Much Ado About You by Samantha Young Book Review
“What the heck was I supposed to do with this inconvenient attraction?”
(pg. 103)
About
Author: Samantha Young
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
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Synopsis
At thirty-three-years old Evangeline Starling’s life in Chicago is missing that special something. And when she’s passed over for promotion at work, Evie realizes she needs to make a change. Some time away to regain perspective might be just the thing. In a burst of impulsivity, she plans a holiday in a quaint English village. The holiday package comes with a temporary position at Much Ado About Books, the bookstore located beneath her rental apartment. There’s no better dream vacation for the bookish Evie, a life-long Shakespeare lover.
Not only is Evie swept up in running the delightful store as soon as she arrives, she’s drawn into the lives, loves and drama of the friendly villagers. Including Roane Robson, the charismatic and sexy farmer who tempts Evie every day with his friendly flirtations. Evie is determined to keep him at bay because a holiday romance can only end in heartbreak, right? But Evie can’t deny their connection and longs to trust in her handsome farmer that their whirlwind romance could turn in to the forever kind of love.
Review
Spoilers Contained Below
To those looking for a little romance,
I love a book about someone who loves books. It’s like looking in a book mirror.
I could understand Evangeline—Evie—well. We both have not been lucky in the romance department for years. She hasn’t dated for a long time, and I have never been on a date. So, I understand how the older you get, the more discouraged you sort of feel about ever finding “the one.” Especially as a woman, there is a lot of pressure on that woman to find “the one” and start a family, which places a heaping sprinkle full of expectations on that woman, which is hard. Also, with this climate of online dating, it’s difficult to find anyone who is actually decent. With everything going in her lack of a love life, her best friend having a baby, her mom getting out of rehab, and her job not going so well, Evie didn’t have a lot of reasons to stay in Chicago. So, Evie said screw men and screw her life and she went to a tiny village on the border of Scotland, and she Eat, Pray Loved her life. She also took a job opportunity to live above a bookstore, which sounds like a darn good deal, if you ask me.
One of the questions Evie asked herself early on was:
“Is it because I’m genuinely lonely or looking for love?”
(pg. 69)
Which is sadly, a question I ask myself a lot. I thought about this a lot, but I think there’s a difference between being alone and being lonely. I believe being alone means you don’t mind your own company, but being lonely means you don’t mind your own company but you wish you had someone else to share it with or connect to. It’s okay to feel both simultaneously, or it’s okay to feel both one time or the other. I know I fluctuate in feeling alone and feeling lonely. In the thick of the pandemic, I felt both. Right now, I’m feeling more alone, but a little bit lonely. As a single individual, I think there’s this narrative that you’re either lonely or you’re looking for love because of the traditional idea that you can’t be happy if you are lonely. Maybe sometimes a person is not the happiest when lonely, and it isn’t wrong if a person is lonely and looking for love. I mean, it’s okay to want a connection with someone and I don’t think we should shame someone to feel like they have to love being by themselves in order to be ready to love someone. It’s also not fun when people keep asking about your relationship status like it’s their business.
” . . . when it doesn’t feel so nice for all those people who are supposed to care about me to hound me about the thing I want most in life.”
(pg. 71)
That’s also rough because when you ask a single person if they are in a relationship, chances are they are not unless you see them with someone. It doesn’t help to keep asking because it only highlights that they are single. I know people mean well when they ask someone if they are in a relationship, but I think someone’s relationship status should be something someone comes to you about and not the other way around. It can be a sore subject, especially the older someone gets. The timing of the question matters because there are more expectations, again, for women and their biological clock. Again, I don’t think anyone should ask someone if they are having kids or when they are trying to have kids because 1) it’s not their business and 2) it’s not nice to pressure or assume that someone is or is not trying to have kids because you don’t know what they are going through. With her best friend, Greer, pregnant, I also felt it was difficult for Evie because her best friend was now in a different life stage, a stage maybe Evie felt like she should be at but wasn’t. She needed to get away from her job, responsibilities, and life to figure things out. Sometimes you have to do that to see what more is out there and gain perspective. But also, I felt like Evie was the type of person to run away from things, not to judge because I do that too. But I had a hunch of some things at the end if that was what Evie was used to doing.
I absolutely adored the quaint town Evie found herself in. I loved Much Ado Books too because who doesn’t love a quaint bookshop?
And who doesn’t like running into a tall, dark, and handsome dude with a dog?????!?!?!?!?!
We love a guy who loves dogs.
We love a guy who loves his dog and loves the person who saved his dog. We love dogs.
