This was an interesting lesbian romance as it focused in older characters and most ones i've read focus on those who are thirty and older. I loved the relationship and it's up and downs but the whole subplot regarding who owned the land i didn't really need and i just wanted more pure romance rather than that drama. It felt unnecessary and like tacking on a plot as the story felt it was missing something otherwise.

Extremely interesting story. Loved the fact that most characters were bisexual. That the story promotes friendship, kindness, respect. From bakery owner who almost lost everything, to gaining not only what was hers, but acquiring love interest as well. All started with Parking war and ended in community coming together.
Honestly, I wish I was living there!
Great story. Might be slow on the beginning, but picks up quarter into the book.

3* Some parts were decent, some parts were awkward, but a book that's worth reading.

This is a nicely written book but I struggled with it from the start - and my bad - because the leads were older ladies. Sorry, but 58/60 is not the ages I expected them to be, and I can only say thank goodness that there wasn't anything graphic here, as I would have stopped reading. As I said, it's my bad and yes, I'm being ageist, but Marianne came across as even older than her years, and the image I formed in my head wasn't flattering, so yeah, I was taken aback.

What I liked about the tale is how the locals felt about each other, how they helped each other out, stood up for each other and rallied round when Marianne and Rana's businesses were endangered. The bad element of this book got his comeuppance and I liked him sinking himself, so to speak. What I struggled to believe was the 'all colours of the LGBT+ rainbow' that supposedly populated this small town in 2020 USA. Yes, I'd have loved to see a town like this, but to have a couple of age-gap, married lesbians (one of whom was MtF trans)/a bi, ace female of 58yo (with kids who were possibly bi/pan and/or gender fluid)/a possibly bi female of 60yo/a possibly bi male of 60yo/a 20-something lesbian couple (passing through, admittedly, but saying that they wanted to move there)/a FtM trans person and everyone being so open and accepting, didn't ring true. The use of preferred and/or correct pronouns, that everyone seemed to excel at - which I'm all for to be respectful and to educate myself - just came across like the author was trying too hard to be correct and PC, but it made the tale feel unrealistic. It felt inorganic, sorry and I couldn't believe the tale or the people or the place, though I'd have loved to. It felt like the author had crammed too much in in a passionate outpouring - from her Author's Note, it's clear that she's worked long and hard on this tale.

As an ethnic minority (vaguely) Asian female, I'd have liked to know more about Rana's past, as she's a Muslim woman who's only been in the US for about 15 years, and there wasn't much of a description of her, nor any info about her marriage and stuff. There was a hint about her FIL not being a good person, or at least one who might have been a bit of a bully, but nothing about the husband, nothing about her and her sexuality and how she'd coped in a less-than-open, less-than-accepting, male-dominated society (I have some experience of the latter, and it's not easy being a female there). What of her children and their thoughts and/or support for their mother? Would there be a case of toxic masculinity with her son, maybe, or would he be accepting and supportive? The latter, I hope, but we didn't get any info.

The tale had good ingredients, but not in the right proportion to make it believable, so it felt inorganic and not really very believable, which is a real pity. Still, it has warmth, good wins out over evil and there's no old-people sex on-page, so it's worth a read.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Ninestar Press, for my reading pleasure.