I read this book with two of my best friends for our bi-monthly book club. We were looking for a quick read and this is what we ended up picking. While I enjoyed talking about this book with my friends, it’s safe to say that I have mixed feelings about it.

I’m going to start my review by talking about what I liked about this book. My favourite thing about this book was the setting. I loved the town of Westport. I like books that take place in small towns in general, because I like the sense of community that a small town has. I also like that when a town is small enough, it almost becomes its own character in the book. I liked reading about the community coming together and getting a glimpse into its history. I also liked watching Piper explore the town and connecting with her roots and the community.

I also liked that this book was exactly what I was expecting it to be. I wanted to pick up something quick, fun, and steamy, and it checked off all of those boxes. This book was very easy to read and to get into. If I didn’t have work and other adult responsibilities, I likely could have read it in a day. It was also a fun read with a lot of steamy scenes, which I appreciated.

What I’m still processing is my thoughts about the two main characters. I thought that Brendan was too possessive of Piper, and it didn’t sit well with me. Don’t get me wrong, I would love a man to build a pergola, but knowing that he wanted the entire town to know that Piper was his and off limits wasn’t cool. On a positive note, about Brendan, I did appreciate his commitment to his crew and Westport and I enjoyed the discussions about grief and moving on. As far as Piper goes, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I felt like the author turned the stereotype of “dumb party girl” up to eleven, but on the other hand, she did have some sweet moments. I will say that I did like the discussions about her insecurity and influencer Piper versus real Piper.

As far as the side characters go, I liked Hannah and Fox and I’m looking forward to reading about them in Hook, Line and Sinker.

As far as tropes go, I’m not a big fan of insta-love and I feel like this book falls into that category. I also don’t think that this book falls into the enemies-to-lovers or rivals-to-lovers category because I don’t think the characters knew each other for long enough to be enemies. Sure, they didn’t exactly start off on the best of terms, but that doesn’t make them enemies. I will say that some of the banter in this book was enjoyable though.

Overall, this was a fun summer read. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it and I’m still processing all of my thoughts about it.