Who wouldn’t like a one-night stand with a beautiful woman, no strings attached, just hot, steamy sex?! But, what happens when you don’t want that night to end and instead, you want to have many more nights like that one with that special woman.

This is how the book starts. Reagan is 47 years old and tonight is the night when she leaves her somewhat secluded home outside town after a long time and she is out for the first time in a bar in town. There she meets younger Frankie, gorgeous, with androgynous looks , who seems attracted to her and Reagan is kind of scared of her own feelings and wants to flee, but Frankie seems more mature and asks her to dance and everything becomes magical that night, especially their lovemaking. Yet, in the morning Reagan flees like a thief in the night, leaving nothing behind.

Then, we are introduced to the characters in a quite original way.

Reagan lives in her parent’s house outside town. Her father passed away five years ago and her mother just a few weeks ago. She is just confused and not quite sad, because she had a bad relationship with her mother, who has always made her feel worthless and consider Reagan’s brother the best child and he favored her love. Her brother Rich was a professional golf player and their mother’s pride, while Reagan was her father’s daughter. They had a beautiful house and a small cottage on big land outside town. When her father died, he asked Reagan to keep the cottage he has build for her and live there.

Surprisingly, after her mother died, Reagan also inherited the big house and all the land their parents owned.

Reagan loves her niece, Isla, who is Rich’s daughter. Reagan was there when Isla was born and they had a bond ever since. Rich was so upset about the inheritance Reagan received, that he has lost in his head and he took revenge on Reagan and asked her never to see Isla again. This devastated Reagan.

Reagan was also divorced, she and her wife lived together for fifteen years, they lived in Reagan’s cottage, yet when Reagan’s father died, her mother asked her to move in with her and everything became impossible. Reagan’s wife Paula was never good enough for her mother and one day she left Reagan leaving the divorce papers on her doorstep. Then, Reagan had to leave her job and have an early retirement to see to her mother’s needs.  

Also, what Reagan wanted most in life was to have a child, yet her former wife Paula has always denied her that.

This is the scared Reagan that goes to a bar in town that one night and has a one night stand with Frankie.  

Knowing all these facts about Reagan, we meet a scarred woman, with little confidence in herself, due to her mother and her wife’s abandon, who has lived most of her life as an introvert, the only happy moments in her life were the ones she went to college and the ones at the beginning of her relationship   with her  ex-wife Paula. 

Now, she just wants to throw away her mother’s belongings and rent the cottage and have a good life with her dog Frog.

One day, the phone rings and she has an unexpected possible tenant for the cottage. When, she meets the tenant in person, she has a dreadful surprise: the tenant is Frankie, the gorgeous short hair androgynous brunette she had a one-night stand with a few months ago. She can’t hide her surprise, yet she is very unwelcoming, because of her fears, she doesn’t want Frankie around because she doesn’t trust her feelings anymore. Frankie on the other hand is pleased to see Reagan, yet she feels Reagan unwelcoming her, although she loves the cottage and would like to stay, but she wouldn’t want that to create tensions between her and Reagan. Surprisingly, even though reluctant, Reagan agrees Frankie to  rent her cottage and now the tumultuous adventure starts.

Reagan really exaggerates and forms a disproportionate opinion about Frankie, believing she is a womanizer and a slacker, who hangs out in bars and picks up women. Her opinion is based on nothing and Frankie proves to be a hard working woman, a kind and a wonderful woman who only wants to be nice. Yet, sometimes, people with Reagan’s psychological baggage tend to hurt the ones who are nicest to them, because she was hurt by many dear ones and Frankie was the one who never meant anything but goodness and kindness to her. 

Frankie was a hard working young woman in her late twenties, she was a constructor and sometimes she worked on cars in a garage. She was doing well now. Her mother was an addict and her father left when she was 1 year old and none in the family wanted to take Frankie in as they associated her with her mother’s addiction, so she landed in the foster homes. During her childhood, she had many foster families, yet the last one was the best one when she was fifteen years old. She had awesome foster parents and a great sister in Dawn, her foster parent’s daughter. Then her life become better and better. 

She realized she loved women at a young age, yet after high school she had some bad relationships with women. She couldn’t have a long lasting loving relationship. She wanted to move out of town because she hated the ongoing noise there and also she wanted to getaway from her ex-girlfriend, Gina, who doesn’t want to understand that their relationship is over.

After the night with Reagan, Frankie wanted more of her, but she had no way of contacting her. Now, she was renting her cottage, but the woman seemed reluctant to her and she had no idea what to expect. Surprisingly, Frankie behaves as the mature one and is really friendly and kind to Reagan, but Reagan gets the wrong impression of Frankie and she really has to work hard to prove to Reagan and get her attention and her confidence.

It’s a hard , bumpy road with many obstacles, but Frankie is determined to at least have a friendship with Reagan, while she slowly realizes how big her crush on her is. Facts and events lead to many wanted and unwanted situations between Reagan and Frankie, just like in real life, nothing is just milk and honey. I loved that about this story, it is like a rollercoaster of emotions.

I enjoyed very much how Reagan finally opens up to Frankie, but will friendship be enough?

Can Reagan give up her indecisions and her lack of confidence?

Could Frog help them be together?

Will Reagan finally admit her attraction to Frankie? 

I really liked “In her arms” by Melissa Tereze, a realistic age gap lesbian romance with lots of sweet moments, but also with real life ones, like misunderstandings and wrong impressions, lack of confidence, sadness and loneliness.

One can also discover how much a loving dog can do to a woman with damaged confidence.

I totally recommend this book as an awesome read.

Excerpts from the book :