Look, this book has a lesbian hermit space farmer. I’m pretty sure that’s all I have to say to explain why I picked this book up!
“So what in the world was Shy’s entire problem? She was hot as sin and blessed with a voice that could melt permafrost, but clearly her brain was housing one too many issues of her lifetime subscription to Mad Hermit Farmer Quarterly.”
Shiloh, known as Shy, is perfectly content with her thirty acres of farming bliss on Sirona. Or at least, she thinks she’s content, until Thisbe shows up at her doorstep with a storm on her heels. Thisbe, escaping from her evil family on Earth, was meant to become a mail-order bride to someone on the complete opposite side of the planet – but then she met Shy. Stuck together during the storm, the two can’t deny their attraction to each other. But when the storm clears out, will Thisbe be gone as well?
“You are a life saver!” Thisbe exclaimed as she jumped up from her seat. “Can… can I hug you? I’m a hugger.”
“Of course you are and no, you may certainly not.”
So we’ve obviously got one of my favorite tropes – grumpy vs sunshine. I thought Shy was an excellent character, perfectly grumpy and set in her ways, but it took me a bit to warm up to poor-rich-girl Thisbe. They have instant chemistry, though, and they’re absolutely adorable together, from Thisbe’s attempt to cook breakfast for Shy (which naturally backfires) to their stumbling steps towards a relationship in the latter half of the book (they get googley-eyed over making a grocery list together.) Neither have ever had a serious relationship, so there’s a lot of blushing and aww-ing over their relationship firsts. It’s sweet, but the instalove was unrealistic for me and made me doubt the strength of the HEA. They’ve only known each other for a few days and all of sudden they want to get married and live together?
“Thisbe got up and wrapped her arms around Shy’s shoulders. Her eyes sparkled in a way that made Shy want to spend every waking moment thinking up more new ways to make Thisbe exactly that happy over and over again.”
I loved the first half of the book – Shy’s daily life, Thisbe’s escape from Earth and their initial meeting and start of their relationship – but felt letdown by the ending. The light tone – the humor, the silly puns that I absolutely loved – didn’t fit well with the seriousness of Thisbe’s conflict with her parents, and there was a bit of handwaving with that part of the plot at the end that left me frustrated. I did love all the descriptions of Sirona, and there’s a particularly lovely moment on a starlit hillside. The secondary characters were a bit underdone, besides Wallis, Shy’s farmhand, who was the perfect foil for Shy.
So, overall, while there was a lot about this book that didn’t work for me, there were things that worked well enough – Shy and Thisbe’s relationship, the setting – that I’ll be keeping an eye out for Ms. Dawes’ next book.
I received this book for free from Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.