The Beginning of Everything

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I feel like I haven’t read a ton of books set in Wales, this might be my first!

Jess is first a homeless person running away from an abusive relationship. She stays in a vacant house and ends up renovating with the owner and renting after it’s completed!

I haven’t read a ton of older character romance, so that aspect was nice. This was definitely a slow burn, so if you’re into that you’ll enjoy it. I didn’t love how bad Jess was at communicating and this continued even until the last wrap up. Overall a cozy vibe as they became friends to lovers!

Thanks to @netgalley for this ARC!

Jess and Gethin are not teenagers when they meet and form a friendship. He arrives at his home to begin refurbishing it and discovers her trespassing and living I there. Jess is middle aged, homeless and coming off a bad relationship and Gethin is newly divorced and trying to start over. He invites Jess to stay on and help him redo his house. This is such a sweet story about two people helping each other and discovering that maybe it could be something else. Both are afraid and it is really charming watching this relationship evolve. I loved all the characters and this was a great book to read. It is a book full of hope and new beginnings. At no point did I want to stop. I am a fan of Jackie Fraser’s writing style and this is a great addition to my bookshelf. I look forward to reading more of her books.
I wish to thank NetGalley and Random House – Ballantine Books, Dell Publishers for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Title: The Beginning of Everything
Author: Jackie Fraser
Length: 336 pages
Format: ebook ARC
Pub Date: September 26, 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance, ChickLit
Trigger Warnings: references of domestic abuse
Rating Out of 5: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Summary:
A captivating tale of fresh starts: Jess, fleeing a bad romance, stumbles upon an empty house. Gethin, recovering from his own love misadventures, offers her a renovation deal: help him fix up the place in exchange for room and board. Their shared journey through DIY and heart-to-heart talks sparks an unexpected connection. As sparks fly, Jess must decide if love's worth the risk after her rocky past.

Thoughts:
This book was so cute and cozy and even made me chuckle numerous times. I do think some people might find the plot a bit slow, but I personally loved it because of the entertaining dialogue. Jackie’s dialogue between characters is some of my favorite. I loved it in The Bookshop of Second Chances, and I loved it in this one as well! Another thing I love about Jackie’s books, including this one in particular, is that the main characters are middle-aged rather than the very popular mid-twenties. It’s a refreshing take in the genre. This friends-to-lovers romance gave me all the warm fuzzies. I love Gethin and Jess’s bonding over decorating and furnishing Sunnyside house together and all the quaint adventures they go on together.

Special thanks to Jackie Fraser, Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the book in exchange for my honest review!

I absolutely LOVED this book.

Once again, Jackie Fraser delivers a slow burn romance-ish novel that I could not put down.

A middle aged woman runs away from her old life and towards the possibility of a new one. Whatever she is leaving behind is terrible enough that she does not talk about it (or even want to think about it) to the point that it is not initially clear exactly what has happened.

This MF romance-of-sorts is free of most of the usual tropes as this woman struggles to accept a male friend into her life, let alone admit there may be some romantic feelings there. Our heroine, Jess, is a patchwork of seeming contradictions - brave yet terrified, attractive yet scarred, beginning her life after an ending. Her self-deprecating inner dialogue was painful to read but only because it is so relatable. This book delivers an honest account of a middle aged woman who is both victim and survivor. Essentially, I just wanted to root for her (and for the male MC) and I could not wait, at the end of each chapter, to see what would happen next.

I was a huge fan of The Bookshop of Second Chances, so I was over the moon to be able to read this ARC and it did not disappoint. I was hoping for another romance with a 40 something year old character but this was so much more.

Being a person with emotional baggage and trying to form relationships is is hard and awkward and that is portrayed realistically here. It was not a happy story, per se, but it was incredibly heartwarming. The characters are flawed and messy but in a subtle and relatable way.

I loved everything about this book. I completely recommend it for anyone looking for something that may build slowly but delivers a tender, lovely romance about a couple of semi-broken adults.

If you like a fast paced, spicy romance with a couple of hot, nubile MC’s, this probably is not for you.

I would like to thank Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group for the opportunity to review this ARC. I cannot say how grateful I am for this. This review copy was provided to me at no charge; my review of it is my voluntary offering and is my honest feedback.

Most of all, thank you to Jackie Fraser, for writing another wonderful book.

This book is such a slow burn, it's practically glacier. It's also really hard to believe - who finds someone squatting in their newly purchased home and lets them stay? It was also really hard to follow, language wise. Lots of sentences that start and stop.

