Usually romances where we're constantly doing flashbacks are very annoying to me because I just want to get to the current story, and I did have a couple of moments like that with this book but honestly? Most of the time I really enjoyed the storyline no matter which stage of the timeline we were in. The set up of Darby writing a letter to Leo that she never intended to send but her sister sending it to him anyway because cry for help combined with him showing up on her wedding day and her running away with him? WHAT A TREAT. I didn't realize that it would be a roadtrip story as well? I thought they'd get back to Pacific Shores and it would just be figuring their lives out from there, but I thought the road trip aspect was a nice touch.

It was also VERY DRAMATIC. We find out toward the end that

young Darby got in a car accident, which is how her dad finds out where she is because the hospital calls her. While she's in the hospital, she learns that she had a miscarriage, but she hadn't even realized that she was pregnant yet?

and even though there was a lot of set up to the fact that Darby didn't have a choice in going back to her parents and whatnot, I was still somehow shocked at that reasoning?!

My one gripe: the way that Leo talks as an adult and as a teenager are almost exactly the same. This is perfectly believable with grown-up Leo, but there were multiple times where teenaged Leo was talking and I was like "....there is no way this is a teenager." Which would make some of those flashback scenes feel a little clunky in the dialogue. 

This is the 2nd book in the past month that I've read that has a main character named Clementine and that uses the song Oh My Darling Clementine, though I will say that its use in this book was so much more entertaining than the other. (Luke has the house band at his bar play it to fuck with her and the whole scene is very charming, I fear)

Emmy & Luke were both super lovable characters and the author did a great job of showing Emmy how her views of Luke when they were growing up weren't quite as fixed in reality as she thought they were and how everything is more complicated than it might originally seem. Learning about Luke's upbringing and his complicated relationship with his mom to this day was truly heartbreaking. Watching Emmy work through her anxiety about literally getting back on the horse (did I just realize that it was a literal version of that idiom as I typed it out? Yes, yes I did) was really really heartwarming and also

THANK YOU LYLA SAGE FOR DELIVERING ON THE ANGRY BROTHER IN A BROTHER'S-BEST-FRIEND ROMANCE

Our two main characters are Emilia and Morgan. Emilia is really struggling with a lot of internal stuff with the loss of her dad, recently being released from the hospital after a mental breakdown, and her girlfriend leaving her. Morgan was left by her fiancée in the last year and is super overworked because they can't find another vet to help her out so she's on call all the time. Emilia had a crush-from-afar on Morgan when they were younger, but they don't really know each other and first impressions are not the best in this story.

Overall, I really enjoyed it, though it was hard for me to get into this one for some reason. There were a couple of things where I rolled my eyes (stuff that I wouldn't have been bothered by in a book that wasn't, overall, as serious as this one) and I felt like the end wrapped up a bit too quickly. My one rant relating to how the end...ended:

There's a promise that they'll be there together "forever" immediately after the third act breakup and that is simply not something I will ever vibe with. IDK FOREVER PROMISES ARE A LITTLE MUCH unless they've been together for a bit!

WE ARE BACK!!!

So disclaimer: this is the first Dark Olympus book that I decided to read with my eyeballs instead of doing the audiobook and that is a key reason why I ended up loving this particular book. I really love Zara Hampton-Brown, but unfortunately Alex Moorcock's narration for the male characters felt stale by the time I got to book 6. I think it'd be super helpful for a series that goes this long to get different narrators for different books, especially since they're in first person.

With that out of the way, I really enjoyed the balance that this book had between the romance story and the overarching plot of the series. I loved Ariadne, I tolerated Asterion (The Minotaur) because Ariadne loved him. Truly my favorite thing about this particular book was the Hermes and Dionysus of it all, and they were both in this book more than they usually are in the others.

Honestly, if you've been reading the entire series this is the PERFECT way to wrap it up. Charlie & Nova's story has us totally set up for success:

Charlie spends most of the book in Inglewild, taking over the Farm while Stella is on her honeymoon.  He's also dealing with his dad being an absolute menace while he's gone, but because he loves Lovelight and Inglewild, he tries to mainly focus on that while he's in town.