At first, I thought Roane was only infatuated with Evie because she was new and she saved his prized dog, which of course, praise her for saving the dog. But then the more they talked and the more people talked about how smitten Roane was with Evie, the more I fell for the possibility of them. Evie was not having it though because she went to Northumberland to get away from men and push away romance. I liked that Roane respected her boundaries, but we ALL KNEW that he acquiesced to being “just friends” because he was going to WEAR HER DOWN. He said, I know what I’m doing and she’s going to want me by the end of this 🤪. I could feel it in every romantic bone in my body. He was going to make her fall in love with him. Honestly, he had the looks and the smooth talking to charm a nun. He already had me. Darn, he didn’t talk like a friend at all. But he sure listened like a friend, which I appreciated. I liked that he didn’t laugh when Evie opened up about all the things she left behind in Chicago and feeling lonely. He not only listened, but emphasized and talked about he felt that sometimes as a man, he gets judged for not being a player and wanting to find “the one.” I never thought much about the male perspective, but I could understand that sort of pressure that men or people might feel in these boxed roles of what a male or person should want out of a relationship. Many times, it’s sex for men, but not all men want just sex, which is perfectly fine by me. But I just liked reading about Roane’s perspective because he felt judged by the town too for having not settled down yet when he could have anyone. I admired that he didn’t settle for someone he didn’t love just because he knew how good he looked or charming he was, but he wanted a genuine connection. We love that.
Roane was such a good guy. A flirty guy, at that 😏.
He knew exactly what to do or say to make the ladies go wild 🤪. I’m joking, but he was an amazing guy. Shall we list how? Duh.
First, the fact that he loved dogs. Amazing.
Second, when he called Evie “treasure,” I SCREAMED. I guess, it depends on if you like nicknames or not, but my gosh was I here for it. Get you someone who thinks of you as a “treasure.” A gem, if you will. What a gentleman and a guy who knew the value of the women in his life. Treasure. Ugh, too good. Oh, don’t even get me started on how he called her ANGEL. Angel? Dang, this guy was raised right because he knew women were a gift from above 👏🏼. Darn, he might as well have called Evie his Queen, his majesty, his pride and joy. I feel like some of his nicknames could be really cringe, for sure, but gosh, again, here for it.
Third, they were very giggly and touchy-feely. Roane always made her laugh, and we love someone who can make others laugh in a good way. The other thing was he was always squeezing her knee or touching her. To be frank, the touchy-feely part rubbed me the wrong way for a while because he kept touching her without her consent, and that’s not okay. If she didn’t like him/return his feelings (even if she was denying her feelings at the time), it still didn’t make it okay for him to touch her without asking her. That was the only thing I wasn’t the fondest of with Roane. I mean, I love a touchy-feely romance, but when it’s consensual and mutual, you know.
Fourth, I loved the time he saw Evie crying or all emotional in her garden balcony or whatever and he noticed her, literally jumped the freaking fence and then comforted her. What a gentleman. And what dedication he had to JUMP THE FENCE just to comfort her. If he or your partner doesn’t metaphorically or literally jump the fence to be there with you, it’s not it. This was the part where Evie had just listened to her mom’s voicemail where the mom apologized for never being there for her. The mom was a recovering alcoholic, and growing up, Evie would always have this false hope that her mom would get better. But then the mom would fall into old habits and would go to recovery again, leaving Evie alone and to fend for herself. I can’t imagine what Evie must have felt growing up, but I could understand how difficult that must be because I believe we are born seeing the good in people. So naturally, Evie wanted to see the best in her mom after each time, which is more than okay. But I think when Evie was shown that things weren’t getting better each time, it made her lose hope that her mom would actually recover, and it pained Evie even more because she always had hope, but that hope dwindled. It’s natural that Evie didn’t trust her mom this time when the mom said she was actually doing better—-she didn’t want that false hope. I also don’t fault her for running away because that’s a lot to process, along with quitting her job and going through the existential questions of being where she was at the time. But like Evie, I felt like maybe this time was different because the mom said:
“I need you to do what’s right for you, even if that means letting me go.”
(pg. 132)
I thought that was very big and honest of the mom, to put her daughter’s happiness above her. The mom saying that highlighted how she recognized her fault in the past and how she hurt Evie. When we put someone else’s happiness above ours, I think that’s one of the monumental ways of showing we love that person.
Speaking of happiness, I kind of touched on it earlier, but Evie wasn’t happy back in Chicago. I felt like she thought her life plateaued.
“As I got older, plans changed. I lost myself in the minutiae of adulthood.”
(pg. 132)
As a new adult, I could still resonate with this quote because the more I have gotten older, the more I have realized that we shed a lot of the things that we loved or made us happy as kids because we become so focused on making a living, putting food on the table, protecting our well-being, going to school or work, paying bills, and all these adult things that don’t leave room for the fun, creative, and imaginative. It really is sad that we live in a society that doesn’t give adults less pressure to have time to do the things that brought us joy and passion when we were younger; almost like when we get older, society says, “suck the life out of these people, they have to grow up.” But adults are really just older kids who want time to themselves, who want to have fun, and be happy, but we are not always allowed to or we say we never have time to. And it freaking sucks. Just because I’m older doesn’t mean I should have to give up things I love to the minutiae of adulthood. I just feel like it’s not fair to place adults in this boring beige box and tell them to live constantly in it. When I read this quote, I also thought about how when you are younger, you have all these hopeful dreams you want to achieve, but then reality hits when you graduate high school or college, and suddenly we get lost in the “minutiae of adulthood” that our childhood dreams are lost on us or forgotten for the realities of survival. I don’t like that society and life feels like that sometimes—-that we forget about who we are or what makes us happy because we have to “grow up” and be “mature” when no one knows what they are doing and want to figure things out, but we don’t give enough room, space, or validity for people to.
