Back Where We Started

By Becca Freeman

A rising Hollywood star explores the road not taken with her first love in this tender second-chance romance by the author of The Christmas Orphans Club

Katie's wildest dreams have come true. She's a Hollywood actress, booked and busy, and promoting her latest film. Sure, she still struggles with sexist media malignment and unimaginative roles, but from where she stands today, her hometown of Dutch Ridge, Pennsylvania feels a million miles 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 delusional for dreaming big, because he did, too. She was going to be the next Julia Roberts, and he was going to be president someday. 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 to Dutch Ridge for Christmas, 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. Back Where We Started is an emotional second-chance romance, a story about allowing oneself to change, the addictive nature of achievement, and how we make room in our lives for what matters most.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143138049
• ISBN13: 9780143138044
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Lovely

At first I didn’t think I was going to enjoy this. Started out feeling like the same old same old cookie cutter outline at first. The slowly it changed and I could relate to Katie. The insecurity, the need to try to fit in yet never quite getting there. Having those one or two people that mattered. Son. Was so invested. The author is talented at making the emotions relatable and understanding them no matter if you agree or not. We have all done things we thought were the right choices in the moment. No matter if a small or not so small choice. The journey that Katie and drew go on over twenty years feels real, tangible and definitely something everyone can understand. This story is a journey of Katie and drew and what it’s like to find your person as children then to grow up.. and at times.. to grow apart. How they navigate the world when their wants and dreams no longer work together even though their hearts always belong to one another. I can’t explain a lot without giving things away but this story got me in the feels. Especially the fights.. how we say things to hurt the other. Things we mean, but only say when we want to cause harm. To hurt the one we care about. But yet.. they are the only ones that can hurt us.. and the only one that can put us back together again. Arc read