discover who the Real Ned Nokes is. 

I can only try to understand how difficult the life of a famous person is, and how Ned finds is difficult to trust new people. But Iceland wouldn’t be Iceland if our old friends would just accept Ned between them, famous or not. 

Seeing Anna and Ned together was truly heart – warming, despite the cold in Iceland. These are characters that deserve to be happy no matter what. But for gaining that happiness, they have to learn themselves and learn to not only love but most important to trust.
And that is something that infuriated me a little bit in this book, as I know the background, but trust does not mean choosing sides or letting someone down. (this doesn’t make sense if you haven’t read the book, but it will…).

I found this a wonderful sequel, I enjoyed the time I spend with old friends, fell in love with new characters who are, even the famous ones, so recognizable and real.
This book shows us that falling in love is the easy bit, but building trust and let the high walls fall down is a slow process. People can make mistakes while thinking of doing the right thing, but we have to see behind those mistakes and allow ourselves to show forgiveness. Because being without that special person is harder than forgiving a mistake.
But most important is that we all have to take time to get to know not only each other, but also ourselves and see what will make us happy and where we feel the most at home.