I also want to finish my tangent with something I wrote a long time ago when I started this blog. I said, “Do what makes you happy, and not what will bring you the life that you think will make you happy.” This is something I still stand by because people can get fixated on the highest paying job, thinking that it’s giving them the life that will make them happy. In actuality, when I ask people if they like their job and if they are happy, I usually get a solid, defeated no. They all say they are unhappy or they hate their job or their life and they wish they could quit. I have been told over and over again as a soon-to-be graduating (hopefullY) college student that I’m going to hate my job. That’s the most discouraging and defeating and sad thought I’ve been told my entire life—I’m going to hate my job. People go to their job everyday, and I’m going to hate it? That sounds depressing as heck. No wonder so many people out there are unhappy, they hate their job and they don’t know what else to do because they are stuck in the “minutiae of adulthood.” Evie getting unstuck and distancing herself from everything was actually a good call because we need a break as an adult like kids need breaks between quarters. Why do we have to constantly work so hard to make a living and barely make a life?
I don’t know. But these are the thoughts I think of sometimes because it genuinely is sad that so many adults are unhappy, but they stay unhappy because they don’t know what else they can do when life is extremely hard and change can be the difference of having a roof over their head or not. It sucks.
Sorry for my deep tangent there, but where was I? Oh, yes Evie was not happy in Chicago. The more time Evie spent in Northumberland and formed these relationships in the community, the happier Evie was. Above all, Evie felt like she belonged. It was so unusual that the town accepted anyone new, but they all took a liking to Evie because she was kind and hospitable, she also was loved by Roane, and they trusted Roane. But I loved the sense of belonging Evie felt because it finally felt like she had a place to call home. I loved that for her. It’s such a beautifully magical feeling when you find somewhere that finally feels right for you. A big part of why Northumberland felt like her new home was because of the people.
Gosh, did this small town have big drama.
One of the things I will say about the book that was a bit much was the influx of storylines. There was too much going on with all the characters and trying to solve their problems all in one book. I think it would have been better if the story focused more on Roane and maybe his immediate family life rather than the whole town because I felt like Roane and Evie’s story got a bit lost in all these other plots going on. I would have liked more cute moments and getting to know you scenes with Roane and Evie. I wanted to know more about Roane besides who he was by the way he treated others. I know how someone else treated others is an excellent tell to what kind of person Roane was, but I wanted to know directly from Roane because he didn’t talk much unless she was flirting or defending. I also would have liked to see Roane’s parents make an appearance at the end or something because if we took out all the other plots, there would have been room for the parents and further develop Roane’s character. I don’t know, I just wanted to know Roane better but there was just too much going on.
The Caro story was okay because Caro was in Roane’s family. I liked Caro—-she reminds me almost of me. Not the whole Helena thing, but the whole having a quieter disposition thing. Caro dressed like an older woman because Helena used religion against Caro, saying if she dressed like this or did that, then she wasn’t holy or something. I feel like religion should never be used against someone, ever. I’m no Pope, but I don’t think that’s how religion works. Also, Helena was a trash caretaker. After Caro’s parents passed away, Helena became her caretaker by default and because no one else wanted to take care of Caro. I think Roane and his family couldn’t take care of Caro because it wasn’t in their rights or something, but Caro had to live and endure all these years in a toxic household. The fact that Helena didn’t even let Caro read books because they could be smutty was ridiculous. Let the sis live! My heart broke when Caro emancipated herself from Helena and Evie was in her old bedroom with her, and Caro showed her the secret floorboard where Caro kept her contraband. A book was contraband?!!! Sue her that she wants to read 🙄. Helena’s home was just too toxic and controlling an environment. Not to directly talk about anyone, but I have known many people who have lived in toxic and controlling homes and whose families were downright not suited for children or kids or taking care of people in general. It breaks my heart that many people do live in toxic homes, and it’s not always easy to get out of that situation because that person might not know where else to go or how to get there.
I’m happy Caro had Evie, Roane, and Viola to support her during this entire process. Caro was an adult and technically didn’t need to follow Helena’s rules or live under her roof. It wasn’t until Evie came along and shoved Caro metaphorically out the door, that Caro thought about actually leaving Helena for good. I think it helped to have a woman figure and someone who was an outsider tell her to leave because it validated that Caro lived in an unhealthy environment and she should get out. I loved when Evie stuck it to Helena when Evie said they were going to have a sleepover and Caro was going rather than asking if Caro could go home. We loved that for Caro. I also loved when they were at the sleepover, and Viola and Evie were so supportive in letting Caro just cry out all these pent up emotions and fear of finally going through with emancipation. Doing so would inevitably change her life forever, but in a good way. But it’s not easy taking that first step.
