CBR17 Book 25: "Thank You for Listening" by Julia Whelan

Page count: 400 pages

Audio book length: 11 hrs 15 mins

Rating: 4 stars

Sewanee (pronounced Swanie, several characters call her Swan) Chester was a child actress on a popular sitcom, but a serious injury while filming her big break as an adult led to her losing an eye and becoming permanently scarred, so now she makes her living as an audiobook narrator. While it may not be as glamorous as acting, she's very good at it and has won several awards. Early in her career, she also narrated romance novels, but now her cynicism makes it too hard for her to believe in Happily Ever Afters, and so she's retired the pseudonym she used to narrate that genre with. 

Normally, Sewanee doesn't go to big conventions, but her boss Mark, is unable to make the Vegas Book Convention and sends her instead. It also gives her a chance to hang out with her best friend, Adaku, who is still an actress and a rising star in Hollywood. Adaku has just been given a very lucrative job offer, and wants Sewanee to come stay in her swanky, all-expenses-paid suite so they can properly celebrate. However, Adaku has to fly to LA to meet with a movie producer, leaving Sewanee alone in a bar, nursing her drink and trying to drown her disappointment, both at not being able to spend more time with her friend, but also because of the way her life has turned out. Her evening looks up as a handsome stranger, Nick, approaches her and insists on buying her a drink. Since his flight is due to leave in a few hours, they are only supposed to have a brief window together, but a freak snowstorm strands him in Vegas for the night, and he and Sewanee spend it together. 

Sewanee's beloved grandmother has Alzheimer's, and the nursing home she is in is expensive, so when Sewanee is offered a frankly staggering amount of money to return to romance narration, unearthing her old pseudonym, she doesn't really have much choice but to accept. The fact that she gets to work with probably the sexiest and most mysterious male narrator in the business, Brock McNight, doesn't hurt either. The two of them gradually strike up a friendship via e-mails and messages, but even with the undeniable chemistry she seems to have with Brock, Sewanee can't quite get Nick out of her head. Of course, she has no contact details for the man, and told him her name was Alice and that she was a book editor, so he would have no way of tracking her down either, should he so want to. 

Sewanee has a choice to make when it turns out Brock is coming to LA for a weekend. She agrees to meet him for dinner - never suspecting what strange plot twists life has in store for her.

This is Julia Whelan's second novel, but to anyone who listens to audiobooks, she's much more famous for her narration. According to her website, she has performed in over 600 audiobooks, and the New Yorker called her the "Adele of audiobooks". You are sure to have heard her voice at some point. While there are several similarities between Sewanee and the author (who is a famous audiobook narrator who also used to act on a popular TV show when she was younger), Whelan is very clear in her author's note that this is in no way autobiographical, it's just another example of write what you know. I did discover that in the aftermath of writing and publishing this, Whelan actually wrote a version of the romance novel that she has Sewanee and Brock narrating, so fans of the novel can actually hear the whole thing, should they so wish. 

Sewanee's motivation for taking the new narration job is that her grandmother has dementia, is starting to deteriorate and needs to be moved into the full-time care ward at her care home. This costs considerably more money, and Sewanee's father isn't inclined to help, as he thinks she could be moved to a cheaper home. My mother passed away two years ago. She had Lewy Body dementia, and as she deteriorated, she was no longer able to live by herself anymore and had to be moved into a closed dementia ward, where she could have 24-hour care. Sewanee's grandmother seems to really love the care home she's in, which is why Sewanee is so determined to let her stay, despite the costs, but my Mum was miserable and kept asking us to take her home, which we obviously couldn't, cause she kept getting hurt or wandering off and getting lost when she wasn't monitored. So reading the parts of this book that dealt with Sewanee's grandmother's worsening condition was really hard, and even writing this paragraph is harder going than I was expecting. 

Even with this subplot, I really enjoyed this book. Julia Whelan obviously knows a lot about audiobook narration, and it was nice to get a glimpse behind the scenes, so to speak. Romance novels where the heroine doesn't have female friends seem really strange to me, so a good and close friendship is always a plus. 

Having really enjoyed this, I think I will also check out Whelan's debut novel, My Oxford Year. 

