Publication Date: March 31, 2026
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?
Carmello and Olivia tell their story in The Bridge Back to You by Riss M. Neilson in alternating chapters. Providence, Rhode Island, is the setting for this past/present timeline. The previous 14 years are extremely relevant to both the leads and Carmello’s family’s restaurant, which they share an interest in.
Many stories are being woven together, and we get to know the characters a little at a time. There is love between Carmello and Olivia, who went their separate ways, but when they reconnect, there’s definitely still love between them. Their lives have changed, and they’ve moved on, but once Olivia shows up again, they reconnect somewhat seamlessly.
There are twists and turns to the story and quite a few surprises along the way. The couple’s past keeps merging with the future, and they are always trying to figure out where they stand. The story flows well, but I sometimes had to look back to see who was speaking. The epilogue, set two years later, was unexpected but offered closure. There are some cute chapter titles related to food, but not all chapters have them, which seemed strange.
The Bridge Back to You is a second-chance romance in which the main characters unexpectedly reconnect. 
Riss M. Neilson is a magna cum laude graduate of Rhode Island College, where she won the English department’s Jean Garrigue Award, which was judged by novelist Nick White. Her debut young adult novel, Deep in Providence, was a 2022 finalist for the New England Book Awards, and her forthcoming novel I’m Not Supposed to be in the Dark is set to publish in 2023. She is from Providence and lives for the city’s art and culture scene. When she’s not writing, she’s watching anime or playing video games with her two children. A Love Like the Sun is her adult debut.
