The Beginning of Everything is not geared for readers looking for a romance full of angst and youthful characters. As a more mature reader, I found it to be a soothing read and appreciated the fact that the characters were middle-aged. The dialogue was a bit hard to follow at times as to which character was speaking. Thanks to NetGalley and Random Books for an advance copy to read and review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing - Dell, for a eARC of The Beginning of Everything in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions.

Based on the synopsis, I was really intrigued and looking forward to this story. The premise was unique and promised a sweet friends to lovers, full of second chances, and finding oneself after hardship. Unfortunately, I found that this story was just not for me.

One thing that surprised me in the beginning, but was a good surprise, was the age of the main characters. I have gotten so used to contemporary romances focusing so heavily on characters in the 20's that getting to meet two new characters in their mid-late 40's was a sweet surprise. There is no age limit on love, and I really love when a story focuses on a relationship (especially a heroine) who is past the age of 29. I think it is also really important to note that while both main characters had been in previous relationships, neither had been marries. This wasn't a case of second-chance or finding new love - it was a simple case of finding love.

The biggest cause of disconnect for me, was the lack of character depth. I felt like there was no development or arc for either character to redeem how little we really know about them. Jess recently ran away from a bad relationship, where bad things happened, is new to Wales and is squatting in a recently purchased home. Gethin just left a long relationship, is moving back to his hometown in Wales and bought a new house. That is about the extent of any background we get from either main character. It wasn't until 90% in that Jess finally talks about her past, and even then it was very vague and felt emotionless. Gethin gives a brief mention in the beginning that he wants to help Jess because of his brother, and we don't get any additional information about that.

My second struggle was the large amount of dialogue that really went nowhere. I felt the story was made up primarily of dialogue scenes...which really made it hard to set the stage or provide depth to the narrative. All of the dialogue, made it hard to follow, and made the story jumpy and disconnected. And despite the amount of dialogue, neither Jess or Gethin could communicate. I give leeway in the beginning; they are strangers, both recovering from unhealthy relationships, but at some point, for any sort of chemistry to form they needed to learn to communicate. I ultimately skipped the last chapter when, about a page into the chapter, after all of the declarations of love have been, they still couldn't talk to each other without going around in circles.

Lastly, there was something about Gethin and Jess's relationship that just didn't sit well with me. There was almost a savior-complex from Gethin. He constantly wants to give, give, give all of these things to Jess. He wants to me helpful and make her life easier, but it was almost to an obsession. So when a relationship started forming between the two of them...it just left me feeling a bit uncomfortable.

Overall, I just think this was a case of the book was not for me. I am big on character depth and development and given that that was what I found lacking most in the story, I just wasn't able to connect. There was a lot of very English slang/speaking style that I am not familiar with or used to, which is not at all a fault, but just further created a divide for me. As mentioned above, I loved the aspect of a couple finding themselves and love outside of the 20-29 age range - this is definitely a refresh for the genre. There were some very sweet moments between Jess and Gethin, and I really hope this book finds the right readers to love it!

Second chances in life

Jackie Fraser is a new to me author & I found myself really enjoying her narrative.

Jess finds herself in a precarious position. She’s run away from a bad relationship, & has basically gone off the grid in attempt to start over. She’s been camping, but has found a nice vacant house to keep her sheltered, at least until the new owners show up.

Gethin is a man who has spent many years in a lackluster relationship. He’s finally left, and over the last year has been staying with his mom and/or sister. But now he’s found a beautiful home to purchase at a good price. It may need some updating, but he’s not afraid of work.

Upon arrival to his new home, Gethin finds that his newly acquired vacant home isn’t so vacant after all. But his squatter seems to be respectful & clean. He makes an effort to not put out his homeless guest. This brings these two to their meet cute. Jess doesn’t want charity, but Gethin is desperate to help. So he employs her to help with renovations in exchange for room and board.

Gethin trusts very easily, but sometimes you just feel a connection. And sometimes it only takes an act of kindness for someone who has fallen on hard times to be able to pick up & brush themselves off. These two form a very timid friendship, but something about them just works. They are comfortable in each other’s presence & able to easily cohabitate. They both seem to be immature in the relationship department for their age, but sometimes being new to the single scene can seem that way.

