The perfect contemporary romance to binge read and distract yourself! I read through this book in two sittings, only split into two because I had to sleep before zoom classes the next day. All that meaning to say, this is one of my favorite kinds of reads, especially with a busier schedule.

My favorite guilty read is a quick contemporary romance and More Than We Bargained for has the sweetest characters. Not to mention I love book-themed books... I know, it makes no sense, but a book-loving character is always appreciated! However, let's get to the point, the romance. The romance is sweet, genuine, and makes you want to find a love that strong. It has all the feels. Starla is such a strong woman and her character is so lovable. Then there's Sawyer who is practically a book lover's dream and not to mention a sweet and considerate person.

While I usually tend to read young adult romances, this book is such a great reminder of why books starring a slightly older heroine can be such a different representation of the variety of lives lived. Starla and Sawyer tackle some of the issues not seen as often in young adult novels, which is both refreshing, enlightening, and genuine.

This is truly a romance you should pick up if you're looking for a beautiful little escape, full of those butterflies, and a healthy, beautiful romance.

More Than We Bargained For is the fourth installment of the Timber Falls gang, who I have really enjoyed reading about! Fiona West's romances based in a small town are each cute and unique and this one was no different. I loved that our leading man had a medical condition with MS and that our heroine had her own issues with an ex who just doesn't want to give up. I'm kicking myself that I didn't get to read book 3 but I have this one on my TBR so I can catch up!

This book was really cute! A great feel good read that moves really quickly. I loved Starla and Sawyer's relationship! I liked how it developed and grew and how they were willing to sacrifice things for the other. I know this is a part of a series but it was good as a stand-a-lone. Cute, fast, romance set in a small town.

Thanks NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC!

Loved it. May have shed just as many tears as Sawyer. A terrific tale of two people discovering life is worth living for now and for oneself. Wonderful friends and family characters. This is the first in the series that I have read. I am eager to read more.

From the minute I stumbled across the Timber Fall series by Fiona West, I have been heavily invested in the lives of these incredible people. And the fourth book brought me to tears! I loved Starla from the first mention of her and then when we got to see more of her in Kyle and Ainsley’s book, I knew that she was going to be my absolute favourite. Pair her with Sawyer and I was a goner. Gosh, this book. It might just be my favourite of all the Timber Falls books so far and we’ve got more coming! Which just makes me that much more excited for the rest of the gang.

Starla’s finally gotten out of her marriage and with her two kids, she’s trying to make sense of her life and make it all work out the right way. She’s struggling, obviously. This whole time, she’s had financial support from Charlie, but now that’s gone too and she’s just trucking along. She’s constantly late to work, she’s wrangling the kids and dealing with Charlie and then Starla’s also got this book fairy to uncover - poor woman has so much on her plate! But she’s so damn amazing. Let’s not forget about her Star Wars obsession, because honestly, that just makes her that much more endearing. Starla’s also really proud and stubborn and doesn’t want to take help from anyone unless it’s absolutely necessary, so she’s obviously just pushing herself to her limit.

Sawyer, Sawyer, Sawyer. Does he come to life if I say his name thrice? Apparently not. Sawyer is so great. He’s an emotional character and not afraid to shed a few tears. Once a doctor, now he’s taken a step back because of a diagnosis and he’s focusing on fixing up motorcycles in the garage of his cabin in the woods. While he’s a Timberite, he’s happy living far away enough from town to avoid all the gossip and the rumours, but close enough to be near his family. Sawyer is amazing, even without the emotional side of him. He’s charming and funny and great with kids, plus he’s so handsome and attractive, it’s almost impossible to not feel something more for him just by being in his presence. And his love for Starla is just so….beautiful.

As with all of Fiona’s books, More Than We Bargained For is a closed-door romance, but it doesn’t even make you miss the sex because the characters are so brilliantly written and their interactions are all so spectacular, that you focus on those things and not everything else. Sawyer and Starla have the slowest of burns, and it’s not like everybody else doesn’t know something is going on, it just takes them that much longer to make those moves. But once they share that first kiss, everything just skyrockets and watching them fall in love is truly the most brilliant thing ever. Then again, the entire book has them falling in love, it’s that one moment where everything shifts for them that makes it that much more beautiful.

I liked how a lot of the sensitive topics were tackled, including Charlie’s indiscretions and Sawyer’s illness. Did I wish we could see more of Sawyer dealing with his illness, yes. But somehow whatever we got fit so well into the story that it was emotional enough.

The second half of the book had me in tears. Sawyer has some of the best lines and honestly, I wish I could quote all of them here because that would just make you more aware of how brilliant this book is. Fiona West has done it again with another Timber Falls book and now I can’t wait for the rest!

Thanks to Fiona West and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

More Than We Bargained For is the fourth book in a series by Fiona West. Readers do not need to have read the previous books in the series, although it wouldn't hurt. The story takes us to the tiny town of Timber Falls, OR, where there's not much of a place to hide. This is certainly true for the town librarian Starla, who is coming off a divorce from her high school sweetheart and trying to keep her head above water while raising her two kids. She is offered an opportunity to catch a break by driving the local town "hermit" Sawyer after he has a medical setback and getting free rent. This mutually beneficial relationship evolves throughout the novel as they try to figure out how to get out of their own ways. Characters from the previous books by West do pop-up, yet it's all fairly self-explanatory who they are and how they serve the plot. The to this book is finding enjoyment in a slow-burn story and a few wild plot points thrown in for good measure.

*𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸

I really enjoyed this book. The writing style was easy to follow along with characters were interesting.
This was quick read for me me, Starla and Sawyer are cute together, I really liked her kids and Sawyer got close.
I would definitely recommend this to someone who is looking for light contemporary book.

I liked this book more than I thought it would, the characters grew on me (except Charlie he’s a scumbag). There was some funny dialogue too. I also liked the use of TBR and DNF and the reference to bookstagram.

Things pointing at pregnancy were a bit too simple and in your face. When starla had been “ravenous lately” or hadn’t been able to touch coffee lately and her jeans getting tighter. And then to have starla be like “it was truly odd”. The woman has had 2 kids, she knows what being pregnant is like, surely she’s had the same symptoms before?

Also a bit of a flaw for me, would you really take your kids to a random cabin in the middle of the woods to get out of the rain? Seems a tad unrealistic and irresponsible.

It would be helpful to have the date or even month things were happening as I feel like there’s no timeline to the story. At the beginning starla slept with Charlie and a couple of chapters after she’s a couple of months pregnant. Quite hard to grasp since nothing much happened inbetween.

There’s more books in this series that tell the story of the other characters, I’ll definitely be reading the rest

Thanks to the author and netgalley for the eARC.
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I loved it, which came as a surprise as I didn't really like the beginning, as it felt little cliché. Didn't know anything but the author's name. I am so glad I found it, gave me everything I needed.
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Being recently divorced and a single mom, Starla is struggling to find a foot with her job as a librarian. Also she needs to move out of her friend's apartment where she is cramped with her two kids. Sawyer, living in recluse due to his chronic illness finds in need of a friend to drive him around town. Living in a small town and having a lot of mutual friends, they fill in each other's requirements perfectly. Their relationship blossoms into something more.
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Libraries, book nerds, kids, heartwarming relationships, friendships and romance, it had everything I needed. I laughed out loud and got emotional. I thought some parts could have been less dramatic. It portrayed the difficulties of having a chronic illness, but it shows how in spite of all the difficulties and hurdles we can chase and live our dreams. I really loved how Sawyer and the kids got close, they were so adorable.
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For someone who hasn't read the previous books in the series, it might be a little difficult to wrap our head around all the character names. But I love reading books set in small towns where everybody know everybody, which might actually get complicated in both ways.
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*******spoiler*******
I could have done without the dramatic realization of how Sawyer wants to continue in medical field, just after Kyle suggests it, at least there could have been some mulling over, not an abrupt incident to change his mind, which felt little too convenient and unrealistic.

Rating 4/5

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was very intrigued by the blurb but then I just couldn't really get into it. Not because there is anything wrong or particularly bad about the book it just didn't really click for me. Not a bad book, just not really the book for me.

I received this as an e-arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Starla, mother of two, finds herself without a place to go since leaving her husband after catching him cheating. Sawyer, an ex-surgeon and town recluse, has a rental cabin that would be perfect for her and her children. It doesn’t hurt that Sawyer is in love with Starla. Can the pair find a way through all of their misgivings and personal baggage and let themselves be happy again?

This is the first Timberfalls book that I have read and, while it took a little bit to piece together all of the relationships from the previous books, it can be read independently. I will probably be going back and catching up on the rest of the series, though, as Fiona West’s writing is truly captivating and her characters feel so real. Each has flaws, but you can clearly see their development and growth through their interactions with each other.

I love the small town setting and seeing the good and bad side of living in a small community. There is gossip galore, but everyone comes together in times of need. This is a small town romance at its best.

A cute, feel-good story, despite handling some serious issues, “More Than We Bargained For”, by Fiona West (Tempest and Kite Publishing), features a wounded beta hero adorably smitten with the heroine right from the beginning.
Sawyer’s secret crush is sweet, as is his personality: the honesty, the earnestness, the interactions with Starla’s children.
The perception that he could be unlovable because of his condition is crushing.
The story has a group of likeable side characters connected by family and friendship relations and affections are easily exchanged and expressed between them; there are lots of mundane activities that dragged the story pace a bit.
I liked the character of the heroine, although I had a hard time understanding her decision of moving.
I liked the way the author wrote Sawyer’s health issues. While the humiliation and embarrassment over the pants incidents were bravely described, without sugarcoating, I would expect them to have more lingering effects on the hero and the relationship with Starla.

This is the second book from this series that I've read (it's number 4 in the series, though) and I enjoyed it as much as the first. They can be read as standalones but characters make appearances and I like that style.

This series isn't long novels, they can be read in a few hours, but they still feel complete, and this one was no different. Fiona has followed more of a typical romance plot in this one, but it still was really sweet. No heated arguments between the hero and heroine which is just really nice, right? Who doesn't like having adults be able to communicate?

