Thank you to the author, Hillary Bowen, for an advanced reader's copy of her debut, Out With Lanterns! Set in rural England in WWI, our female main character, Ophelia, is newly employed as a farm laborer within the Women's Land Army (WLA), when her former neighbor (and her not-forgotten-summer-sweetheart from before-the-war), Silas, shows up for a bit of active recovery at the farm while he's back from the front rehabilitating an injured leg. This is an introspective second-chance set-up, where two people are navigating expanded perspectives and hazy futures during war-time while they gently rediscover one another and untangle their shared past and sudden parting. The cover of this book so perfectly captures the atmosphere of this setting - this is farm-core for the misty-walk-at-dawn-through-the-native-grasses country kids, with lush scene-setting and prose that feels so syrupy-sweet (complimentary!!) you feel fully immersed in it from page one. 

What I love best in this debut is Bowen's attention to detail, descriptive prose, focus on found family, exploration of early-20th-century suffragist organizing and her absolutely DECADENT open-door scenes (WHEW). I did wish for more conflict, though. These two are so genuinely earnest and open-hearted at all times - and talk through their conflicts so effectively - that potential conflicts don't really germinate into true conflicts. Ultimately, this will be a perfect read for those who want mature, low-angst relationships they can really settle into, with a fully realized world and a nuanced depiction of how the era's sociopolitical context might create a new vision for partnership.