Things I liked - Gethin was lovely. I loved that the MCs were older and more mature! And I liked the friendships throughout.

"Writing about things years later can't show how you felt at the time, usually—only how you remember feeling."

Thank you NetGalley for granting me access to a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review because I loved this book. It was a fresh take on a person hurt by the worst of humanity seeking out someone who is simply kind. Is it unrealistic at times how kind Gethin is? Absolutely. Did I mind? Absolutely not. Fiction is meant to take you out of reality and that is exactly what I've been seeking, and found, within these pages.

Jess runs away from an abusive boyfriend, and unable to trust anyone, finds a vacant house and takes shelter for herself. Gethin, the sweetest man in the world, finds her there one day when he starts on renovations and offers her a place to stay. Unable to trust or accept such open-ended kindness, Jess offers her assistance with the renovations in exchange for a room. I don't want to say too much more because the first meeting is one of the most endearing I have ever read in my life. I just loved Gethin, the entire times, there is not one moment when I wanted to turn away from this book and pretend he didn't exist.

And isn't that just exactly what Jess needed?

They're both recovering from a difficult past, and in each other they find a friendship both had been craving their entire lives. They're not young anymore, they had forgotten to continue their search for a soul friend, a person who is always there for you, always ready to make you happy and understood. And let me tell you, friends to lovers never misses. Because when you trust the person so implicitly that you are going to spend the rest of your life with, what could be better?

They are both so kind and patient with each other's past that it's almost like it was never the focus. We are constantly told as a society that we have to move backwards in order to move forwards, but this book seemed to promote the opposite. We can respect our past, know it shaped us, and move towards something different. We can remember who we are and not let it drag us down in the future. I loved that fresh take, and I loved rooting for them.

loved this romance of a couple that slowly finds it way to each other. loved the friends and that he was always helping her to better herself and that they both developed feelings for each other.

I really liked this story of starting over and recovering from domestic abuse. The characters, the cultural references, and the setting in Wales were all appealing. My only quibble would be that it echoes the author's previous novel, The Bookshop of Second Chances, quite a bit. I liked that one too, for what it's worth.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

There is a special feeling in the pages of this book; it exudes warmth and sincerity. Jess and Gethin are both starting over after failed relationships that have left them feeling hurt and insecure. But their circumstances couldn’t be more different, and the way they meet is so unexpected and lovely, that I don’t want to spoil it here. Their feelings for each other evolve slowly, and there are lots of things that complicate matters, but their journey is genuine and captivating. Gethin is so charming and kind, Jess is skittish, but she is also funny and bright. They are the kind of characters I’d like to visit in real life, staying in their guest room and being in their world for a bit.

Jess was living in her tent in a cemetery no less and carrying her only possessions in a backpack due to leaving her last boyfriend! When she discovered a vacant house she breaks into and sleeps on the couch, no lights and no heat on and still rides her bike to her job as a dishwasher. When suddenly someone comes into the house she takes off. Gethin had just broken off a long relationship and decided to move back to his hometown. He was in the process of getting this house remodeled.

Luckily for Jess he persuaded her to stay there and she would help with some of the remodeling for instant removing wallpaper and some carpet while still working. Gethin even turned the heat on and put food in the refrigerator for her. He was not living there yet. Jess had a lot of baggage from previous relationship and just couldn’t trust anyone! Gethin had been with a television personality and he was well off. Could Jess overcome her fears and talk to Gethin about her life?

I received this ARC from Netgalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

many cringe parts. hated the entire foundation of the plot. she just breaks in and he just lets her stay and we’re just supposed to pretend like that’s okay???? gethin (bombastic side eye to this name) sounds like a predator and jess should’ve died for her idiocy. other than the ridiculousness of the beginning the rest of the book carried on fine.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this book at around 40%. I found both the MMC & FMC incredibly dull and felt there was no chemistry at all. The idea of the story was charming and sweet but nothing about their relationship kept me engaged enough to want to know how the story ended.

I did like that the characters were around my age and referenced things I could relate to from my own childhood and youth. I wish that the story had pulled me more so that I could have stayed invested.

Jess, a middle aged woman who escaped her terrible boyfriend is living in a tent far from home. She decides to move into an empty house for sale until the new owner spots her things. While he doesn't chase her out or threaten to call the cops, he lets her continue to live there while it's being renovated. They strike up an unlikely friendship as he's just ended a relationship from a tv personality starlet. This slow burn of will they wont they get together keeps you on your seat.

