The Bridge Back to You
Exes discover they’ve both inherited the restaurant they love in this sparkling, emotional new novel from the USA Today bestselling author of A Love Like the Sun.
Olivia owes everything to Celia’s Place. It’s where she learned how to be a great chef. It’s also where she first fell in love. But at nineteen, Olivia had a wanderlust she couldn’t deny. And Carmello, whose mother owned the restaurant, couldn’t leave Celia’s Place behind any more than he could force Olivia to stay.
Now, ten years later, Olivia is a successful personal chef. Her job allows her to travel the world, and she has never stayed in the same place for too long. When Carmello learns that his mother left shares of her beloved restaurant to both him and Olivia, he plans to buy her portion of the shares back quickly and painlessly.
That is until Olivia shows up at the restaurant, ready to help run it. Carmello sees an opportunity: drive Olivia away from his restaurant so that she will want to sign over her shares. But Olivia sees things a bit differently. She finally has the chance to stay in one place and build a home after years on the move, and perhaps now is the right time to explore whether that home can be with the one who got away.
Soon enough, sparks begin to fly, but can Olivia and Carmello avoid the mistakes of the past?
- Pages
- 388
- Audiobook
- 10 hr 47 min
- First published
- March 31, 2026
- Language
- English
- Edition
- Audiobook
Shelved by 2 Litcadians
Reviews
Finished February 28, 2026
Olivia and Carmello both inherit the restaurant where they fell in love with cooking and each other in this delicous second chance romance! 💕 what's on the menu: 🍽️ dual pov & timeline 🍽️ second chance 🍽️ forced proximity 🍽️ single dad 🍽️ anxiety & ocd rep 🍽️ adhd & endomentriosis rep I enjoyed this book a lot! More than anything it made me ready to drive across the country to eat in Providence. Food trucks and loaded donuts where!! I loved Olivia and Carmello individually, I just didn't fully understand why they got back together so quickly. Olivia had one foot out the door, ready to go to Tokyo while hooking up with Carmello- his mood toward her also flipped without much warning. Keeping the reason why she left ten years ago a secret until the very end felt frustrating for no reason because I really felt they needed to talk about that before getting back in bed together? I did love that Olivia made friends outside of Carmello and Celia's Place- getting to see Laniah and Wildy Green thriving was nice if you've read a Love Like the Sun, but I felt like she did a lot of heavy lifting for the plot- the whole game changing plan for the restaurant was Laniah's idea, based off what she came up with to save her own business. Someone else even came up with the idea for the question cards. In hindsight, Celia's prank seems cruel and like she didn't believe Olivia would want to stay in one place. It doesnt make a lot of sense, but I've never been great at understanding people's motives for games like this. I think I needed the revelations to come to light a little earlier, the ending and travel solutions felt a little rushed and slapped on for the sake of everything working out. Thanks so much to Berkley for this eARC!