When Caro stuck up for herself to Helena, I was IMMENSELY proud and happy for her. I can only imagine how difficult that must have been for Caro to respectfully tell off the person who has been keeping her down. OOOH, but when Caro and Roane threatened Helena not to do anything or bother Caro because they knew Helena had been using Caro’s trust-fund money, I was like “YOU GOT HER THERE!” Serve her butt on a platter! I am not too sure about financial things, but I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to use someone else’s funds or to swing their money your way; It wasn’t Helena’s money to use, so the only reason she guilted and kept Caro around was for her money. What a gold digger. I detest.
I was proud that Caro packed up her things and decided to leave. When I said I related to Caro earlier, Italso thought of this quote that Evie thought to herself when she was helping Caro gather her stuff out of Helena’s house.
“Caro hadn’t been given the chance yet to become an adult.”
(pg. 166)
I lived at home most of my life and dormed for college for one and a half years (the pandemic cut my second dorm year short). But I remember when I dormed, I was really sad. But the second year I dormed, that year and a half, I became comfortable in dorming and living on my own for the first time because I felt like I was an adult. I had my own schedule, I could do my own thing, I would go to the library to study. It was the first taste of freedom I actually enjoyed. Then the pandemic happened and I went home. I live back at home, and given the state of the home market and the cost of living in my state, I don’t feel like I’m moving out soon. I feel like Caro in having not been given the chance to become an adult yet. I had a tantalizing taste of it, but I don’t know what being an adult means to me yet. I don’t know what it’s like not living at home, having meals cooked for me or someone washing the dishes or taking out the trash. I don’t know what it’s like to pay bills or clean cars or all this housework things. I am beyond thankful to live at home, and don’t feel like there’s anything wrong if a person does live at home. I also enjoyed living at home to an extent. . .but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live on my own like I did in the dorm. I wonder what it would be like to feel that sort of freedom? Because when you live with your parents, it leaves little room to figure out adult things when you have your parents still watching and dictating your every move. Sure, you don’t need to legally listen to your parents after 18 because you are an adult, but when you live under their roof, you kind of still feel like a kid who lives under their rules, or that’s how I feel. I don’t want to speak for everyone. But being back home this past two years, it’s been so weird because I feel like I am an adult, but I haven’t done adult things or at least things that I feel free to do. I don’t feel like I have been given the chance to yet become an adult.
Adulting is probably overrated and I don’t really mind not paying bills yet and having all these responsibilities, but I do wonder about being an adult and going out with friends or having friends over or staying out at night. Or being an adult and cooking a meal or two or whatever. But the more that I think about it now, the more I realize how lucky I am to be at home and to slowly figure out what being an adult means to me—-that adulting doesn’t have to be full throttle, get an apartment and do everything at once. We can grow up at our own pace. Look at me having an epiphany as I write this. Yea, heck with adulting. Slow down. Enjoy where you are now. You can be an adult for the rest of your life and figure things out and what that means to you, but live in the moment and have fun with what you have and what you can do. Enjoy.
Wow, I really learned something today.
But I was proud of Caro because she was going to get that taste of freedom. That’s nerve wracking, but exhilarating. I felt the same when I went to dorm. I was also excited for her baking business. Screw the guy who told her he didn’t want her baking at her shop because he was scared of Helena. It was his loss. Caro said, “I’m going to prove you wrong!” 👏🏼 I loved how Evie jumpstarted Caro chasing after her dreams by initiating the bake sale booth at the market. I also loved how Evie always stood up for Caro when Caro wasn’t around; it says a lot about a person in how they talk about you when no one is listening.
I was kind of surprised at Caro’s bite she had. The smallest dogs have the biggest bark. But it was sweet because Caro cared about Roane and didn’t want him to get hurt if Evie and him decided to start or not start something. They protected each other, which I loved—family looking out for family. Evie supporting Caro was another big reason he loved her because how could you not admire someone who loves your family and does as much to protect them. Evie was checking all the boxes for Roane, I could feel it.
There was also the story with Viola and Lucas.
First, I want to say I loved Viola’s mom, Milly. She was hilarious, what a sweet woman. She always knew what Evie wanted and she teased Evie endlessly about Roane. Also, I freaking adored Viola. She gets her humor and affable nature from her mom. What a gem too.
“I know he’s your cousin, Caro, but that man is sex on a stick.”
(pg. 145)
I could not 😂.
I could not with Viola and Lucas. They had an interesting story, but it definitely could have been done in another book. Right off the bat, they gave enemies to lovers realness.
Their feud stemmed from Milly and Lucas Elliot who were in love until Milly fell in love with Dexter who they now owned a pub together. Lucas Elliot was bitter because he thought he would marry Milly until she went off and unexpectedly fell in love with someone else. So, there was this huge feud between the families and the town where you either stayed or ate at Milly and Dexter’s pub or you stayed and ate at Elliot’s castle on the other side of town. For a small town, it’s understandable why they were interested in such dramatics of a long ago relationship. They honestly all should have said a skeet skeet and moved on. I mean, I think Lucas Elliot remarried, so I don’t know why he was so bitter. He needed to get over himself. Because Lucas Elliot and Milly had bad blood, it was a tacit that their kids also have bad blood.