Judging a book by its cover: A romance cover not featuring people is unusual, but I like it. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 24: "The True Love Experiment" by Christina Lauren

Page count: 416 pages

Rating: 5 stars

StoryGraph Easy Reading Challenge 25: A book with two authors

Felicity "Fizzy" Chen loves her life and career as a romance writer. The problem is that she's suffering from a bad case of writers' block, and when she's asked about her personal life in interviews or author panels, it's not like she can confess to never actually having been in love, right? A romance writer should surely have experienced romantic love at some point? With all of her friends happily coupled up, she's also getting pretty tired of her casual dating lifestyle. 

Connor Prince is a divorced documentary film maker whose boss orders him to create a successful reality TV dating show, or he'll get fired. Losing his job would force him to move, and that would mean not seeing his daughter very often, which is an unacceptable option, in his eyes. After a run-in with Fizzy, he's pretty sure he has the perfect pitch - one of the reigning queens of romance finding her own Prince Charming. Fizzy is fairly unimpressed when she first meets him (it's clear that he has very litte understanding or respect for romance novels as a genre, and he clearly hasn't read a single one of her books), and sends him an absolutely ludicrous list of demands. He agrees to pretty much all of them, and suddenly, Fizzy is about to become a reality TV star.

Before the show can start filming, they need to locate a suitable selection of dates for Fizzy, and she has insisted that the various "romance heroes" represent many of the tropes found in the genre. She also discovers that her first impression of Connor, as a money hungry media guy couldn't be further from the truth, and as she spends more time with him during pre-production of the show, it becomes clear that no matter how many charming men the production team manage to scrounge up - her ideal man may in fact be the one whose career depends on her finding happiness with another guy. 

Fizzy was an awesome supporting character in The Soulmate Equation and while I liked that book a lot, I absolutely loved this one. Fizzy and Connor are just such great characters, both seperately and apart. We obviously get cameos from Jess, River and Juno (who happens to be good friends with Connor's daughter - he coaches their soccer team) and it's lovely to see their continued HEA as a side story. Since Juno was never an annoying plot moppet, but felt like an actual human girl, I was relieved to see that Christina Lauren continued their streak of believable and likeable tween girls in this book. Connor's ex-wife and her new boyfriend were great additions to the supporting cast, as were several fun members of the reality TV production team. 

While this is probably not a perfect romance novel for some, it just worked really well for me, which might be a bit strange, considering I've never watched a single episode of any dating show, ever. That should tell you how great this is. I saw someone on Goodreads saying that Connor is clearly based on Brett Goldstein, and that's certainly not a bad mental image to have of him. If I have to mentally cast Fizzy, it would probably be someone like Sherry Cola from Nobody Wants This, she and Fizzy seem to have the same kind of energy to me. 

Judging a book by its cover: This is fine, I guess? I like purple and red, and who doesn't like fireworks? It also doesn't feature cartoon depictions of the main characters, so I guess I'm happy they did something different.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 23: "The Soulmate Equation" by Christina Lauren

Page count: 368 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

StoryGraph Easy Reading Challenge 25: A book with two authors

Jess Davis is a single mom who tries to make ends meet doing freelance statistics work, mostly working at a local coffee shop, with her best friend writing her romance novels right next to her. She lives in a small apartment on the ground floor of the apartment building her grandparents manage, and they help her raise her daughter, just as they raised her after her irresponsible mother gave up on Jess. 

While Jess very much enjoys listening to her best friend Fizzy recount her many and varied dating encounters, Jess herself has lived through enough abandonment to want to risk herself on the dating market. Especially because she wants to shield her beloved daughter from getting attached to someone and suffering the same feelings of disappointment as Jess. However, once Fizzy hears about GeneticAlly, a new matchmaking app using DNA results to find their users their perfect matches, she insists that they both try it out - after all, Jess believes in statistics, is she going to deny a chance for science to find her a possible partner?

Shortly after Jess submits her DNA sample, she is contacted by the founders of GeneticAlly. It seems Jess' sample showed a 98% compatibility with someone. Not only is that the highest match the company has ever seen, but her match is one of the company's founders, Dr. River Peña, a very handsome geneticist. River comes into the same coffee shop, where Jess and Fizzy work, at the exact same time every day, ordering exactly the same thing. In her previous encounters with the scientist, Jess has determined that he is stubborn, arrogant and unpleasant. He cannot possibly be her soulmate, no matter what the numbers say. 

