Back Where We Started - A Novel

A rising Hollywood star explores the road not taken with her first love in this tender second-chance romance by the author of Katie’s wildest dreams have come true. She’s a Hollywood actress, booked and busy, and campaigning for her first Oscar. Sure, she still struggles with sexist media malignment and unimaginative roles, but from where she stands today, her hometown of Dutch Ridge, Pennsylvania feels far away--and that makes it all worth it. Because Dutch Ridge can only ever represent Drew. Every street is filled with memories of their shared adolescence, how they were each other’s first everything, the hours they spent planning for the future. Drew was the only person in Dutch Ridge who didn’t make Katie feel crazy for dreaming big, because he did, too. Was it their extraordinary level of ambition that brought them together at sixteen? It was definitely what drove them apart in the years after. But now, a promise to her sister forces Katie to return for Christmas to Dutch Ridge, where she runs into Drew, who seems to have followed a different path from the one they once dreamed up. And strangely, he seems...happy. As their run-ins heat up and the two can''t keep themselves away from each other, Katie begins to wonder whether her accolade-filled Hollywood life really fulfills her after all.

Product details

• Authors: Becca Freeman
• Publisher: Penguin Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 01.09.2026
• EAN: 9780143138044
• ISBN: 978-0-14-313804-4
• No. of pages: 352
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Romance / Contemporary, Adult & contemporary romance, FICTION / Romance / Holiday, Holidays & seasonal interest, Holidays and celebrations, Modern and Contemporary romance, FICTION / Romance / Second Chances, Romance: unlikely or unexpected lovers