Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Audiobook: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Spice: 🌶️🌶️

by Kate Canterbary

I recently posted a reading list of books without a third-act breakup, and several people aggressively came into my DMs to inform me how wrong I was about this book because it had “the worst 3rd act breakup of all time.” Since it had been 18 months since I read it, and I’d never reviewed it for this account, I decided it was time for a re-read. 

After her wedding implodes on her wedding day, Shay is at a crossroads. She loves her friends and job, but the life and home she thought she was building are gone. Then she gets a certified letter that she has inherited her step-grandmother’s tulip farm in rural Rhode Island. The catch is that she has to live there and be married in a year to inherit. With no desire to marry but a need to escape, Shay decides she can at least live on the farm that gave her the only happy memories of her childhood before she loses it. Once in town, she’s surprised that the neighboring farm is now a dreamy farmers market jam, bread, dairy, and vegetable empire with cows, goats, rescue dogs, chickens, and a very handsome owner – who happens to be her high school friend Noah. But Noah is no longer her chubby, acne-prone friend; he is something else ENTIRELY. Once a Manhattan attorney, Noah is in the middle of a personal crisis that has left him running the family farm and as the guardian of his swearing, pirate-loving niece. Also, he’s been in love with Shay since high school, which is why he offers to marry her so she can keep the farm. Thus starts an adorable fake dating, friends to lovers, marriage of convenience, small town, slow burn story that is as unique as it is captivating.

Ok, first and foremost…my memory wasn’t failing me. There isn’t anything even remotely resembling a third-act breakup in this book. Instead, a big third-act reveal is both dramatic and emotional, taking the characters and the readers on a rollercoaster of feelings. Each character has a personal arc, a journey of self-discovery and growth, and the storylines that bring Shay and Noah together. Noah’s niece, a character who steals almost every page on which she appears, is an integral part of this emotional journey, a character that you’ll genuinely come to love. You’ll fall in love with this small town and these well-rounded characters as they get a second chance to fall in love.