GeneticAlly really could use some good publicity before the company goes live, and they are willing to pay Jess to go on a few dates with River, take part in some interviews and keep an open mind about getting to know him. As Jess is pretty strapped for money, she doesn't really feel like she can refuse their generous offer. Of course, as soon as the two of them start actually seeing each other regularly, relaxing and spending more time together, Jess discovers her first impressions of River might have been wrong, and starts wondering if science might have found her perfect match.

I've read a lot of Christina Lauren's romances over the years. It's been a long time since I enjoyed one of their books as much as this one. The set-up for the romance is interesting, and likeable protagonists who are both very good at their jobs also help make this book a winner. In addition, the supporting cast is all pretty great, from Jess' BFF Fizzy, her grandparents and even her daughter, who actually seems like a realistic (if possibly a bit precocious) child, not just an annoying plot moppet. 

There is a third act complication which splits our lovers up for a bit, but unlike in a lot of novels, it didn't seem crammed in just to add to the drama, and there's a very satisfactory grovelling scene by one of the protagonists before they happily reunite. The author duo's books can vary in quality, but if you have enjoyed some of their books in the past, I would absolutely recommend this. I thought it was one of their best ones so far. 

Judging a book by its cover: A romance cover that doesn't feature cutesy cartoon people? How unusual. As a matter of fact, the UK covers for these books do feature cartoony people, and it's one of the reasons I dislike them more. The cartoon style is not to my taste, and the colour choices are odd. So I'm happy my book comes with this cover. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 22: "Lady Knight" by Amalie Howard

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Books Bingo 25: Book by an author you've never read

Thank you to Netgalley and Joy Revolution for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

Lady Zenobia "Zia" Osborn and several of her female friends have started a secret society, calling themselves Lady Knights, and at night, they dress up as highwaymen and rob the carriages of Lady Zia's brother's rich friends. They need to collect enough money to ensure the survival of their boarding school, not to mention the orphanage next door to the school. The rents keep being raised, and if the nuns who run the orphanage can't pay, they and all the helpless children will be evicted. 

One of Lady Zia's teachers is a progressive young woman who allows her charges to read controversial literature, like Mary Wollstonecraft or Frankenstein. She also encourages the young women's intelligence and critical thinking and encourages Zia's interest in music. Despite their best efforts to disguise themselves, someone recognises Zia, and can't for the life of him figure out why the daughter of a duke would risk her life at night, robbing noblemen.

Mr. Rafi Nasser, nephew to the unscrupulous nobleman who wants to evict the orphans, also happens to be the best friend of Zia's older brother. As such, he's had plenty of opportunities to observe Zia, and he can recognise her distinctive perfume and her voice, even when she's dressed up and robbing him at gunpoint. Even when he finds out why Zia and her friends (none of them from families as rich and influential as herself) are doing their dangerous nighttime raids, he encourages her to stop, before anyone gets hurt. 

Even Zia's daytime pursuits are enough to make her father upset with her, wanting her to settle down and find a suitable husband. Rafi has a vested interest in keeping an eye on Zia, Zia needs someone her parents like as a suitor, so they agree to a fake courtship to get Zia's parents to calm down. As is always the case with fake courtships, it doesn't take very long before the feelings are all too real.

I know Amalie Howard has written a number of historical romances for adults, and this is her second one for a YA audience. While I own several of her books, including Queen Bee, the companion novel to this one (featuring Zia's brother and the woman he eventually ends up engaged to, in a YA Regency twist on The Count of Monte Cristo, if the description is to be believed), I have never actually sat down to read one of her books. So getting this ARC was a good thing because it forced me to actually commit to reading one of her books. I'm now really glad that I have a large back catalogue of her books to dive into, because this book was delightful.

While it may seem like Zia and her friends get up to all sorts of anachronistic lady shenanigans, it seems like Howard has actually done her research pretty well, although as with the Bridgerton TV series, the English nobility of Howard's fictional universe is certainly a lot more diverse than I suspect was the case in real life. Zia's formidable duchess mother is from India, and Rafi's mother is Persian. One of Zia's best friends is Asian, and there is also some very nicely done queer representation in the book, including Zia's asexual best friend, who's known her intended (also ace) husband since childhood. Representation matters, people, especially in YA books. 

Since this is a YA novel, it is a rather chaste affair. I think there was some kissing between Zia and Rafi, but nothing beyond that. Their romance was very sweet, though, and I can't wait to go back to read the story of Zia's brother and future sister-in-law. 

