Thanks to St. Martin's Griffin for the copy of this ARC.

Bend Toward the Sun is a solid debut (and hopefully start of a series…!) featuring two main characters with broken pasts. Rowan and Harrison have a lot of communicating and healing to do, and they struggle to see eye to eye for most of the book while also figuring out to do about their obvious mutual attraction and love. While it’s insta-love, it’s also slow burn as they figure things out internally and with each other, navigating through hard things like neglect, gaslighting, bad relationships, and work trauma. I would’ve preferred having more of the characters’ backstories toward the beginning/middle of the book instead of all at the end. I think it could’ve helped me understand why the characters were making certain decisions in the moment instead of having it explained more later, but it did make sense in the end and I absolutely love where everything ended up. The vineyard/farm setting is perfect, and I loved that Rowan is a STEM woman helping the Brady family out with all of the horticulture in their new business venture. The friends are wonderful supporting characters, and the Brady family is really the shining star here, which really makes me hopeful for more books in the series!