This book embodies the lack of communication and vulnerability between couples and how the littlest tweak in sentences and lack of expressing emotions can cause things to go wrong.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you for an advanced copy of this book!

While I enjoyed this one, I didn't love it...it was engaging and fun, but it wasn't memorable. This was my second book by Jackie Fraser, and I think it will be my last. The story just wasn't engaging enough to hold my attention.

I went back and forth on my rating for this book, and I ultimately settled on three stars because it is cute. But, I likely won't purchase it or reread it.

Rating: 3⭐️

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an my review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Beginning of Everything dealt with a lot of tricky topics, such as homelessness, domestic abuse, and addiction. I thought the topics were handled gracefully and the fact that Jess found herself homeless at middle age (and wasn't an addict) was an interesting eye-opening narrative on the topic. .I was also happily surprised that the main characters (Gethin and Jess) are middle aged -- which was refreshing,

I did find this novel was a bit slow moving and took me several days to get through. I began to skim some chapters because there wasn't a lot of action within the story. The interactions and dialogues with these characters were interesting but at times very drawn out. At other times I found the internal narration also a little slow (again it felt like the story lacked action and there were lots of opportunities where things could have been shown and not necessarily told to the reader).

Overall it was good. While there were romantic aspects to this story, this definitely isn't a swoony romance, but it was a sweet build up of friendship that eventually bloomed into something more.

The Beginning of Everything was a warm and moving story of love and finding one’s self. Jess has left a tormenting relationship behind and is literally squatting in a furnished, unoccupied house, which is better than the tent she has been using. When new owner Gethin shows up, he couldn’t be more surprised to find Jess in his home. Knowing he’s got weeks of work and that her situation must be complicated, he surprised them both (and their friends and families) by allowing her to stay. What starts as strangers and progresses to roommates and even friends, the relationship between Jess and Gethin is weaved with respect, kindness and maybe even love. I enjoyed both characters and watching as they both came to terms with their complicated pasts and together they developed a present and future that they can both be proud of. The Beginning of Everything was a win for me and I encourage you to add it to your TBR pile!

A sincere thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sweet story with two friends you can help but root for as they navjgate their own stuff. A bit slow at parts.

Jess Cavendish has run away. With nowhere to live, she ends up breaking into a recently sold house for shelter. She tells herself she’ll stay there temporarily while she works at the local restaurant to save money for her own place. All is going well with this plan until the new homeowner Gethin Thomas catches Jess leaving one morning and tries to confront her. Reluctantly, Jess agrees to help Gethin with his extensive list of home renovations in exchange for a place to live. As the weeks pass and renovations end, they find their feelings for one another are something neither of them expected. Jess’s past has always made her run, but if she can pause and let people in, she may finally see that happiness is possible.

I thought this was a really beautiful story. I enjoy Jackie Fraser’s writing and the pacing of her novels. Watching Jess examine her past relationships with controlling and abusive men while trying to figure out life on her own and learn to love herself was moving. She was hesitant and guarded with everyone she met initially, but as the story went on, she opened up more and was able to start to heal. Gethin was such a nice guy and a good friend to Jess when she had no one. He was patient while she figured out her feelings and always ensured she felt safe. I’ll be thinking about their story for a long time.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell, NetGalley, and author Jackie Fraser for an eARC copy of The Beginning of Everything in exchange for my honest review.

Jess Cavendish and Gethen Thomas are both running from something -- Jess from a track record of bad, sometimes abusive or controlling men who had her convinced there was no such thing of a good, loving relationship and Gethen, from a semi-celebrity wife who only really cared about material things and getting good publicity.
When Gethen finds Jess squatting in the run down home he has just purchased, instead of throwing her out, he allows her to stay and tries to make her somewhat comfortable. In return, Jess provides decorating advice and friendship (not to mention DIY assistance) and makes his new home into a beautiful, warm place to live. But she's afraid of relationships and he wants them to be a couple.
The Beginning of Everything is about overcoming fear and letting love in-- about believing that you do deserve good things, and you don't have to only live on the fringe of other people's happiness.
Fraser does a great job of making the reader feel invested in the story and she paints beautiful word pictures as well.
It's a really good read and I recommend it.

Tragic but well written story.

I wanted to like this one. The premise was so promising but it was just way too far out there for me. Who invites and is comfortable with a random stranger in their house? I wanted more explained about that!