They obviously liked each other but hid it under their feigned disdain for each other. They were giving Romeo and Juliet vibes also. I really hoped that they wouldn’t end up like Romeo and Juliet if you know what I mean. They didn’t seem to be going in that direction until the end 🙈 . . . but they had good banter. I could feel the underlying sexual tension there 😂. Even the way Lucas looked at Viola or when he said something that crossed a line and he could see Viola’s hurt, I knew it hurt him and he felt awful about it. That meant he cared for her and liked her and just didn’t know how else to show it. Also, he was jealous when Viola talked about boys, ergo he liked her as more than a friend. Viola also liked Lucas the same way by the way she talked about him and looked at him. She also didn’t like feeling like she crossed a line when they had their little heated arguments. Evie and I are true romantics so we knew what was going on between them.
When she said she wasn’t going to meddle, I was like she’s definitely going to meddle. Things were not going to go well if she meddled. Sis, really wasn’t discreet in her meddling either when she talked to Lucas about Viola or Viola about Lucas and how Evie both felt like they liked each other. Way not to meddle and plant a seed, Evie. I also found it kind of funny how you could tell Evie was meddling out of a place of regret. She had all these past relationships she regretted not doing anything about, so she didn’t want Lucas and Viola to go their life without acting on their feelings when something magical could have happened. I agree, but I also thought it wasn’t her place to force anything. But she sure got something started, so I give her credit for pushing them to finally acknowledging their feelings. It was just a matter of time.
Because Evie meddled, Lucas and Viola were caught sneaking around and being all in love, but Viola knew they couldn’t have anything more because of their parent’s feud. It honestly hurt knowing that they wanted to be together but their parents’ old time arguing got in the way of their happiness, so now both their hearts were broken. I could tell how much Lucas loved her. They worked things out because they were found sneaking in the closet at the pub or something, but honestly, I don’t know how we went from a joyous moment (which I’ll talk about later) to Dexter bringing out a gun because he caught Lucas and Viola doing it. That was a bit awkward and weird. I mean, the motto of the book, let them live! Literally.
But again, I just felt like their plot line was squeezed into the book when it could have been a whole entire book where we could have gotten more background on Lucas and Viola. We could have seen their relationship before this point and them actually trying to get together and their progression to a relationship. That would have been a nice spin-off story to read, heck, I was looking forward to that spin-off story when I felt the enemies-to-lovers banter between them.
Viola, Caro, and Evie also had such a cute friendship. We love women supporting women. It was so cute when they had one of their girl talks, this one about how as women, we should downplay if we feel confident or smart. I agree, because we get lambasted as being too confident or a know-it-all if we love ourselves or if we are smart. Or as Evie put it, women are thought of as arrogant or superior. But guys get called cocky, which isn’t fair because women can love themselves and be proud and be smart and be proud. It doesn’t and isn’t a bad thing.
“If you know you’re smart, then demand that other people treat you as someone of intelligence. If you look in the mirror and you like what you see, then halle-[freaking]-lujan” I exclaimed. “Believe me, I spent way too much of my youth, and still do, picking apart my appearance instead of being grateful for what I have . . do not ever apologize for liking who you are. It’s a beautiful mindset.”
(pg. 199)
I thought it was soooo cute when Caro got up and applauded because she was like “I’m sorry, but that speech deserved an applause.” Yea, it did! But the way Caro said it and clapped was sooo cute 🥺. I love Caro. They all balanced each other well with Viola as the bubbly and fierce one, Evie was determined and loyal, and Caro was gentle and caring.
The third plot that felt a bit much was the Maggie and Annie plot. I understood that the Maggie and Annie plot was a reflection of Evie and her mom with how if Evie could mean Maggie and Annie’s relationship, it was almost like mending her relationship with her mom. She was projecting her healing towards others rather than herself.
“They’d both let down their daughters in a big way. But they also weren’t bad people. Not at all. . . . The very opposite, in fact. But she’s disappointed and hurt me a lot over the years.”
(pg. 272)
Just because people do bad things, might not always mean they are bad people. I believe people want to be good and their intentions or beliefs don’t reflect that, and they hurt others. But Maggie wasn’t a bad person, she seemed like a good person, but her beliefs weren’t what was safe or welcoming to her daughter’s. So, it created this rift.
I liked how Evie planted ideas in Maggie’s brain to talk to her daughter and to apologize. I feel like sometimes we let grudges just be without returning to them when it’s too late to have healed something. Maggie and Annie needed to have their conversation a long time ago when Maggie finally felt like she could talk to her daughter because I bet Annie wanted to talk to her mom or have the mom be in her life even if the mom was passive when Annie came out. Maggie not accepting Annie as who she was also made me think about how sometimes the most unlikely people can be the people who have different views. But I’m happy they reconciled at the end.
