And given that indie authors tend to have surprise releases, maybe we should be more on the lookout for the spontaneous gems that come our way. Rhodes was a DILF without him even having to ~tRy~ or be married first and conceive baby Amos conventionally. I always felt like this one had a slower start than some of her other ones and therefore I always put different ones on top of this one on my favorites list —- but now that I reread it, I realized that I was so wrong about thinking that and it actually has more or less the same pacing as all of her other books that I love - I think I just felt that way because this was the first one I read, so at the time I wasn’t used to her style yet.

And by the time they do, it’s nearing so close to the end that things, unfortunately, move too quickly. So we’ve got the perfect setting, an age gap, a silver fox, a grumpy/sunshine trope, a single dad with the sweetest kid, a small town with lovely friendly people, MZ famous slow burn romance, and we’ve got ourselves a weekend well spent!

read 02/06/2023: Thank you, for letting me share one of my favorite books with you, honeycake ❤ I'm glad you loved this one as much as I did. She chose the town where her existence took a tragic turn twenty years before and end up with a silver fox grumpy dad, landlord who doesn’t specially like her. I was hoping this would give me the feels that The Simple Wild gave me but unfortunately the good stuff in this book could've been condensed to maybe 375/400 pages, even tho I LOVE LOVE LOVE a good 500+ page book esp if it's from mariana. And indie authors thrive off of an interactive experience; it’s the reason why we keep coming back to them.

For her career she moved away and now she's back at her childhood home where she lived with her mum until a certain age. I’d come up with the idea of going back to Pagosa Springs two weeks ago in the middle of the night while the weight of every choice I’d made in the last fourteen years rested on my soul—not for the first time either, more like the thousandth—and I’d fought not to cry.I’d thought about making a list, but I was done with lists and schedules; I’d spent the last decade listening to other people tell me what I could and couldn’t do. It wasn't even 200 pages in when the two were already having a conversation as if Rhodes hadn't yelled at her 100 pages before. I think part of the reason why I love this book so much is because it focuses so heavily on character dynamics and relationships. For so many reasons I absolutely loved it - but I think one thing that stood out to me this time was how unrushed the ending felt in comparison to a lot of her other books where I’m always begging for just one or two more chapters. a year later, she decides to move back to her childhood home and do many of the things her mother used to do.