We are kind of in love with this book. We are in love with
the love story (it is a love story rather than just a romance), the people and
everything else. It is a book that wraps itself around you and warms many
places within you.
Autumn Swan is an independent, strong, hardworking
millennial on the cusp of taking her social marketing business to the next
level. As a child she suffered neglect at the hands of her weed-addicted
parents and her best memories are the summers she had spent with her
grandmother and cousin Becki, who was a sister she never had. However, after
coming out, she deliberately disappeared from their lives.
Catherine Daye is an army veteran suffering PSTD after a
posting in Afghanistan. Honourably discharged, she chooses a quiet farmer’s
life despite being from a very well-to-do family. She becomes Becki’s neighbour
and something of a hero for Becki’s eleven-year old daughter, Gabi.
Becki dies suddenly, naming Autumn and Catherine as Gabi’s
co-guardians.
The synopsis cannot do justice to the many threads woven
into this story and the complexities of each person (yeah, the characters
become real people as we read through the book). The MCs, the secondary
characters and definitely the dead Becki are beautifully etched.
This is an age-gap romance (ten years between the two MCs)
but one of the loveliest things is that the attraction between the MCs doesn’t
follow the trajectory of off-the-charts attraction drawing them to each other.
Instead it unfolds as two people really liking the person and finding
that person physically attractive too. The other thing that we really loved in
the book is that one of the MCs is repeatedly described as plain (ordinary).
This is such a welcome change from all MCs being incredibly attractive.
This book is quite a treat.
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