All these other stories in the book felt like a big ploy for Evie fixing the town’s problems without fixing her own. Originally, she was going to stay for three weeks, but that seemed too short considering the book had more pages by the time three weeks was up. But it did make me sad when Evie started to feel attached to the town and all these people who gave her a reason to stay.
One of the only reasons she would have gone back to Chicago after three weeks was her best friend Greer, I liked Greer. She was funny, loyal, and feisty. She also was a good friend to Evie and meant well. Greer was also very pregnant and thought that Evie would go to Northumberland for a short stay, however, she feared Evie would like it there better and stay. Greer wasn’t wrong to fear because I think she could tell that Evie needed to get away, and that she could find some place better. As much as Greer wanted Evie to come back and stay with her, I could tell Greer wanted Evie to be happy.
“This is your life, and what you said before you left is true. Your friends can’t stand still for you, but you can’t be our sidekick as our lives move forward. I don’t want you to be lonely,” she sniffled. “It kills me that you were lonely here.”
The tears that had been threatening let loose.
“You’re not lonely there, are you?”
“No.”
(pg. 130)
I think about my best friend and how devastated and selfish I would feel if she found somewhere else she wanted to live. I would be broken-hearted because she got me through moments in my life I never thought I would come through. But I know if my best friend moved somewhere that made her genuinely happy, I would want her to stay there because. her happiness means a lot more than my happiness if she was with me. My best friend actually mentioned to me recently how she was thinking of moving one day, and just the possibility scares me and makes me sad, but I know that wherever she goes, we’ll always be friends. I think it takes a lot to let a person go if we love them so much. I could feel that love here. I loved Greer for wanting her friend to be happy 💚. I appreciated that Samantha Young gave us their running relationship dynamic because in some books, Greer would drop off the face of the book until we saw her again. But I liked that we had these phone call scenes because we could feel the love they had for each other—a love that knew no distance.
I failed to talk about the one true love of this book: Roane and Evie. I mean, I’ve talked about them, but that was when they were just friends.
She knew she liked him. We all knew she liked him, but we all knew that she didn’t want to fall in love with someone for a short time and then leave him because that would break his and her heart. I respected that she thought about how he would feel and how she would feel.
“He wanted more than I was giving him.
And he deserved to have everything he wanted.”
(pg. 153)
I also understood how she didn’t want to lose herself when she came to Northumberland to focus on herself.
“However, if I gave in to the desire, I knew I’d lose myself instead of trying to find myself without him.”
(pg. 194)
I really loved what she said there 💚. It showed how she still knew she wanted to focus on herself because if she didn’t, she wouldn’t know who she was if she started something with him. Also, I always heard that it’s when you stop looking for love that you find it. She found love with Roane and didn’t want to say that it was love because she wasn’t looking for it. But of course . . . life has a funny way of bringing you what you need when you are ready.
We love healthy jealousy. It worked wonders. That woman who was all up on Roane never heard of personal space. We love healthy jealousy. It worked wonders. That woman who was all up on Roane never heard of personal space. OOOOH, when she made a grab at him, I was like, “He could file sexual harassment,” because ti was plain and simple sexual harassment. I would have been peezed for him. I would have felt violated. That sis had got to go. Also, I loved how everyone joked around Roane; he was a good sport about it sometimes. Like when he put on the lady porn shirt because of the joke Evie made about him being walking lady porn (pg. 183). I knew he just put on the shirt to make Evie laugh because he loved seeing her happy. The way he looked at her when they took that picture of him in the lady porn shirt. Gosh, you know the meme or the saying of “Get you someone who looks at you the way ________ looks at _________.” I just thought of that when Roane looked at her instead of the camera because he couldn’t’ take his eyes off her 🥺. That’s not how a friend looks at another friend. And the way they continued to touch each other was very sensual and not how a friend should touch a friend, especially with those hot fire feelings.
“Flushing, I huffed, “Oh, you know you’re gorgeous, Robson. You don’t need me to stroke your ego.”
“I beg to differ.” He was suddenly no longer smiling as we drew to a stop in front of the store. “It’s getting to the point only you can.”
(pg. 184)
Someone cleans my mind with holy water because I SCREAMED 😆.
I know EXACTLY what he meant by that 😏. YOOOOEKEKEKEKEKS. He said, you are the only one who can satisfy ✌🏼.
Yea, I need to go to church.
At this point, we needed the action. And FREAKING Samantha Young came through with the action. She said, let me set the scene, let’s build it up. I COULD NOt. They had a cute little farm date because we love farmer Roane. Gosh darn, I never thought a farmer could be hot, but HOT DARN. Me when I imagine a farmer:
E-I-E-I-O am I right? Yikes. I’m joking, but farmer Roane can farm all he wants. E-I-E-I-O.
