I'm so glad I gave Rebekah Weatherspoon another try after not clicking with Rafe because Xeni was a delight. The book follows Xeni Everly-Wilkins a kindergarten teacher who has sworn off romance after a handful of bad relationships. After the death of her beloved Aunt Sable, Xeni finds herself the inheritor of a boatload of money. The catch is she has to get married to the local chef and bagpipe player Mason McInroy to cash it in. While the two are initially hesitant to go along with Sable's matchmaking scheme the money is too good for either of them to pass up.

What worked for me in Xeni that I found lacking in Rafe was its emotional centre. Throughout the book we see Xeni processing the grief of losing her aunt and dealing with an incredibly complicated family situation. Weatherspoon interweaves this internal conflict with the romance making for a more gratifying experience. While Mason has a little less time dedicated to his character we also get to know about his complicated family situation and how it weighs on him. Both our leads are well defined characters with problems and goals outside of their romantic life which made seeing them come together more satisfying.

I especially loved seeing how Xeni and Mason walked in greif together. Both were incredibly close with Aunt Sable so the connection losing her gave them made their relatively quick switch from strangers to married couple easier to believe.

I will say one of this books weaknesses was its side characters. They felt more like bit parts slotted to fill scenes rather than memorable and and vibrant secondary characters. The most jarring were a couple from a previous series by Weatherspoon. The novel halts to recap their story and give updates on their life now. While this may be exciting for anyone who's read that series it read as an unnecessary digression. 

But despite that minor quibble I really enjoyed my time reading Xeni. I'm so glad I gave Weatherspoon a second chance and I can't wait to pick up another from her.