Love Me at My Worst

A When the Past Finds You Standalone

By: Adrian J. Smith

Narrated by: Lori Prince, Quinn Riley

Three… Two… One… BOO!

Isla Walsh is a prankster, and her favorite person to pull one over on has to be her principal, Andry Murphey. But Isla isn't all fun and games, and her sixth-grade students will attest to that. Behind every prank Isla plays hides a secret she hasn't shared since she moved to Cheyenne. She's not the happy person she seems to be. In fact, she's pretty certain everyone will leave her.

Andry Murphey moved to Cheyenne because of a woman, and two years after her marriage ended, she hasn't found who she is other than a principal. For two years, all she could handle was the basics of life, until her favorite teacher ups the ante on the pranks. In each trick, she finds joy again, and Andry wonders what it would be like if she could fall in love again.

Follow two broken hearts in this sensual age-gap romance as Isla and Andry rediscover themselves and what it means to love others through their worst.

Let the prank wars commence!

©2023 Adrian J. Smith (P)2024 Podium Audio

omg I loved this one!!

one of my fav in the series ,!! it was sweet and sad and sexy!! I absolutely loved it,!!

Super cute

Super cute story. Well written and entertaining. Worth the listen or read. I will listen to it again because I liked it that much.

Very good sequel!

I enjoyed this sequel very much. Isla and Audrey’s relationship plot development was excellent. Both main characters had a lot of chemistry that had a slow burn build up. I’m glad that in this sequel Wil and Linda had a positive relationship with Iasla at the end. I would love for a sequel of Chris’s story. The two narrators were excellent!

Extremely relatable!

This was a great book. I love the narration between the two narrators. The story was so very down to earth so that most people could relate to it. I really enjoy the fact that the author allowed time for the main characters to build true intimacy with each other, and that the story did not rely on only physical attraction.

Did not disappoint

This story was wonderful a perfect second book in the story. If I was to hope for a third I would say it needs to be about Chris.
I would also have to knowledge how much I enjoyed the narrators.

Love

Books like this make me think that it is possible to find someone that can live with my crazy!

Loved this sequel

It was great to meet the other side of this family, and see how relations were changed (for the better), narration was excellent

Questions answered from book 1

In truth, the storytelling was a bit slow for me. I felt like the book was much longer than it needed to be. So much angst but for no reason really. The book could’ve been half as long. But I was happy to find out what Isla’s real issues were, and that she was able find somebody else to lean on instead of Wil. Not sure I’ll be reading book 4, though.

Awww... such a lovely bittersweet story!

Andry and Isla are made for one another in this funny yet tear-jerker of a slow-burn love story, and being there with them through it all was endearing.

So very well done

Stars: 5 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Lori Prince and Quinn Riley
Series: When the Past Finds You Book 3
Steam Level: Steamy

I read this for the I Heart Sapphic 2025 Reading Challenge for the prompt Divorced Character.

This was an absolutely wonderful book. I zoomed through this audiobook to the point that I stayed up on a work night to finish it. No regrets.


Quick Thoughts:
- Something that I just can’t get over is how working through personal trauma done, and how much CONSTANT WORK Isla puts into working through her issues with Lynda, the trauma of her childhood, and her shifting friendship with Wil. It’s not a one and done everything is perfect, it’s messy and takes a conscious effort to improve
- With this book you REALLY need to read “When the Past Finds You” first to understand everything that is happening
- I didn’t know how to feel about Chris at first. I accidentally read “Inside These Halls” (the next book) early last year and liked her. I eventually ended up liking her here too in the end
- This book does not pull any punches with depicting the issues that comes from a failed marriage that suffered from alcohol abuse
- Isla and Andry are perfectly matched in a way that I can’t imagine anyone else better for them
- I absolutely loved the pranks that were pulled. They were wholesome, fun, and brought others into that fun. Too much entertainment depict pranks as mean and humiliating so these were fantastic (except the spider one, I have nightmares about that one)
- No third act break up!
- Adrian J. Smith writes such heartwarming epilogues (I gasped at the thing given)
- Yay Lori Prince and Quinn Riley are back! I love these two together because they both have distinctive voices (tone and diction) that makes it easy to instantly know which character’s POV you’re following. And they are just so much fun to listen to

Overall this book was fun, full of heart, and had a solid core of hope for the future. I am going to lose a lot of sleep to read the rest of this series as fast as I can. Good thing I stocked up on energy drinks.