This dealt with an issue quite close to me - single parenting after divorce, people gossiping, and how to find you and where you need to do that at. So I was immensely grateful for this storyline in that respect. I really had empathy for Starla and felt her emotions and actions were described really well.

I am really enjoying this series and there's a couple of pairings that I want to get to know, so I'll need to go read books 2 and 3 and stay tuned for book 5 and so on!

Want a cute, sweet romance that will give you warm fuzzies? Read More Than We Bargained for... you won’t be sorry.

I love that our perfect hero has a vulnerable side, and our feisty heroine has her own insecurities. Their imperfect yet perfect for each other. All Sawyer wants is to help the beautiful librarian he’s been crushing on. Diagnosed with a life changing illness, he’s decided happily-ever-after isn’t in the cards for him, but he’ll do anything to make Starla happy and keep her safe. Sawyer just didn’t realize that by helping her, he’d fall deeper in love.

Starla dealt with her cheating husband for far too long. Even after filing for divorce, she just can’t shake Charlie, who seems to feel his infidelity isn’t a big deal. Charlie’s arrogance made me want to reach into the pages and throttle him, and yet he was a really good dad so I couldn’t hate him. But I loved Starla’s determination, even when her life takes an unexpected turn. Her banter with Sawyer was cute and oftentimes funny. They were adorable together.

This page-turning romance will make you smile, make you laugh, and leave you yearning for more.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the author/publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of More Than We Bargained For. The review above is my honest opinion.

A terrifically sweet book!

Fiona West's More Than We Bargained For is a pure romance with wit, and the perfect romantic goodness. The characters are well thought out and the plot is beautiful. There's a hint of self-love and self-actualization with a balance of self awareness.

If you're looking for the perfect book to cuddle with on a lazy sunny afternoon, this is it!

This is the first book I've read from this author and I definitely need to read the rest of the series. I loved Sawyer. The romance genre is full of alpha men so it's refreshing and different to read about a man who wears his heart on his sleeves and cries when the emotion overwhelms him. What a total sweetheart. I liked Starla too, who was having major issues with her ex and I really liked how this book both highlighted the wonders and the issues with small town living. I loved the way the book covered the issues in both Starla and Sawyer's lives and their relationship and the relationship between Sawyer and the kids was really well done. I think the romance aspect was very subtle, maybe a little too subtle, but with such lovely leads, that's ok. I really enjoyed reading about how their relationship developed and the supporting characters enriched the story. Thanks to NetGalley for the early read!

Reading a book by a new-to-you author can be such a goldilocks experience - some books are <i>just right</i>. This was definitely one of those books for me. It strongly reminded me of a Penny Reid book - so if you love Penny Reid - this is definitely a book you should check out.

Starla is a soon to be divorced, star wars loving, librarian. She and her kids are living with a friend after she (and their 11 year old son) caught her husband cheating on her. She hasn't been happy in her marriage for years - but changing her life isn't easy. She doesn't have much money and the town isn't being supportive of her. Also a final encounter with her soon to be ex has left her with permanent consequences. She is in need of a fresh start.

Some of that fresh start comes in the form of Sawyer. Sawyer was working as a surgeon with Doctors Without Borders when he was diagnosed with MS. MS is a life changing diagnosis for anyone - but Sawyer has shaking hands as a result of his disease that remove him from the life of a surgeon. He is struggling to come to terms with his illness and what it means for his life. Meanwhile he has been forming an increased attraction for Starla over time - but her being married and his MS keep from acting on it.

I adored every character in this book. There are no bad guys - just multifaceted people with normal motivations and needs. Even Starla and Sawyer are far from perfect or without flaws. I loved them all the more for it.

Such a great book. I am due to start the rest of the series immediately!!

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley, but these opinions are all my own.

I loved this book so much. I finished reading in about 5 hours. I can't wait to read this rest of the Timberfalls books. I hope the rest are as great as this one was.

I loved this story. It’s a quick read, but it’s so full of emotions and I loved the romance between Starla and Sawyer. It’s so sweet and almost sad when you think about what they will have to endure in the future, not that they would even care. This book is part of a series, but you can totally read it as a stand alone like I did. I will however read the other books because I have a feeling I will love them just as much as this one.

I LOVE Fiona West's titles in this series especially, each one just brings me a lot of joy!

Quick reads with a lot of heart, I was anxiously awaiting Starla's story, as she's had a bit of a rough time throughout the other books in the series & I just could not WAIT for her to get her own book! I mean how could I not have a special place in my heart for the town librarian?!

The perfect small town romance, I found Starla as a main character so different in a good way, and in ways that made her SO relatable. While Charlie may not be the man for her, he is a much better ex once he realizes she's gone for good and I really appreciated seeing this all play out on the pages in a refreshing way. It's not often a romance goes past the fluffy good stuff and gives great character depth on both sides of the relationship, and I absolutely loved this about this title.

Sawyer is just what Starla deserved after all this time, and as always, Timber Falls is full of some of the BEST book boyfriends. Thanks Fiona for another fantastic book! 4.5 stars from me!