Small Town Hearts by Lillie Vale

Small Town Hearts

by Lillie Vale

Babe Vogel has spent her whole life in the postcard perfect small coastal town of Oar’s Rest, Maine. She works at the local coffee shop, the Busy Bean, lives in a lighthouse, and has a tight group of friends she’s known since birth.

When NYC-based artist Levi Keller turns up at the Busy Bean, Babe can immediately tell he’s from “out of town.” Levi is determined to live like a hermit and remain a mystery to the Oar’s Rest natives, but Babe won’t allow it. She takes Levi under her wing and shows him how the Maine locals live.

But as the seasons pass and Babe and Levi’s friendship becomes something more, they both have to figure out if they can balance small-town living with big-city dreams. Is Levi just a “summer boy,' destined to go home when the seasons change, or is he in Oar’s Rest to stay?

Reviewed by readingwithwrin on

4 of 5 stars

Share
Thank you to NetGalley, and Xpresso Book Tours for a free arc.
Small Town Hearts is such a fun and sweet summer read that can truly be read anytime of the year.

Babe Vogel is a character that you will immediately fall in love with. She has been on her own for a while now living in a lighthouse that she absolutely loves, and now that she is officially done with high school she can work full time on her passion. Working at the local coffee shop where she gets to showcase her baking and is now the manager of the store. She loves her job dearly and it really shows throughout the story as she makes several important decision for the shop and for her future. We also see Babe’s personal life through friendship struggles, ex’s showing up, and possibly even a new love interest. Babe is bisexual and I loved how this was shown in a very natural way and how it was never made to be a big deal throughout the book and how supportive everyone was about it.

Overall I really liked this story. Babe is a strong character who is also still a teenager trying to figure everything out. She did seem a little bit more mature at times but I blame that on the fact that she is a manager and has been living alone for quite a while. The love interests shown in this story were heartbreaking and also lovely to see unfold. We get to see a failed relationship and how it can still affect someone months after it has ended, and how it makes them uneasy about certain things in future relationships. I’m really glad this was shown because a lot of the time we just see this get pushed to the side and just forgotten in stories. Now for the friendships in this book. There were so many great friendship moments between Babe and Lucy, and how work friends can become best friends over time. I also liked Babe’s relationship with Penny and Chad and how we got to see their friendship evolve over time and how things can fall apart and come back together when times get rough.

Small Town Hearts has so many great friendship moments that made me fall in love with it. Yes, the romance was also a big element of the story, but it wasn’t the main focus and Babe had so many other interests in it without that being the main focus of the story. I’m really excited to see a healthy friendship being showcased more in YA books and I hope this trend continues.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 19 March, 2019: Finished reading
  • 19 March, 2019: Reviewed