There is a lot of lack of communication that leads to a lot of mistakes & wrong assumptions that leads to heartache. Neither seem to be able to verbalize their thoughts or feelings well. But after weeks apart, they finally see each other out with other people. And as absence makes the heart grow fonder, they finally have that conversation.

I was happy with the ending, & happy they were both able to find their calm after their respective storms.

I don't really think this one was for me, it wasn't bad, but it def isn't my style. There was so much dialogue and that was sometimes distracting cause instead of scenes it felt like it jumped from conversation to conversation. The conversations weren't bad, it just isn't normally the type of book that interests me. I thought the characters were engaging although the premise of it was a little wild.

A wonderful story about healing, love and friendship. I really enjoyed getting to know Jess and Gethin as they went on their journey together.

Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of The Beginning of Everything to review!
2.5 stars
In The Beginning of Everything by Jackie Fraser we follow a middle aged woman named Jess who has recently left a bad relationship to restart her life on her own. As she settles into a new town she stays in a recently sold and currently unoccupied house. When the owner of the house stops by(Gethin) and finds Jess there one day he offers her help instead of kicking her out. He decides to allow her to continue to occupy one of the spare rooms In exchange for helping him work on the house. Throughout the next month they spend days together stripping wallpaper and picking out new furniture as they get to know each other better. In this novel Jess learns how to start over and be happy again after her last relationship and begins to understand the full power of kindness.

I went into this book completely blind and that led to a peculiar reading experience since this was not at all the book I was expecting to read. Although I did really enjoy the heart of the story and everything that it stood for I had a few problems with how it was executed. The majority of the first 60% of the book was constant dialogue and although it was nice to help the reader familiarize themselves with Jess and Gethin it felt unnecessarily explicit at times. And for how MUCH conversation there was I felt like it wasn’t supportive enough in moving the story forward. Also, this could be because I am not completely grasping the Britain phrasing but a lot of the dialogue felt very choppy and like it didn’t flow very well. Additionally, I read this book relatively quickly and by the end I was quite done with Jess as a character. She felt very stubborn and incredibly unrevealing. I felt like she never really had any significant character growth until the very very end. Throughout 90% of the book she felt incredibly stagnant as a character and also in her opinions of the people around her. Once we neared the end, every time she said how “grateful” she was for all Gethin has done for her (using the word “grateful” specifically), I cringed. In the third act she felt VERY one dimensional in her responses to the people that were attempting to help her relationship with Gethin improve. I liked Gethin as a love interest for Jess and I thought he was written very well. All in all, I did read this quite quickly and in that sense I guess I enjoyed it to a certain extent but I don’t think it’s a book I would really recommend to anyone else. I’m not upset that I read it but it also wasn’t anything captivating.

I had a hard time getting into this one. I could definitely be cause I’m exhausted, but it’s about a women in her 40’s and she acted way younger. I kept forgetting her age.

I loved her first book so I was really looking forward to this, but I had a tough time convincing myself to pick this up. It did get better it just took awhile.

this is exactly what I needed. I really enjoyed it and I highly recommend. I loved the plot and the characters.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Beginning of Everything
Author: Jackie Fraser
Source: NetGalley
Pub Date: September 26, 2023

The Beginning of Everything is about a late forties couple who meet under the most unusual circumstances. Jess (female), the protagonist, has always picked the wrong guy, the wrong life direction, and the wrong career path, which leads her to a vagabond life on the road, sleeping in a tent located in a church cemetery. Gethin (male) has money, and a celebrity ex-wife but an unsatisfying life. In the dead of Welsh winter, Jess finds a vacant home. She breaks in with her lock pick mechanism and takes up residence in the empty house with the heat turned so she lives a tidy and considerate manner while working at a restaurant washing dishes to save money for a rental. When Gethin checks on his home one day, he gets a shock finding the feral Jess in residence, where she is a squatter. Once discovered, she is prepared to return to her cemetery lifestyle (in a tent), but Gethin leaves her a note and welcomes her to stay in his house until he moves in. In exchange, she starts to strip wallpaper for him, tear up rugs, and commence interior renovation work on this dated home. It sounds like a perfect way to meet your forever man. Well, yes…they start to fall in “like.” It’s a super slow burn of a romance book, and I never feel the chemistry between the couple. Neither of them is hateful nor evil people, but they aren’t super charismatic either. Lots of potential here, so we will see how the general reading public likes this one. Publication date: September 26,2 023.  #romance #life #future #love #roomies #lovestory #TheBeginningof Everything #JackieFraser @randomhouse @netgalley #secondchances
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I received a complimentary copy of this ARC. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to Random House, and the author for the opportunity to read this novel. Pub. Date: September 26, 2023.
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#book #books #bookaddict #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookstagramer #dellbooks