Judging a book by its cover: Not only does this have yet another animated cover, but it looks a bit like it was made as a colouring book template. The whole thing looks like it may be from a "Regency colouring book for adults". The couple on the cover at least look like they might be Zia and Rafi, though, so I guess that's a good thing. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 21: "A Duke Never Tells" by Suzanne Enoch

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Bramble for this ARC. My opinions are my own. 

Lady Margaret "Meg" Pinwell is about to start her first season when her father announces that he's spoken to his old friend, the Duke of Earnhurst, and secured her a coveted match with said duke's son and heir. Before Meg has a chance to even go to London and have any fun during the Season, the Duke promptly dies, and forces Meg into a year of mourning, since she is now affianced with the new duke. 

A year later, with absolutely no contact from the man she is contracted to marry, Meg is unsurprisingly a bit fed up. A missive to her parents assures them that the new Duke still intends to honour the agreement and Meg will become a duchess without ever even having been to London. The new Duke is rumoured to be quite the rake, with a reputation for gambling, carousing and womanising before his father's death. He didn't even show up to his own father's funeral. Meg asks her aunt Clara (her mother's younger sister) for advice, and they think up a scheme, where they will go to the ducal country estate, pretending to be ladies on the way to London, touring country estates. With Meg disguised as Clara's impoverished companion, they will hopefully get the chance to ask the duke's staff about him, so Meg can get a clearer idea of whether she wants to marry this man at all.

Unbeknownst to Meg and Clara, James Clay, the current Duke of Earnhurst is in fact residing at his country estate, arguing with Elliot Riniken, his father's former (now his) estate management about how his irresponsible behaviour has led to the estate being an overgrown mess, with a manor house that's falling apart. Water leaks have led to several holes in the ceiling, the library is partially covered in mould, and most of the staff have run off to get new positions, with the former butler having stolen a lot of the more valuable silver. The reason the estate is in such a dreadful state is that the former Duke wanted his son to return home, and face his responsibilities for a few years before his death. Both men were incredibly stubborn, James refused, while his father just gave up on any and all upkeep of the house or surroundings, because he decided it was up to his son to fix things. Now they're about to host a wedding in six weeks, and Rinikin can't authorise any repairs until the new duke signs off on them. James seems mostly happy to drink himself into a stupor. 

Since there are barely any servants left on the premises, the duke himself opens the door when Clara, not actually a noblewoman but the younger sister of a woman who has married an earl, arrives, disguised as a highborn lady, Lady Sophronia, accompanied by her paid companion, Mabel (Meg). Having recently raided the wine cellar, James thinks it will be a great idea to claim he is the butler of the estate, and he takes the two ladies into the duke's office, claiming that Mr Riniken is the duke. Riniken, a former army officer, is a good ten years older than James, so the two ladies are quite shocked by his appearance, not to mention the ramshackle state of the building, and the fact one of the only servants they can see appears to be drunk in the middle of the day. 

Since the ladies are pretending to tour country houses, they agree to go on a tour of the premises (in some of the rooms that aren't actively dangerous to enter), but they've not been there long before Meg tumbles down half a staircase, due to a rotten bannister, and injures her foot badly. The doctor proclaims that she needs complete rest for at least one week, probably two, and suddenly James' practical joke will need to be maintained for the duration of the ladies' stay, lest gossip spread to London that the new Duke of Earnhurst is a drunken madman who pretends to be a butler to visitors. 

Four people, lying about their true identities, two of them also about the reason they're even at the estate in the first place, are stuck in a house that's falling apart, forced into close proximity while maintaining an increasingly more elaborate deception. Since Meg/Mabel is forced to stay bedridden for a lot of the stay, Clara/Sophronia spends a lot of time trying to get to know the "Duke" better, so they can find evidence to present to Meg's parents for why the match must be broken. Finding herself gradually falling for the man she believes is her beloved niece's intended isn't exactly ideal. Rinikin, on his part, is fighting his attraction to what he believes to be a woman of a much higher status than himself. James, seemingly the world's worst butler, would also be a deeply inappropriate match for Lady Margaret Pinwell, or even Mabel the ladies' companion - but they also can't seem to stop being drawn to one another, kissing whenever the opportunity arises.

In your standard romance novel, you sometimes get romances featuring the mistaken identity trope. Well, in this book, not only do you get two romances for the price of one, but you get mistaken identity times four. Not only that, but you get multiple POVs. Not only do the readers get to see the story through Meg, Clara, James and Elliot's eyes, but there are a few chapters from the POV of James' very supercilious and long-suffering valet. 

