We are here.for.older.main.characters! Willa finds herself in her deceased great-aunt Caroline’s home on a small island off the Washington coast. How did she end up here? Well, her husband had also died recently, and she became an expert of estates, paperwork and the like. Why not execute her great-aunt’s will as well? The author skillfully mixes in just the right amount of humor along side the heavy scars that both Willa and Hudson carry. As a foodie, I love reading about MCs with careers in food, and Willa’s trajectory from food science to pop-ups to ghost writing cookbooks was unique yet authentic. Hudson’s endearing, patient demeanor juxtaposes beautifully with his passion for helping Willa and his strength when she needs him. The spicy scene was realistic, a tiny bit humorous, and hot! Yardley’s pacing was right on target, and I loved the farm atmosphere with the quirky goats. The best part of this novel was the way that the author carefully crafted the characters working on their flaws while supporting each other without miscommunication or jumping to conclusions, while bettering each other.

Kinda torn on this one! On one hand I enjoyed my time reading it, but at the same time it felt a bit surface level and not much happens. I gave it 4 stars mostly for enjoyment and would recommend this one to those who like a low angst books (still check TW).

I read the first 20% of this one on a particularly stressful flight and this book was my saving grace and distracted me from THAT (TM) so I appreciate this story.

The premise was a lot of fun, Willa inherits a house and Hudson is helping her fix it up. They also are neighbors.

The single parent trope does not always work for me, but I liked seeing Hudson with older kids, that was fun. I really liked the whole Clark family and even though they were a bit too perfect it was nice.

My main crituqe is that everything got wrapped up so quickly! We don't really have a 3rd act break up and the conflict is minor, but I did not like how everything resolved itself and the way the HEA wrapped up wasn't my favorite either. If this had been spread out a bit and given more page time to resolve I would've been happier bc while I am happy how everyone ended up I wanted to SEE MORE of their HEA.

TW: death of a spouse due to chronic illness

✨Book Review: Do Me A Favour by Cathy Yardley✨

I received this book as an ARC reader in exchange for an honest review. This book follows Willa and Hudson who are both trying to navigate being adults in their 40’s and still aren’t totally sure where they are going with their lives. The story shows a lot of growth on both sides of the relationship. It is a single dad, small town, romance where he falls first and falls harder. There were certain parts I felt could have been fleshed out more and by the end it did feel quite dragged out for me personally, but overall I enjoyed reading it. If any of the tropes I’ve listed interest you then I would definitely give it a go when it releases!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Cathy Yardley for my ARC copy. All thoughts are my own.

“Do Me a Favor” is absolutely delightful and refreshing. I love seeing older (in their 40s) characters who are both at a bit of a crossroads. Not a midlife crisis, but at a point where their lives have hit a stall point.

Willa and Hudson are charming in their own unique way. I love their slow ease into a relationship. Noodle was a delightful comedic break.

Overall the themes are well thought out and while I was suspect of the ending, Cathy Yardley tied everything up beautifully.

This book attracted me cause of the cover and the setting being around whidbey island. I liked both the main characters and I liked Hudson’s family a lot. There were a few things that made the book hard read which was one the odd discussion around her husbands cause of death. I feel like we never got a true understanding of what caused it. Diabetes itself, a complication of, something unrelated? The other was Willa was sometimes childish…. She is a 40 something and just seemed okay demanding what she wanted but in the same breath covering her face cause she can’t?? I’m not sure it made me not connect with her. Thank You NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thanks to Netgalley and Montlake for the eARC!

Words cannot describe how disappointed I am in this book. I am a HUGE Cathy Yardley fan: I've read Fandom Hearts, Ponto Beach, and Role Playing... But this... was not for me. (And this review turned into a rant.... oops.)

There are a lot of things I can talk about so I'm just going to jump in with the big one: I wonder if this book suffered for not having nerdy characters. For me, the book and romance were too basic. We had a polite and timid ghostwriter / chef / widow who moves to live in her great aunt's old house on a small town and meets a very flirty handyman / contractor. And they .... just hang out. That's basically the book. It's SO VERY HALLMARK. And I'm not knocking Hallmark movies (There are a few I love!) but this is one of the boring ones. There was just no real major PLOT or conflict. It felt very blah, characters included. I didn't like either one. They didn't jump out at me at all.

Also, I'm not sure what happened but the dialogue / conversations between them felt so stilted and weird. There were times when they KNEW too much about each other. Like, when Willa oogled him without ever looking for a ring - after he MENTIONED KIDS. She never even ASKS about his wife. EVER. He ends up telling her about his ex-wife at 45% in, after she is already having major feelings. It's just weird because they're STRANGERS. She should at least be casually asking if he's married or looking at his hand or SOMETHING. Like that's something you ask about if you're attracted to someone??? By the same token, around 45%, Hudson says something like "Oh, right after your husband died" and I was like "Um, she NEVER told you that." Which - from what I can recall, she didn't? I swear the two of them had too much knowledge of one another.
There was also a point where Hudson was like "Oh, yes, this song is actually the salsa version of the opening theme to her favorite manga." And I was like "Who is her? WILLA? HOW THE EF DO YOU NOT ONLY KNOW THIS SONG BUT THAT IT IS HER FAVORITE ANIME?" Like, she had to have shown you multiple anime in like what 2 weeks? While you were working on her house? And to have a favorite anime implies she likes more anime than that which is NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN EVER. It was the WEIRDEST inclusion ever. I wanted nerdy characters but random insert of ONE anime is NOT IT.

That felt like a rant. And it was. Okay, my last rant is about the overall drama in the book. The dramatic scenes felt like they were included for NO REASON: The GREAT uncle telling the 23yo she shouldn't sleep around? That was not very well written in - it was drama for dramas sake and gave me the icks that a great uncle even KNEW she was sleeping around let alone that he needed to comment on it???