I freaking cackled when Roane took his shirt off and washed off with the water “pump” and then he wet his hair. Then he gave the smolder, or I imagine the smolder. He knew what he was doing getting half naked and wet. What made me cackle was when she actually jumped his bones. I was like SIS, don’t come off too eager 🤪! She really said I want action tonight. She’s also a Chris Evans gal because she could appreciate his muscular a**. I could not. They had their spice 😉. It was about darn time if I’m being honest. I was waiting 200 pages for some action. But I liked how they had an honest conversation afterward because it was obvious they didn’t want to be just friends. Evie got scared of having a life with him because she still had things she needed to do back home. I felt like in the end she would go back to Chicago to tie up loose ends, but we didn’t know yet. But I could understand how commitment was scary for her when she hadn’t been in a serious relationship for a long time and had anyone in her life who stayed besides Greer.
I also freaking laughed when everyone basically sang hallelujah that they were finally together. Freaking of course, they all had bets on when they would get together. We loved that they were invested in the relationship. But what made me tear up a bit was when Roane overheard Evie telling Greer she wanted to try to stay there, and how much he loved her. Evie talked about how she had never been in love or felt like she found love before Roane because she was in shiny relationships, but when she was Roane, she felt like she found it—-she found love.
” . . . and as I thought about my dating life over the years, I realized that I’d never actually believed I’d meet the love of my life. Deep down, I thought it was a fairy tale that other people got to live.
It made me breathless to realize I’d been wrong.
I found him.
I found my one.”
(pg. 267)
That inflated my hopeless romantic heart 🥺💚.
It just makes me think about how most people want to find love or be loved, and how we lose hope that we will ever find the right person. But it’s never too late to find the right one, and it’s not just a fairy tale. I mean, they base the stories off of something, right? Here is your sign that you will find the one someday 💚.
When Roane acted suspicious, I was like, what’s up with him. He seemed nervous.
HE FREAKING PROPOSED 😩💚!!!!! I guess, when you know, you. know! A bit soon, but I guess he loved her and I was here for it. Gosh, if she said no, I was about to offer my hand in marriage. Joking. Not really. But this was the part I said earlier that I don’t know how it turned into Roane proposing to Viola and Lucas running out and Dexter chasing them with a gun. That really ruined the mood. But I loved that we got to see him propose!! For a second, I was like, this bro better not be playing us by getting a knee and tying a shoe 😂. I would have cried for her.
Roane was still nervous about something and kept saying he needed to talk to Evie about something. I felt like he was hiding something because he had all these secret connections. He also seemed distant about his parents or his history. We didn’t really get to know Roane as much. My first guess was that he wasn’t rich because he was a farmer. Not to say that farmer’s aren’t rich or can’t be rich, but in my mind I was thinking Roane lived in a small town and he worked on a farm all his life, farmers don’t make as much as doctors or lawyers. So I don’t know if he was hiding that he wasn’t actually rich and that he didn’t want to tell her because he thought Evie would leave him.
I was WAAAAYYYYYYY off.
When she found out he was a Duke, I was like, DARN. He’s a rich b****. And here I was thinking he was not rich 😂. The signs were there—-all his connections and respect in town and why he was the most eligible bachelor. I mean, everyone wanted to marry the Duke. So, I don’t want to call Evie overactive because women always get called dramatic and over-active, but I really think she overreacted at the moment. Her judgment was clouded by her anger with being kind fo lied to because she felt like she didn’t even know Roane, which granted they met two months ago and then only started dating for a few weeks before he proposed. It was no surprise they didn’t know each other that much because heck, Roane didn’t even really talk about himself. Also, how did she not know his real age. You would think that would have come up in their conversations, but again, their relationship just seemed more flirty and sexually and I would have liked more meet-cute dates or deep conversations about themselves. You know, some sustenance to this relationship. That’s also not to say I’m opposed to an age gap because I’m not, but she was shocked by his age, and I think if she was going to marry him, she should have known that basic fact 🤪.Also, not to joke, but to joke, why was she crying that he was rich 😅? Like sis, at least he’s not a murderer or a creep.
I think she was a bit hasty in calling off the proposal because she could have just run away from him and told him she needed space to process what he said. But I also wasn’t completely mad that she gave him back his ring because they barely knew each other and should spend more time getting to know each other before taking that step. But if they still wanted to marry each other, I thought she just needed to process the information because she was reacting to the situation, which was normal. I also thought her hasty exit from Northumberland was expected, but again, a bit much considering Roane’s lie wasn’t the biggest deal. Not to invalidate her emotions at all! She had every right to feel angry and hurt. He kept a big secret from her, but I think she needed time. Northumberland was her home, and Milly was right when she told Evie that the shop above the library was now her home and the people cared for her as much as she did them.
Gosh, but when Roane showed up to see her off, I was like aww darn. He was going to let her go because if you love them set them free. But I could just feel his heart ripping out of his chest, and the fact that he said that she was it for him and that he would never love another and that he would become a shell of a man, I was like, “EVIE!!! Stay!!!” Don’t make Roane a shell of a man, he loves you. When she turned back and saw him crying< I started to tear up because she hurt him as much as she was hurting herself by leaving the one place and person that felt like home.
“I’d been lonely in Chicago, but it had never broken my heart.”
