Colt Mitchell was a charity case, taken in by the prominent Sinclair family to keep their star quarterback son on track. After three years under their roof, Colt traded in his broken background for the Marines, dead set on leaving Holly River for good.
Alice Sinclair was a dreamer, growing up in a house that worshipped trophies. Colt, her brother’s best friend, was the only one who truly saw her. When he left, Alice flooded his mailbox with hope—letters he devoured, but rarely answered.
Until the last one arrived.
Now Colt Mitchell is back. And the kid sister he remembers is gone. In her place is a woman on a mission. Alice has three months to turn her childhood home into the bookshop of her dreams, or lose it forever. And Colt’s hellbent on ensuring that happens, because when Colt was deployed, Alice’s letters saved him. And now he’s come home to repay the favor.
But as the two race to finish renovations by the Fall Festival, and the heat between them rises, Colt realizes that the one woman who’s entirely off limits…is the exact one he wants.
(ARC Read)
I fell in love with Holly River almost immediately. Fallin’ Tides gave me all the cozy fall, quirky small-town vibes I could have asked for, complete with local businesses, fall festivities, a dream bookshop, an unhinged girl gang, and the kind of town where everyone knows everyone and probably knows their business too. But underneath all that warmth is a story about two people figuring out what it really means to come home.
Colt Mitchell has spent most of his life feeling like he was standing on the outside looking in. Growing up with an alcoholic mother, he found refuge with the Sinclair family and became best friends with their oldest son. But it was Alice, the little sister who slowly became his friend, who would eventually mean more to him than she ever realized.
Alice didn’t exactly make Colt’s arrival into her family easy at first, but even then, he saw something in her that others often overlooked. Despite their rocky beginning, a genuine friendship grew between them.
Then Colt joined the Marines and left Holly River behind, and Alice started writing.
Those letters were one of my favorite parts of this entire story. Through the flashbacks and glimpses of their correspondence, we get to see their relationship grow long before romance enters the picture. Alice kept reaching for Colt across all those miles, filling his mailbox with pieces of home, never realizing that during some of the darkest moments of his life, her words were helping hold him together.
“You carried me when I needed it, Alice. And when I look at you, when I think about the kind of person you are and what you’re capable of, I feel like…”
“You look at me like I’m something you don’t deserve. But you are worthy of me, Colt Mitchell. You are worthy of so much. Much more than you’ve been handed.”
Years later, Colt returns to Holly River intending to deal with his mother’s house and leave again. Except Alice isn’t the kid sister he remembers anymore. She’s determined to finally chase a dream she’s spent years denying herself and has three months to transform her childhood home into the bookshop she’s always wanted.
And Colt decides he’s going to help her build it.
A BOOKSHOP. 😭
I loved watching their relationship evolve as they worked side by side, especially because there are years of history and unresolved feelings woven into every interaction. The mutual longing was SO well done. Colt knows Alice should be completely off-limits—she’s his best friend’s little sister, five years younger, and someone he still remembers as the kid he left behind—while Alice has loved some version of Colt Mitchell for what feels like forever. That history made the slow burn worth every bit of the wait, and when they finally gave in, the heat absolutely delivered. Colt reading Alice’s romance books was already enough to get me, but when they started recreating the scenes together? Tori Ford knew exactly what she was doing.
“I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything. I burn for you, Alice. I dream about touching you every second of every day.”
“Then touch me now, Colt.”
But underneath all that heat is what really made me love Colt and Alice: they don’t simply want each other, they truly know each other. Colt carries so much guilt and grief from his childhood and his time in the Marines, and he’s spent years searching for somewhere he belongs while convincing himself he isn’t worthy of staying. When he tells Alice, “You are everything I never allowed myself to want,” it encompasses so much of who Colt is. After everything he’s endured, it would have been easy for him to stop seeing the good in people or believing there was a place for him in the world, but Alice has always been his bright spot.
“Because this woman is everything I’m not—helpful, resilient, happy. And I want to put my mouth on every part of her and tell her exactly how perfect she is.”
Alice has spent her life carrying a different kind of hurt, trying to become the person her family expected her to be while quietly putting her own dreams aside. What I loved about her was that she never completely lost her optimism or her ability to find the glimmers of good around her. Colt has always admired that part of Alice, just as he’s always seen the parts of her that others tend to overlook. When people question whether she can actually turn her bookshop dream into something real, his faith in her never wavers. He doesn’t step in and do it for her; he rolls up his sleeves and stands beside her while she does it herself.
And Colt may have all the makings of a touch-her-and-die MMC—with the Marine training to back it up—but his protectiveness never comes at the expense of Alice’s independence. He would absolutely burn the world down for her, yet he also respects her strength and trusts her to stand on her own. That balance made watching their relationship unfold across the then-and-now timeline even more meaningful. We get to see two kids carrying pain they don’t fully understand grow into adults who can finally recognize those wounds, support each other’s dreams, and show one another what it feels like to be loved exactly as they are.
Wanting him was the easiest thing in the world. That man unraveled me, and made me feel whole. He set me on fire, and then burned beside me. He told me to leap, and then built my dream with his own two hands.
Alice reminds Colt that he doesn’t have to earn his place in someone’s life to be worthy of staying.
Colt reminds Alice that her dreams don’t have to make sense to anyone else to be worth chasing.
They spent years seeing something in each other that neither could quite see in themselves.
And THAT was the romance for me.
I also need to discuss the supporting cast because Holly River is FULL of characters I already need books for. Alice’s friendship with June and Maggie brought so much personality to the story, and Maggie?! That woman entered the book and chose chaos at every available opportunity. Give me a group of nosy, fiercely loyal women who are entirely too invested in each other’s lives and I’m IN.
“Oh, my, god. He just used Dad voice on June.” She spins toward Alice. “Has he used that voice on you? Alice, is this guy a Marine or a fireman? Or is he both? Surely that would be too much shirtless calendar potential for one man.”
And an honorable mention for Frank because every time that man appeared, I knew I was about to laugh.
Maybe that’s why this entire story felt so much like coming home to me.
Fallin’ Tides is nostalgic, hopeful, funny, spicy, and incredibly warm. It’s about chasing the dream you’ve been afraid to claim, finding family in unexpected places, letting go of who other people decided you should be, and realizing that being loved isn’t something you have to earn.
And for Colt especially, it’s about finally understanding that sometimes home isn’t the town you left behind. Sometimes it’s the person who kept writing you letters while you were gone.
Release Date: August 25th, 2026
Thank you to Tori Ford for the ARC read!