Successful yogi and wellness influencer, Yasmine Sepehr built a life helping others heal—while quietly keeping her own heart locked away. But when a Hollywood production lands her in Beverly Hills, she meets the last person she ever expected to connect with: Alex Pierce.
Alex is a billionaire venture capitalist with commitment issues and a past he won’t touch. He’s sarcastic, guarded, and allergic to anything resembling emotional vulnerability. Still, there’s something about Yasmine—her honesty, her presence—that shakes the foundation he’s worked so hard to build.
What begins as a steamy, whirlwind weekend spirals into something deeper…but will their undeniable connection be strong enough to last?
A second-chance romance about stillness, surrender, and the chaos that comes with chasing something real.
Successful yogi and wellness influencer, Yasmine Sepehr built a life helping others heal—while quietly keeping her own heart locked away. But when a Hollywood production lands her in Beverly Hills, she meets the last person she ever expected to connect with: Alex Pierce.
Alex is a billionaire venture capitalist with commitment issues and a past he won’t touch. He’s sarcastic, guarded, and allergic to anything resembling emotional vulnerability. Still, there’s something about Yasmine—her honesty, her presence—that shakes the foundation he’s worked so hard to build.
What begins as a steamy, whirlwind weekend spirals into something deeper…but will their undeniable connection be strong enough to last?
A second-chance romance about stillness, surrender, and the chaos that comes with chasing something real.
*Dinnnggg…*
The scent of burning sage is thick in the air, curling around me like smoke from a slow, lazy fire. It smells wise, powerful, like something you're not supposed to question unless you want to personally offend the universe.
My eyelids droop heavier with every breath. Maybe it’s the sage. Or maybe it’s the fact that Pablo’s retreat center feels like a goddamn portal to another dimension—the kind where deadlines, investors, and backstabbing ex-girlfriends don’t exist.
Pillowy mats cradle beneath me like I’m some fragile thing that needs protecting. Which is ironic, considering most days I feel like I’m made of iron and bad decisions.
I’m lying at the heart of this sun-drenched sanctuary, tucked along one of the last untouched slices of coastline near Tulum. Somewhere between the crash of the waves and the warm, salty breeze brushing over my skin, I start to forget why I showed up here in the first place.
To fix myself?
To find myself?
Hell if I know.
What I do know is that for the first time in years, my body is unwinding, piece by piece, like it’s finally done fighting a war I forgot I was even in.
The hum of Pablo’s sound bowls fills the room—a low, vibrating ripple that doesn’t just echo in the air, it cuts right through my ribs and rattles something loose inside me.
“One, two, three, four… inhale. Four, three, two, one, exhale,” his voice guides me, steady as bedrock.
The guy has a gift—making chaos feel like the calm. Being around him is like stepping into sunlight after living too long in the dark.
And right now?
I’m realizing maybe I’ve been in the dark longer than I even knew.
The last few weeks have been… interesting. My ex-girlfriend of two years broke up with me and then proceeded to announce her engagement to Portuguese soccer legend Vítor Chávez precisely two weeks later. The world cheered for their fairy-tale romance while I sat back, nursing my pride.
I knew what she wanted—commitment, love, and words that got stuck somewhere between my chest and my mouth every time she looked at me like I was supposed to say them. Two years together and I never once told her I loved her. She finally gave me an ultimatum—marry her or let her go. I let her go.
Truthfully, I didn’t come to see Pablo because of the breakup. The breakup just shook something loose inside me and made it harder to ignore the truth I’ve been sidestepping for years.
Somewhere deep down, I know I'm incapable of loving someone the way they need me to. I always find a reason to keep a safe distance, to bury myself in the things I can control. It’s worked for me. I’ve built my entire life around it. But lately, I can’t shake the feeling that something’s missing, like I’ve spent years outrunning a question I don’t want to answer.
And now it feels like I’m living inside a house with no doors. No way in and no way out.
Pablo’s voice cuts through the noise in my head. Steady and maddeningly patient, like he already knows the thoughts I haven’t said out loud.
“You’ve spent years building,” he says. “Now that you stand alone, maybe it’s time to build something within. Something that lasts.”
His words settle in a place I don’t usually let myself go to. A quiet, nagging truth that I can’t ignore.
I take a slow breath, rolling my shoulders back against the tight pull of reality. It doesn’t help much.
Pablo’s been around long enough to see me at my worst, through storms I don’t show anyone else. He doesn’t push. Never demands. He just leaves the door cracked open and waits for me to decide if I’m man enough to walk through it.
And for the first time in a long time…I’m wondering if maybe I should.
*Dinnnggg…*
Chasing the Calm is a spicy contemporary romance between yoga and wellness influencer Yasmine Sepehr and billionaire Alex Pierce.
As an avid romance reader, Chasing the Calm had all the elements that keep me hooked. Yasmine was mature (more mature than I would be if put in similar situations) and deeply connected to her emotions and energies. I also really liked this story's yoga and wellness aspect and how it enhanced Yasmine's story. Alex struggled with emotional vulnerability, and Yasmine worked as a perfect foil character during his personal growth. They worked through the shadows of his past together, which I loved. The setting was well fleshed out, and fit the grounded vibe Yasmine radiated and the energy Alex needed to heal from past traumas.
The tension was drawn out to the perfect amount, and the pacing was perfect for my reading style. Yasmine and Alex had a chemistry I could feel radiating off the page. The spice in this book is intense, so be warned if that's not your thing. Though this book was incredibly steamy, it did not detract from the story. If anything, it added emotional depth to the connection between Yasmine and Alex.
However, two elements slightly lowered my rating. I dislike the miscommunication trope, but as the story progressed, Yasmine and Alex reengaged me. I wanted to shake Alex and yell at him to talk to Yasmine about his feelings. I'm also not a big fan of second-chance romances, but I found myself rooting for these two to reconnect and work through the miscommunication. Overall, while these issues did give me pause at the beginning of the book, they did not take too much away from the story.
I recommend Chasing the Calm if you're looking for a fun and relaxing romance novel full of spice and personal growth.
4 ⭐️