lisaluvsliterature's Reviews (4.19k)

So this story was one we’d been waiting for a while for. Finally finding out exactly what had happened to send Brodan away from his close-knit family. There was a LOT of emotional parts to this story. Monroe was someone it was hard not to root for. We didn’t get all the details of what she’d been dealing with since Brodan had left her life right away, but what we knew definitely had me feeling for her the whole book.

I had a little bit of issue with Brodan. He was just so mean at first. Some of the things he said and did would have been really hard for me to get over ever, if I was Monroe. So I have to say that unlike in other books when I think someone is holding out for no reason, I totally understood why she was. But he did do exactly what he could to try to win her back and prove that he could and would be better and be the man she deserved. Although I did think her jealousy after a certain point was a little bit extra, but that’s just me.

I loved seeing Thane’s kids in school with Monroe and their roles in this story was just perfect. They made it so much more. And in the end, we got an extra epilogue for pretty much all the other couples in this series, and that was lovely. It was also fun getting a sneak peek and getting to know Sloane and Walker who will be the first couple in the new series that branches off from this one.

I was so excited for this because I loved the author’s first two books. And I was hooked right from the start with this one too! Although I have to say there were a few parts with a white worm or maggot that kept popping up when I was trying to read this on a lunch break or at dinner, and that was not helpful to my eating.

The story kind of alternated between the character Daisy and her story, and another character named Brittney about 10 years later, who had a connection to the house that Daisy moves to in her part of the story. It wasn’t a split up evenly back and forth, just the part with Brittney was split in kind of at times when we needed to be left with a little suspense and wondering how it might have affected the future. There were so many layers to this story. Sure, it was a ghost/horror story, but also so much about the human story and the horrible things people do to each other, even those they say they love.

The ghost/horror aspect of the story was so good. I could see this coming to life on a movie screen, or a tv show. And there would be a lot of the atmospheric and visual scares, but a few jumps in there as well. The family and drama was emotional and horrific in its own way as well. There were several bits that just rang out so true as I read. With what had happened to the girls early on in the house’s story, that got me. Even with Daisy’s experiences with her ex boyfriend that she started the story having been broken up with him, that got me. One section, and I know of course it may change before final publication, but this line:

“When she said that she had let it happen before, so how could she say no later?”

I feel that with my own experience. In fact I probably took the not saying no to an extreme later, and I get that this feeling right here is part of why I let myself go that way.

Another thing that was so true in my opinion was about having different groups of friends because they are for different reasons or parts of your life. I remember having friends in lots of different groups in high school, but not necessarily a “group of friends”, and they were all from different aspects of my school years. Some remained close friends, most grew apart, and others that weren’t that close of friends, more acquaintances, I talk to more on Facebook now than we ever did back then. Even in my life today, I have friends that I see around my family, friends at work, friends from college, etc. I think everyone probably does this.

All the characters were so well fleshed out and added to the story in so many ways. While I had a feeling the first surprise we learn about Ivy was going to be what it was, I was not prepared for more of what we learned about her later in the story. I really liked King as well. And it was so true what he said about how knowing things and that people never did what he suggested, or took his advice. I mean how often do people try to give me advice and I know that I am going to end up doing what I want no matter what. It was hard to like Daisy’s mom, but knowing what she went through was helpful and gave me sympathy for her. Now we didn’t really get a chance to know Brittney’s mom, and that’s okay because I don’t know that she would have been likable. Meeting Daisy’s aunt finally and wow, that was something that I’d been wondering all throughout the story, and it was added into the plot perfectly.

I could gush and go on and on about how much I liked this story. Now, it is long, 500 pages, but I was kept on the edge of my seat the whole time. Another winning story from Liselle Sambury, who is fast becoming one of my favorite authors.