(pg. 327)
Chicago never broke her heart because she had no one in her life there that loved her enough to break her heart (except Greer).
Honestly, good for Greer for talking some gosh darn good sense into her because she needed it 👏🏼!
“A white lie. Okay, two white lies. But he’s not your mom. This doesn’t mean he’ll lie to you again. Or that everything he showed you about who he is isn’t the whole truth. Don’t you think if you can forgive your mom for years of disappointing you, you can forgive him for one slip-up.”
(pg. 329)
I mean, Greer had a point!!!!!
Evie was hasty with not trusting Roane because of the false hope her mom always gave her when the mom lied about finally getting better. So, Evie didn’t want to believe in Roane because of her past hurt; she didn’t want to be with someone who could hurt her so much like her mom did her. But over the story and through Maggie and Annie’s story, Evie healed and made peace with her mom, so Evie should know that not everyone is going to lie to her or deceive her. I do believe that no one should lie in a relationship, and Roane better not lie, but I don’t think he was lying because he was trying to tell her, he just wasn’t upfront about it, which was still bad, but not a huge huge deal. In my opinion. But I could understand why Evie or anyone would believe Roane lying was a huge deal because he wasn’t honest, which is true. But Evie really had some sense slapped into her because she realized how she did react to old hurt and left the two things she loved. I also loved that other mini heart-to-heart Evie had with her mom because the mom could see how much Evie was hurting by not being where she loved with the person she loved. I appreciated that the mom was trying to do right by Evie in letting her be happy.
GOSH DARN, when Roane saw her, the waterworks show went off 😭. When he called her angel????? AHHHHHHH! I kid you not. I kind of wondered what was running through his mind because he was in the middle of working, so was he all disoriented and then seeing Evie felt like a mirage in the distance, but when it was actually her, did he think she was a literal angel??? I love how much he loves her and treated her 🥺. Also, one of the things I would have LOVED and would have really taken the book to another level was if we got Roane’s POVs in the time they were separated because it would have been interesting to know what was going through his mind and how he was feeling. I felt like he was a shell of a man and had a lot of hurt that I would have liked to see to understand his side of the story. I also think his perspective of reuniting with Evie would have been grand. Just imagine his thoughts.
I practically melted when he gave her back the ring because it was around his freaking neck!!!! This guy’s a pure romantic and a loyalist because he was about to carry that ring around his neck for the rest of his life even if Evie never came back. That’s what I call COMMITMENT 👏🏼🤪!
I liked their reunion, but I also felt like the ending was a bit rushed because they had all these months between them that I would have liked a conversation about. I also wanted to know more about if Evie actually felt comfortable being a future Duchess or that dynamic. I also wondered how they were going to build their relationship beyond just sweet talk and sex. The epilogue also felt a bit rushed with being told about what happened to everyone and not feeling shown what was happening to everyone. I would have loved to not go through the motions of the events and live in the moment or feel what happened.
I am happy everyone got a happy ending because gosh knows there were enough stories and characters to go around to have a happy ending.
“Think about it, Evie. When you’re forty, your husband will still be a hot, young thirty something. You’re like my hero.”
(pg. 352)
A big age gap between people is always frowned upon by people because they think it’s weird, especially if the woman is older. But love knows no age (when legal, appropriate, and consensual) and I feel like Roane and Evie did have something special together. I would have still liked a bit more with their relationship, but I enjoyed their romance story. I also enjoyed Caro, Viola and Lucas, and Dexter and Milly’s story. I would have liked their stories a bit more if certain characters had their own book to fully develop those storylines. I’m looking at Caro’s life and romance and Viola and Lucas 😉. But other than that, the book had it’s swoon, cute moments. I also loved the love and growth in the small town vibes that we got.
I’m excited to see what comes next with a certain Bryan Holmes from London who was a writer and wanted to do his own Eat, Pray, Love journey and a certain Erin Branston who discovered she had a cheating, no good husband. I feel like there’s a future story there. We met Erin when she walked into Much Ado and talked to Evie about seeing Maggie and Annie make-up and hugging it out. She seemed like a random character at the moment, so I didn’t pay much mind to her.
But if Northumberland has proved anything to me, it’s that love is definitely in the air 💚.
Anyway, what was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part?
What did you think of the book? Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕
If you could go to any place in the world for a self-discovery journey, where would you go?
I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this 😊.
And as always, with love,
Rating
3.86 Full Bloom Flowers
Characters: Roane can farm my front yard anytime 😅. Evie can stock my bookshelves and design them too. All jokes aside, a diverse personality of characters who were fun and loving.
Writing: Samantha Young knows how to make you swoon and she packs a lot of content in her stories.
Plot: I loved the main storyline with Roane and Evie, but I felt like there was too many storylines going on with Lucas and Viola, Caro, Milly and Elliot Lucas, and Maggie and Annie that the main storyline got lost in the other ones. I felt like if we focused on Roane and Evie—really building up their relationship—and maybe one or two side storylines, that would have been better.
Romance: I need to go hang out on the side of the street and wait to save someone’s dog so I can find me a Roane.