It's been years since I read a romance by Suzanne Enoch, and this was quite different from any historical romance I've read before. Sometimes you have secondary romances taking place in the background while our protagonists find their HEAs, but in this book, there are four protagonists and both romances come with a number of complications, getting more and more farcical as the story progresses. 

While we are given reasons for why James Clay has been completely ignoring his responsibilities for years, causing his country estate to deteriorate so badly, they just seemed rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things. His father was too hard on him, he seemed to always prefer the opinions of Rinikin and treated him as a replacement son (at least in the eyes of James). Because of the weird power struggle between the former duke and his son, most of the staff went without wages and were forced to find jobs elsewhere. Rinikin is at his wits' end trying to keep the business side of the dukedom afloat. It's not until a beautiful woman is badly hurt falling down the stairs that James seems to see that the house is a wreck and he needs to do something to fix it. Not only does he authorise Rinikin to handle craftsmen to come to repair it, but he does a lot of the physical labour himself, especially when it comes to restoring the gardens (this also seemed rather out of character for a privileged nobleman). 

Obviously, everything works out fine in the end, with everyone's true identities being revealed in plenty of time for a double wedding and HEAs all over the place. This was a fun enough book, but I think four people running around lying about their identities was a bit too much for me. I don't mind a light-hearted romp, but there were a bit too many complications for me to be likely to want to reread this in the future. 

Judging a book by its cover: While I'm delighted to see something other than yet another cartoony cover on a romance novel, I'm not sure that this is a great improvement. The hot pink, the lurid green, the teal of the cover model's cravat. It's all a bit of an eyesore. The guy's smirk isn't exactly helping, either. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 20: "To Steal from Thieves" by M.K. Lobb

Page count: 400 pages (DNF at 35 %)

Rating: 2.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown Books for this ARC. My opinions are my own. 

In an alternate version of Victorian London, magic exists and can be used to improve technology. It's known as alchemology, and requires the magic-user to sacrifice some blood and life force to create the magical element known as primateria. It means that alchemologists tend to have shorter lifespans, which was certainly the case with Zaria Mendoza's father. Now she's an orphan struggling to complete her father's outstanding commissions to unsavoury individuals in the London underworld. Soulsteel, the material required to create primateria is rare and expensive, and she keeps having to postpone her rent payments. If her landlord wasn't the father of her best friend, she would probably be out on the streets already.

Kane Durante has been tasked by his patron, the sinister underworld kingpin Ward, to find a particular necklace coming in on one of the boats in the port. He and his best friend, Fletcher, have been working undercover on the docks, trying to intercept the necklace before it goes on display at the Royal Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, because having to steal it from such a public place will be a nightmare. Unfortunately, neither he nor Fletcher are successful and it seems like they have no choice but to pull off a dangerous, nearly impossible heist. If Ward doesn't get his necklace, he promises to do all manner of unpleasant things to Fletcher. So a-heisting they will go.

Having fetched a magical firearm from Zaria while undercover, he decides she is essential to the success of their endeavour, and manages to persuade her to cooperate through a combination of threats and promises. Zaria desperately needs enough money to get her and her best friend Julian out of London, and if she can help Kane rob the Crystal Palace, her share of the loot will be enough for them to live comfortably and get away from the squalor that is their current lives. 

Of course, Kane and Zaria are both cynical, distrustful individuals used to relying on no one but themselves. They both plan to betray the other before the end of the heist, with no misgivings about how this could affect the other. 

Does the heist succeed? Do Kane and Zaria turn from reluctant allies who snipe flirtatiously at each other to potential lovers? Does Kane discover that his patron and boss, Ward, clearly had more to do with his parents' death than has previously been revealed?

I don't know, because I just couldn't with this book. While I thought the magic system introduced was really interesting, I really didn't care about Kane or Zaria at all. It's nice that they both have a platonic best friend they're willing to risk everything for, to the point of stupidity (it's obvious that both Jules and Fletcher would be deeply unhappy knowing how many dangerous things their friends are willing to risk for their sakes), but having spent three days forcing myself through only the first third of the book, I decided to peak ahead to see if things got more exciting further on in the book - and I still wasn't convinced. 

