“There’s bad and good in everything. It’s like beer.”
“Of course, it is.”
“You have malt, which can be wheat or barley. I’ll always choose barley, but that’s not the point. The malt is the sweet. It’s usually a pretty color and it smells good when it’s milled. But no one makes a beer with only malt. If they do, they’re idiots because it’s so syrupy it has no right to be called beer. Any brew master will tell you the key to a good beer is balance, so you add hops. Hops are funky looking, sticky to touch when it’s wet, and bitter. It takes down the sweetness of anything. There’s all kinds of other crap that needs to be adjusted too, but you get the point.”
Sweet, cozy, and just the perfect read I didn't know I needed! This is a lovely standalone about letting go of the past and letting in love. My favorite takeaway from the book was that settling on being "fine" in order to avoid being hurt by someone again just means you're hurting yourself.
While I loved the themes, it was the characters that really made this book. I especially loved the interactions between Boyd, Ella and Mason. I also liked that both Boyd and Ella realized that they needed to change, and I liked that Ella realized that she needed Boyd to make a commitment to their relationship and refused to accept less. It felt like there was a lot of growth on both sides. I also loved Boyd's brothers and am looking forward to reading more about Trick and Cade!
This is a clean romance (of the fade-to-black type) but the description of their attraction and kisses (especially that first one, wow!) was plenty spicy for me.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.