Ms. Kate Canterbary, ma'am, you keep putting out absolute five-star bangers! Damn!

Seriously though, In a Jam was like owning the Bonne Maman jam advent calendar, each chapter its own little door with a delicious and sometimes spicy surprise.

We've been hearing rumors about the sexy Jam Man at the Boston farmer's market, and wow did Noah live up to all of my expectations and more.

In a Jam starts with Shay being left right before she's set to walk down the aisle, by a coward. She's scooped up by her friends (I was so happy she had a friend group) and is living on her bestie's couch when she is served with the will of her step-aunt, who has died and left her a tulip farm in Rhode Island. There's a catch though, Shay must be married within one year to retain the farm and its surrounding lands and the house.

Shay had spent two years in high school living on the farm while her always absentee mother traveled the world, where she became best friends with the boy the next farm over. Years later Noah has grown into a giant of a man, a magnate of the township (having expanded and grown his family's farming business over years), and a new father to his six year old niece.

Noah has always loved Shay, more than she'll ever know, and he offers to marry her, as long as his niece doesn't get hurt in the process. Gennie has been through abandonment and trauma too, alongside her recent ADHD diagnoses, she needs Noah's steadiness more than ever.

A very real marriage with burgeoning very real feelings makes it ever harder for Noah to keep his love for Shay underwraps, even as his actions and deeds prove every day that he's all in from the start.

This was just absolutely a slow-burner with simmer, yearning, and seething heat that once it hit that first kiss at 60% went off like a damn firecracker. A perfect read for fall, with the farm setting, the carnivals, the crisp air, the jams, the football games, and ferris wheel frolics, I just ate it all up. I'm immediately ready to reread this.

I so appreciated the touches of learning that Noah was an awkward teenager, that he was fat and had bad acne, and the way Shay is also fat and flinging away her toxic ex-fiancee's attitudes toward bodies and perfection.

There's no big third-act break up, huzzah, and there's so many sexy times scenes with these two, including Noah turning into a bossy, alpha in the sheets with the BEST caretaking ever.

ALSO, this is casually queer (Shay's best friend is polyamorous and bi, and is THE BEST and I hope she never changes), and is so gentle with how Shay and Noah work with Gennie and her cussing and her outburts without infantilizing her or making her into a plot moppet. Also the aspects of being just utterly lonely and feeling completely un-loveable felt so raw, yet again was handled so tenderly. Give me more JUST like this please and thank you.

Great use of sex toys, pussy spanking, biting ahhhhhh

Content notes: absentee parent (Shay's mom), parental death (Noah's parents, off page), Noah's sister and Gennie's mom is in prison for accidental murder (she had a gun and shot some police and is serving a life sentence), PTSD, Noah is in an ATV accident (but is okay), Gennie goes missing (but is okay)

The audio is very good and definitely worth a listen.