Sort of a hallmark movie on steroids. The writing itself was good but there were a number of practical things that I just couldn’t get past.

On a positive note, it was nice how the characters all cared for each other, how they didn’t jump to conclusions or take offense easily, and how they were generally pretty forthright with each other even if that wasn’t the most realistic. The concept of knitting back a community stilted by grief was a valuable one, and very sweet in how an outsider cared to help that happen.

On the negatives…she’s kissing the guy in less than 24 hours? And the speed of the relationship at 6 weeks is just odd, especially for early 30-somethings, who aren’t immature kids. The references to the whole cowboy thing was super weird for the northeast too.

Setting-wise a bunch of things didn’t make sense. I grew up in upstate NY (actually in Saratoga that was mentioned at the end of the book) so I know the area of the country well and late November and December is freezing. Not like Jean-jacket, have a picnic outside at night weather, or walk around all the time without a jacket. If it’s cold enough to create a foot of ice on the pond, it’s too cold for a lot of the descriptions that were given. Some of the seasonal timeline items were off as well.

We also used to joke that what we called “mountains” in the northeast were more like hills compared to the west coast. There just aren’t high mountains. So the reference of the VT mountain being one of the highest of the continent at over 10k feet? In reality it’s about a 3rd of that and not even close to one of the highest.

I get that this is fiction and the whole premise is fantasy, but it’s just weird to take real landmarks and change them for no reason. It just made it feel like it was not put together well and the setting poorly researched.

Sweet story, but more realistic or plausible events and settings would have helped me like it more. It just felt a little forced and rushed instead.