Rating: 5 stars
When she was little, Hannah Rosenstein's parents traveled all over the world, and the only place she ever felt safe and settled was at the Christmas tree farm owned by her father's great-aunt Cass. At Carrigan's Christmas Tree Farm, she would also get to spend time with Levi, whose parents were the cook and groundskeeper at Carrigan's and who in practicality ran the farm for Cass. When Hannah got older, she persuaded her parents to let her go live at Carrigan's so she could go to high school in one place, and she finally felt like she had a home and a safe haven. She, Levi, and her cousin Miriam were together in the summers, and Cass began talking about leaving the farm to Hannah someday.
Levi "Blue" Matthews never felt at home at Carrigan's or in the little town where he went to school. It was impossible for him to forget that his parents, and he and his siblings were "the help". Hannah and Miriam were his favourite people in the world and kept saying that the Matthews were family, but Cass always made it clear that Levi would never be good enough for her Hannah, and he should stay far away from her.
Despite Cass' dire warnings, Levi and Hannah's obvious love for one another wasn't going to go away, but they always wanted fundamentally different things. Hannah never wanted to leave Carrigans, and Levi couldn't wait to get away and make something of himself out in the wide world.
After four years away, Levi is returning to Carrigans (now an All-Year destination, not just a Christmas tree farm), because Cass, not content to meddle in his life only when she was alive, left a quarter of the farm to him, Hannah, his cousin Miriam and the general manager Noelle. He has travelled all over the world and is now an internationally famous chef (internet famous because of his participation in Australia's Next Top Chef). He has finally achieved his goal of becoming someone worthy of Hannah and has every intention of winning her back. Except Hannah's heart was well and truly shattered when Levi left her behind, and she has spent a long time rebuilding her life. All she wants is for Levi to sign over his shares of Carrigans, grant her a divorce (oh yeah, they got secretly married), and leave her alone forever.
Levi has his work cut out for him. There's a very high-profile bride who would love it for world-famous Chef Matthews to cater her wedding in three months, and since Carrigans All-Year needs the money and the publicity the wedding will bring, Hannah has to reluctantly agree to let Levi stay that long. He challenges her to a Shenanigan (read Seasons of Love to fully get an idea of what Shenanigans entail), and she has to grant him five dates. If he doesn't manage to get Hannah to fall back in love with him, he'll sign the divorce papers and divide his shares between her, Miriam, and Noelle. But if he succeeds, he gets the only woman he's ever loved back.
To say that I've been waiting for this book for a long time is an understatement. I read Helena Greer's debut romance, about Miriam and Noelle around Christmas time last year. That book ends with Levi returning to Hannah at Carrigans. Back in June, I got the offer of an ARC of this book, but because of geographical restrictions, neither the NetGalley link they sent me nor the direct widget Ms. Greer's publisher tried to send me worked. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty gutted. Still, I had the book pre-ordered and the second it arrived on my Kindle I spent most of the day enjoying my time back at Carrigans. This book starts right where the previous one left off. You don't have to have read it to enjoy this one, but it's one of the best romances I read in 2022, so why wouldn't you read it too?
Seasons of Love pretty much does your traditional Hallmark movie, except the protagonists are both queer and most of the characters are Jewish. In this novel, we have a second-chance romance, where the protagonists are secretly married and one of the central questions is whether that marriage can be saved or not. The problem Levi and Hannah had was not that they didn't love each other enough, it was that they wanted and needed fundamentally different things, and didn't communicate well enough to explain those wants and needs to each other.
By the time Levi decided that he had to go off into the world to make something of himself, Carrigans hadn't just become Hannah's safe haven, it was a place she literally couldn't leave because of severe anxiety. Miriam and Hannah were always doted on by Cass, and no one, not even his closest family, knew how uncomfortable and unwanted Cass made him. To Hannah, living at Carrigans and going to high school in a stable environment was great. To Levi, who understood early that he was queer and never really had any friends who accepted him wholeheartedly except Hannah and Miriam (who never got to spend too much time at Carrigans, thanks to her controlling father), in addition to the feeling that while Hannah and Miriam were family to Cass, the Matthews family were mere servants.
Four years apart have given both sides of our couple a lot of time to reflect on their wants and needs, but until they reunite and begin to actually try talking to one another about the things that really matter, they won't have a chance for a future together. I love Hannah and Levi, together and apart. I liked seeing Miriam and Noelle as supporting characters instead of as the main focus of a story. The cameo appearances from Cole, Miriam's best friend, and Tara, her ex (who is getting her own romance next year - with a book that has my absolute favourite cover of the three) were also great. This book will absolutely become a comfort re-read for me in the years to come.
Judging a book by its cover: Leni Kauffman has a gift and pretty much always makes cute and inviting romance covers. Hannah and Levi look exactly as described, and the purple background doesn't hurt either.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read
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