I’ve read like every other book in this series so far, but as they are basically standalones with interconnections through the family, that works okay. I own the ones I haven’t read yet, need to fit those in! But this was another wonderful love story. First was the oldest brother in the Luview family, Dennis. He’s just come back from the military, retiring after a definitely traumatic experience. We don’t know exactly what right away, but it’s easy to guess it has something to do with a child since every time he is around a little kid in certain situations he starts to have a panic attack. Even being from the town of Love You, or maybe because he’s from the town, he’s a bit of a cynic, or at least he doesn’t really care for all the kitschy romantic stuff his hometown does.

And then there is Ana, who is also coming off of a not so great experience with an ex-boyfriend who turned out to be a drug dealer, and even worse when we learn about her pregnancy. But Ana and Dennis have a perfect meet-cute, and an instant connection, even if the two of them really try to deny it can be anything more than a one night stand to themselves and each other that night.

They spend a few months or so apart, as Ana finds out about the pregnancy and doesn’t feel it is right to try to start a relationship with someone who isn’t the father of her child, because why would someone want to be with her in that situation, or at least that’s what she thinks. Dennis can’t get her out of his head though, and she is constantly in his thoughts.

I loved how they ended up running into each other again, and how the whole thing got turned into a big town gossip event. As usual the cast of characters in this small town make for lots of extra bits of fun in the story. I have to also say that I loved that Ana’s best friend came from a family that owned and ran a cheese store. And it made me wish there was a cheese store closer to where I live, or that I had a friend with a cheese store. Or maybe instead of a bookstore I should open a cheese store, lol.

Another sweet story for the series, and as I said at the start of this review, I’ve got to get my two books I haven’t read yet out and fill in all the details of the series. Oh, and I have to mention the extra epilogue was perfect and I loved it too!

This is a book that the publisher sent me for the Gateway Award committee I’m on. I’d wanted to read it since before it was published, but never got around to it. I actually ended up downloading the audiobook from the library and listening to it. It was as good as I had hoped it would be. The only issue I had is how she gave up on the relationship at the end, even though I know that it is a normal type of dramatic bit for the final thing to overcome. But in the end there was the HEA that we all want! We even got a bit of an epilogue that I thought was perfect! The narrators were good. Although the female narrator was a little slow so I sped it up, and the male narrator was good, but didn’t sound like a teenage boy to me.

I read a book by this author last year and really liked it. This one had a really great synopsis and sounded like it would be great as well! I did love all the fun little movie scenes that the characters re-enacted for their TikTok videos. Even if some of the movies aren’t what I exactly think of as rom-coms, more just romance or more drama than comedy. And I do really like the characters’ names of Harry and Sally.

The way that it all got started was perfect as well. Both of the main characters had pretty good back stories that made sense for how they reacted and behaved in the different situations. Even the characters that were the friends were fun. Family characters definitely added to the drama and things they had to deal with. I did not ever quite get to where I could like Harry’s parents though I did grow to like Sally’s sister. 

A few things just were not great for me though. One thing I complain about a lot, the unreasonableness in how someone reacts to something in a way that is just to add drama was really extreme for me at the end of this. I really think the final big incident that separated them, well the reason that the character gave for that didn’t make sense, was kind of out there and didn’t work for me. I also was a little bored throughout the story. It didn’t grab me and I did struggle a bit to get through it. I also didn’t laugh as much throughout this as I would hope for a romantic comedy about romantic comedies. 

Overall it was cute, but did not quite live up to the other book I read and loved by this author, The Italian Job. 

So I got to read the first two books in this series as part of blog tours. This one they didn’t do a blog tour for, and so I did buy the book after it came out, but then as always it got put behind all the review books I had. I added it to my TBR challenge list of books to read this year and I kept it by my tub for bubble bath nights. Finally finished it. Now I did read the book after this one, Tasty Mango, before I’d read this, so I kind of knew what was going to happen with Magnolia’s sister. But it was fun to read this anyway and get the third Pickle brother’s story. A fun read and I need to read all that this author writes!