He's been helping Nova get her tattoo parlor set up and they clearly have the kind of relationship where they tend to butt heads teasing each other and whatnot. So when they finally decide to start hooking up (keeping it "business casual" in this case means casual but exclusively), neither of them super expect to catch feelings but BOYYYYYY do they. They keep their activities secret, especially because they don't particularly want Beckett (who in this book plays the role of Nova's protective brother) to find out because Charlie prefers being alive.

I'm not going to get into the details of the grand gesture at the end of the book, but part of why I love it is because

there's not actually a third act breakup. Charlie has to move back to New York, and the gesture is more from the town to him in an effort to get him to just move to Inglewild and I love it SO MUCH

.

CALEB ALVAREZ, YOU CUTIE PATOOTIE

Look, I met Caleb in the first couple of books and we knew he was obsessed (in the cute way not the stalkery way) with Layla. But I generally avoid reading romances where the hero is a police officer cuz it's an ick. But I was willing to do it for Caleb! So tell me why we open the book learning that he was fired for being too nice. Bless that sweet summer child, I love it. So instead this story ends up being about a bakery owner and a substitute teacher?! Yes absolutely adorable give me more

I could go on about how much I love the people of Inglewild but if you're reading this because you want my specific opinion on this book then you already know that because Inglewild is my favorite part of this story. Truly, this series has me realizing that I love small town romances -- WHO KNEW?!

Layla is absolutely my favorite of the owners of Lovelight Farms and I was just happy to see her realize her worth in this one, even if it did take a man to help her realize it. My biggest issue with this one was definitely just

the third act breakup,

but that's pretty typical of romance stories in general. It just felt very unnecessary in this particular one, but whatever IT'S FINE I GUESS.

Okay so we've got a one (three) night stand-turned-second chance romance when Evelyn St. James shows up back in Inglewild?? Again??

Evelyn just needs to slow down somewhere. It's clear that, sure, she also wants to see Beckett when she goes to Inglewild, but really she just wants to go somewhere that it's possible to slow down, relax, and reflect. We met Evelyn in book one and when she saw Beckett for the first time she quite literally ran away, and we get a glimpse of the talk they had when she was there for the contest in the first book. Then, we jump to her being completely overwhelmed with her booming social media career and wanting to find a way to shut off. The last place she felt happy was Inglewild, so that's where she goes.

And then

the town absolutely conspires against? for? her and

she ends up having to sleep at Beckett's house. From there, everything just falls into place for the two of them. But honestly? Best cast member of this book? Those KITTENS. Truly well done.

I really enjoyed this one, but it was probably the weakest of the four books for me. That said, absolute favorite bit? Beckett has a lot of sound sensitivity and doesn't like crowds for that exact reason, and the scene where Evelyn gives him ear plugs was JUST THE CUTEST.

I decided to read this full series before I jumped back to reviewing them individually, and so much about Lovelight Farms continues to be on my mind. It's the only single-pov book of the series, and I am so glad that it was. Even reading this book from Stella's perspective, it is so obvious how in love with her Luka is from the jump so I'm sure if we got his perspective it would just be a constant state of oh my god she's so pretty and i get to fake date her woowwwwww which would have, in fact, gotten old by the end of the book.

This book is so sweet and Pippa Jayne, the narrator, gave a fantastic performance as Stella. Stella is stressed, has friends and a town who loves her, and a best friend who is constantly driving back to town to "visit his mom." And she is so dumb because once again, even from her perspective, it's clear how much Luka adores her and she is still somehow convinced that everything he does with and for her is platonic. It is truly impressive how she manages to avoid facing the fact that he has feelings for her, too.

Also? The town is FANTASTIC. From the phone tree to the fact that all of the issues the farm is facing is due to

a man who just really wants an alpaca farm

, Inglewild is so Stars Hollow-coded and I love it. There wasn't a single side character that I didn't want to know more about (besides Stella's dad but he's not part of Inglewild so it doesn't count!!)

The Alexis Hall Situation

I’ve been saying that I don’t like the surprise pregnancy trope and was going to call this an exceptions, but I’ve run into so many exceptions that I’m realizing that maybe I just??? Like it? At least when it’s done well and this one does! Cass DOES NOT LIKE Red, but they end up hooking up for the purpose of revenge on her cheating ex-boyfriend, and of course she ends up pregnant. They plan to co-parent and he is just! so! there for her! And they start to fall in love instead and it’s all very cute.