From what I can see, the book ends in a way that suggests at least one sequel (or the ending will be very unsatisfying), but I have absolutely no wish to read more books about these characters. Both the characters and setting felt like they were strongly inspired by Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, but unlike those books, where I pretty much gave up on food and sleep to get through the books faster, there was nothing here to hold my attention. I haven't read anything else by M.K. Lobb, so I can't say if the writing style is similar to their previous works, or something new they're trying. I'm sure this will make for an exciting heist narrative for another reader, but for me, this was a DNF. 

Judging a book by its cover: I'm guessing the necklace that dominates the centre of the cover is the item they're planning to steal. I'm not entirely sure why the cover artist chose to portray him looking like a spoiled prep school boarder, but that's just not at all how he's described in the book. The girl, who I'm guessing must be Zaria, appears to have her own wind machine since her curls are so out of control. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 19: "Love at First Flight" by Janine Amesta

Page count: 257 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Books Bingo 2025: Book Dedicated to a Parent

Thank you to Janine Amesta for granting me this ARC. It has not influenced my review, my opinions are my own. Thank you also, Emmalita, who tipped me off about this author. 

Selah Moreno's beloved stepfather always wanted to be an airline pilot, but couldn't become one for a number of reasons. So he flew hot air balloons instead. Selah trains to become a pilot instead, but when her father unexpectedly dies, and her mother and younger sisters need help, she puts her dream of flying planes on hold to take over the air balloon business. Things are not made easier when she discovers that the man she idolised made several unwise financial decisions shortly before his death. Now the family business is in serious trouble.

Selah meets the handsome park ranger Dex Westerly when he books a hot air balloon ride to propose to his influencer girlfriend. The proposal does not go well, and when the balloon lands at the end, some unexpected complications result in Selah landing on top of the humiliated man, in what would otherwise possibly have been quite an interesting embrace. When Selah and Dex next meet, he's still processing his failed relationship, but the spark that was obvious when they first met is still there. Selah doesn't have the time or inclination to become anyone's rebound girlfriend, but the park ranger is handsome and they keep running into each other. She also finds his unusual roommate, Harper, a rescued crow, amusing.

Dex and Selah agree to work together to try to raise money for a wildlife rescue program in the park. It will also help raise the profile of the Moreno family's air balloon business, which really needs more customers. The initial event is a hit, and soon, thanks to a social media post by Selah's sister which goes viral, a lot of people think that there is a budding romance between Selah and Dex, and they get more than one enquiry from the media to appear on air.

Selah has been bottling up her emotions about her father's passing since his death since she has had to be the one keeping the business afloat and supporting her mother and sisters. Nevertheless, she has made no attempt to hide that she plans to go off to be an airline pilot as soon as she can find someone suitable to help her family with the business, and her 'one foot out the door' attitude is really impacting her relationship with her sisters. 

Dex is dealing with the aftermath of his rather humiliating breakup but discovers that he doesn't really miss the woman he was trying to propose to. He is sad that he won't have a chance to build the life with her that he had been envisioning (without really ever considering her wants or wishes at the time, she clearly did not want cosy domesticity with a dude whose half-tame crow shows up to cause chaos pretty much daily). Having grown up with very distant and rather cold parents, he's drawn not just to the vibrant Selah, but her loving and affectionate family as well. 

The main complications in this story are caused by Selah being so set on fulfilling her stepfather's lost dream of flying airplanes, that she won't let herself ever consider a different future for herself. Her mother is still struggling with coping without her husband, and her sisters feel like she is rejecting them and their family by planning to leave the second she gets the chance. This also means she's unwilling to really commit fully to her relationship with Dex, even though the man is clearly a treasure, telling herself that it's only a temporary, rebound relationship anyway.

Thankfully, as is always the case in romance, they find their happy ending. Harper was a cool and unusual animal companion, clearly not actually a pet, but a discerning (she didn't like Dex' ex much, but clearly loves Selah) and amusing presence in the story. After losing my own mother two years ago, the exploration of grief in books always hits me a bit differently than it used to, but there was nothing too triggering here. 

Selah's relationship with her sisters and mother was very well done, I thought. Her youngest sister comes across as rather irresponsible and bratty at first, but Amesta takes the time to make the reader (and Selah) understand why she has been acting the way she has, and the sisters find a deeper understanding of each other over the course of the book. I'm very excited to see her sisters find their own happy endings in the coming books, and will absolutely be checking out the author's previous romance novels. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read