This, unfortunately, is not for me. I found it way to hard to suspend the disbelief that Jess would just be allowed to stay in a house she was choosing to squat in. Also don’t buy that she would be willing to live with a stranger - and a man - right after what she just went through.
Also, the writing style was weird with all the questions and ellipses. While this isn’t for me, I know others have enjoyed it, and I hope it gets into the right readers hands.

This one is okay. Not my cup of tea but I know others would like it so our library would still get it for circulation. I thought it was interesting she was living in an abandoned house that recently sold, I don’t like encouraging squatting to people… The forced proximity trope is one of my favorites so I do like how the mmc ended up being kind and letting her stay.

Jess has run away from a difficult situation and had been camping in a cemetery until she discovered an empty house to live in while she saved up enough money to rent a room. She knew that the place had recently been sold and hoped to move on before the new owner arrived. In a case of bad timing, she was eating when she heard someone at the front door and rushed out the back with only what she could grab quickly. When she went back later to see if she could retrieve her tent and other stuff, she was surprised to find a note from the new owner, Gethin, inviting her to come back. This is a story of rebuilding their lives and finding friendship in an unusual way. I would give it 3.5 stars.

I felt a little back and forth on this one. I think if I go to a place of very suspended belief, I absolutely loved these characters and what this story conveys and stands for. Watching the characters see such development while also falling in love was wonderfully heartwarming. I also loved that the main characters are older; this is rarely the perspective shown in contemporary romance. If I cannot suspend my belief, this makes very little sense to me. The prospect of Gethin genuinely letting Jess stay in his home is mind-blowing to me. I also felt that the dialogue between Gethin and Jess was a bit awkward. Overall, this was a nice and heartwarming read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Beginning of Everything by Jackie Fraser! It wasn't my favorite book, but still enjoyable to read.

I just reviewed The Beginning of Everything by Jackie Fraser. #TheBeginningofEverything #NetGalley

Jess has run away from her life and is squatting in an empty house. When the house is sold, she is found by the new owner, Gethin, who offers to let her stay on even though he knows nothing about her. Jess & Gethin become roommates with Jess helping Gethin remodel the house. The relationship grows but Jess is hesitant to trust. This is more a story of two people growing as individuals and the romance is secondary.

The Beginning of Everything is a heart warming novel following Jess, a woman in her mid-forties who has escaped from an abusive relationship and is trying her best to move through life while making as few waves as possible. After squatting in an empty house, she unexpectedly meets its owner, Gethin - a charming man who, to Jess's surprise - invites her to stay. After living at Gethin's home and helping him get the house sorted, the pair grow a friendship that transforms into something deeper. This novel is about new beginnings, trust, and kindness, and I absolutely loved spending time with these two in Wales!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book for an honest review!
The story was very heartwarming. The main characters are middle aged. The FMC has an abusive past and ran away from home. The MMC had a family member struggle with the same past and invites her to stay with him and help him with the house. This book really shows what hope and trust could lead to. It is a slow burn book but still keeps you engaged.

Thank you for my eArc Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell.
I’m so grateful to you and the author for sharing this story with me, however it didn’t hook me. I was unable to read past the first 20 pages of the story. Just because it’s not my cup of tea, doesn’t mean it’s not a good book. I wish the author nothing but success and the amazing feeling of sharing their stories.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Beginning of Everything by Jackie Fraser!

It took me longer to get thorough this than I would have liked. It's possible that I'm not the target audience for Fraser's work since I'm only in my 20s and most of her protagonists are well into their 30s, but I found I had a harder time connecting with this one than other books I've read lately. It's also likely I've read too many romance novels lately and needed to read something darker in between.

Jess has recently run away from a boyfriend who leaves much to be desired. She finds an abandoned house and essentially squats there until the owner shows up one day .Much to Jess' surprise, he doesn't kick her out. Instead they strike up a deal where she helps make the house habitable in exchange for a place to stay. But of course he's of a similar age, is recently single, and handsome, so shenanigans ensue.

Again, I liked it, but I didn't love it.