Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Straight away, the author does a great job at establishing who the characters are. Sarah is a wonderfully independent woman, willing to put up with so much aggravation from her ex for her daughter’s sake - I immediately had respect for the fierce way that she conducted herself. Rory is portrayed as friendly & sensitive, and it is clear very early on in the story that their friendship is one to be treasured; they were so naturally comfortable around each other that it made absolute sense for them to end up together.

The descriptive writing also made it SO easy to despise the villain of the story! Greg is the ex-husband of Sarah and his characterisation fits the image of a ‘typical alpha male’ to a tee. There are also parts where we get to see the perspective of more minor characters and I enjoyed this as it offered a well-rounded view of the story.

I did find the overtones of misogyny & toxic masculinity hard to swallow, especially with certain parts of Rory’s inner dialogue; it let his character down a bit, since he is depicted as a warm & kind-hearted person. I will point out that one of the main driving points of the book is the idea that ‘bad boys’ garner more interest from women, so some of the sentences & dialogue make sense in context. However, there was just so much of it that it unfortunately soured the reading experience somewhat as I believe these themes simply don’t have a place in modern-day romance novels, and it perpetuates the ‘nice guy’ persona that so many men adopt to make women feel guilty about rejecting them.

I was marginally mollified by the fact that Rory had genuine abhorrence for certain other male characters who were obvious chauvinists; I don’t think that he was a bad person per se, but he could have been painted in a slightly better light.

This is a light story that is satisfyingly wrapped up at the end! I wouldn’t pick this book up if you are looking for something that welcomes deeper critical analysis around the character & relationship side, but for fans of soft romance this is a pleasing choice.

This is a tough one to rate. This story was different for me. It was confusing in a way. You had the thoughts of every character in the book with very little actually said out loud . Which is very different from the books I normally read. I liked Rory a lot and Sarah. Their relationship was the main focus but there were other couples/ characters that I wasn’t as interested in their stories..
I thought it was strange how Doug went from a womanizer to a retired homebody. This was a quick and easy read, but just not the story I was hoping for..I

Good men like Rory are very far in between, especially these days. This book was so cute and a breath of fresh air. I love the representation this book gives. I would recommend this book to anyone. I will be on the lookout for future books by Rachel Dove!!
The only thing I didn't particularly enjoy, was the writing style. I'm not usually a fan of third person. I got passed it though because the book drew me in fairly quickly. I am grateful for the opportunity to read and review this book!!

This story is definitely a slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance. I'm always a sucker for the years of pining without realizing that your pining aspect of such stories, but with this story, I'm a little confused about how to rate it.

The real star of this story was Annabelle, the child genius with a plan. Frankly, she should've been the MC, because had it not been for her, the plot wouldn't have progressed the way that it did.

Rory is certainly an endearing MMC, and I wanted to roll my eyes every time he tried to convince himself that Sasha was night for him. Her certainly was a wonderful godfather and male role model to his "Belle".

Sarah was a great FMC, and her arc was quite satisfying, especially when she finally stood up to "dirtbag Greg". Unfortunately, her refusal to see the obvious (e.g. Nigel) made her character quite frustrating to read.

What confused me beyond anything was Gill's and Dinah's story. I'm not sure why this subplot was highlighted so much in the story when really it could've just been mentioned in relation to the actual plot. The fact that multiple chapters were dedicated solely to their relationship was very confusing.

The HEA was certainly satisfying, but I wish that it hadn't been so abrupt. I would've loved to have seen more of Rory and Sarah being a couple.

3 ⭐️