Eleven Years On is an erotic romance novella by Kate Richards. It tells the story of Jillian Schmidt and Toby Archer. As youngsters, they were inseparable, best friends, always getting into trouble. As they got older, that friendship was on the very cusp of morphing into something else, when Jillian’s mother suddenly grabbed her and left town.
Unable to see her father, her friends and her home, Jillian was distraught. Her mother would not tell her why they’d left, and wouldn’t let her go back, not even to see her father. Nobody tried to contact Jillian, which hurt her even more badly, and eventually, she forced herself to move on.
Eleven years later, though, Jillian is forced back to Hadleysville to sort out the estate of her now-deceased father. She’s not looking forward to it – to being back in the town where it seems everyone forgot her with no trouble at all, breaking her heart.
On arrival back in Hadleysville, though, Jillian quickly bumps into someone that makes her realise that perhaps her departure left more ripples than she’d always believed. Then when she bumps into Toby, that belief is shaken even further. It seems there was a lot more to her mother dragging her out of town than she realised. And now she’s back, face-to-face with her old life, her old friends, Jillian begins to piece things together and comes to the conclusion that she’s not the only one that had the wool pulled over her eyes.
As she and Toby spend more time together, Jillian comes to the conclusion that the feelings between them never really went away, and they’re now amplified. By the situation, by the time apart, by the fact they’re both now adults, free to do what they want. But can they get over the hurdles of the past and find a way to happiness together? Only one way to find out.
Eleven Years On was a lovely romantic read. I love second chance stories, and this one felt so real, so full of emotion, that I rooted for the characters from the very beginning. I enjoyed the humour and the smokin’ sex scenes, and would recommend this well-written tale to erotic romance fans, especially if they like second chance stories.