Book Smart Kate

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

by Tarah DeWitt – As readers, we all find writers whose style gets under our skin in the best way. Tarah DeWitt is one of those for me, and Rootbound, set on a ranch in Idaho, solidified her as an auto-buy author for me.

When Tait’s parents divorced, she was shut off entirely from her father, his family, and the Idaho ranch they had called home. Over the last 20 years, she wasn’t happy about it, but she’d made her peace with it. The same could be said for her divorce, dwindling finances, lack of friends, and disinterest in romantic relationships. She wasn’t happy, but she was OK. She has her career as a professional photographer – and she is damn good at it. But when her next assignment sends her home to the ranch owned by her estranged family, now the set of a hugely popular Yellowstone-esque TV show, she will have to face the people who abandoned her. Although she can’t decline the job, it is only six weeks, and she can leave it all behind. Returning home, Tait anticipated some of the people she’d find – her dad, uncle, grandma. What she didn’t plan for was Henry, the aggravatingly handsome and cheerful man to whom the family she despises was his saving grace. Fiercely protective of the found family he loves, Henry keeps a close eye on Tait, but there is also an undeniable attraction that is bound to boil over.

Sometimes I cry during a book. It is usually at around the 70-80% mark. I cried IN THE PROLOGUE of this book. THE PROLOGUE. I loved how DeWitt wrote such deeply complex backstories for the characters, gave them each room to grow, and allowed them to be open to that growth. So much of this book is about family – Tait coming to terms with her biological family and Henry’s complex relationship with his found family. It was so interesting to watch them navigate very different perspectives on the same people while also trying not to give in to their growing attraction (but when they do give in, they REALLY give in). The audiobook is outstanding and it is a very quick listen! If you like Elsie Silver or Lyla Sage, you will want to pick this one up.

What’s a book you’d recommend to me?