And the other thing was the WEIRD issue between Hudson and the restaurant owner Patrick. First of all, Hudson was being a BIG ASS to Patrick. You can have your own opinions on your own house but he wants HIS house to be done HIS way. It's not WRONG of him to want to modernize it. And I hated that there was no retribution for this way of thinking. That because a house is old and is beautiful that it has to stay that way forever and needs to be restored instead of modernized. IT IS HIS HOUSE AND HE SHOULD DO AS HE WISHES. Then when Hudson and Patrick meet at the restaurant, there's a big "who's cock is bigger" issue and I wanted to be like "I don't think a random ass guy would be LOOKING at Willa let alone trying to one-up this handyman contractor for NO FLIPPING REASON. It was such a weird addition and I wanted to smack EVERYONE AT THAT TABLE.

Ultimately, I think my big disconnect for this book was in the final 25%. (And this is a ME thing.) Where we have a "third act conflict" that just went against my own ideals as a person. I get chasing your dreams, but it felt like the entire book their "dreams" weren't what they ended up doing at the end. Why can't your dreams change? And it frustrated me that the concept was "You have to chase your dreams even at an old age" instead of "Maybe your dreams have changed and that's okay too. You're allowed to live your own life how YOU want." And yes, I applaud them for chasing their dreams but honestly the whole book - it felt like they DIDN'T CARE ABOUT THOSE DREAMS. Those were rarely ever at the forefront of their minds. They wanted each other, not the dreams. And it just frustrated me to no end. I think it's a disconnect between my generation and gen x, I suppose. I'm younger than these characters so it makes sense. Maybe she was trying to appeal to a different crowd here? I loved Role Playing but this.... was not it for me.

Also, I wish the Auntie thing had been an actual thing that happened in the book instead of the epilogue. GOD I wish we could have had some Sam / Auntie banter! That would have been so flipping cute. I actually really REALLY liked Sam. He may be the only thing I liked in the book.... oof.

So, all in all, this is my least favorite Cathy Yardley book. I gave her until the end because I needed to know how bad it was... If this is your first CY book, GO READ ANOTHER ONE. This is NOT her at her best.

DO ME A FAVOR by Cathy Yardley is another lovely, gentle, Gen X romance.

I love books about older characters. Partly because I myself am old, and old people also deserve to have stories of love and happiness. But I also love them because you get such different stories. What does it mean to finally get to pursue your interests after spending your whole adult life putting other people first? How does communication change when you've both been around the block a few extra times? There's such a richness in the maturity of Yardley's middle aged characters. There is still conflict, but there's no miscommunication and overreaction (and third act break up!) because they handle it like the grown adults they are. I really liked it.

DNF very early

This is outside the formula for Cathy that I know and love and I'm just overall disappointed with the direction.

This was a cute lighthearted romcom book! I thought the main characters had a lot of chemistry and the banter was great! Would recommend and will add to our library!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to read this charming and heartwarming book!
The book centers on Willa who inherites and moves into her great-aunt's house on a small island in the Pacific Northwest. She is working as a ghostwriter for a cookbook. It was so fun and interesting learning more about the profession! She meets her neighbor Hudson who lives on a farm with his parents and adult children.
Willa and Hudson are both very giving and selfless people. Through developing their friendship they strike up a romance and inspire each other to go after their dreams. It was a touching book.
The characters are both in their forties, which isn't always the demographic in romance books. It feels like so many romances are characters in their early twenties, just starting out in their lives. It was interesting and refreshing to see characters in their forties trying to decide if they wanted to continue on in their regular lives or if they want to be brave and try something different. The book also centers on found family and asking for help, which was sweet and motivational.
I think my only complaints were the book was more character-driven than plot. The book felt slow at times. There was romance but it was very mature in terms of mindset and attitude. It was calm and slow-burning. I wish there had been a little more at stake. But the book felt very realistic in terms of how relationships develop and build. I expected/hoped for.a little more drama but it was still a really lovely book with relatable and admirable characters.

Do Me a Favor begins as all great books do, with a dog.

Okay, that’s probably not true of all great books, but this one does begin with Willa finding a dog in her garage during a thunderstorm. The dog, named Noodle, belongs to Hudson’s semi-adult son. Hudson comes to get him (a couple of times because Noodle loves a garage adventure) and Hudson and Willa start to connect.

I really enjoyed Cathy Yardley’s Ponto Beach series, but I am loving her books with older protagonists. She does such a good job of getting into the complexity of forming new relationships after 40 while keeping her story light.

Okay, light-ish. Willa is a widow who is still recovering from being the caretaker for her older husband. She’s trying to piece her life back together financially and emotionally. She has inherited her great aunt’s house on an island in Puget Sound and is living there while she decides what’s next and while she ghost writes a cookbook for a shirtless social media influencer. Hudson has been the island’s handy man, but as new money is starting to buy houses on the island, he’d like to switch to being a contractor and make more money. His kids are young adults now with his son trying to make it in LA, and his daughter and his mother run the family farm stand. Willa hates asking for help. Hudson likes to jump in and solve problems.

The two start to build a friendship as Willa starts to come back to herself. The two are tentative about jumping into a romance because Willa might now be able to afford to stay and even if she does stay, what if the romance fails and then they are stuck as neighbors? I loved watching these two inherently decent people fall for each other while they also figure out who they want to be in the next phase of their lives. I love that Willa insists that before they commit to a future together, they need to take time to pursue their own dreams. Willa had allowed her husband’s passions to direct their lives and while it had been wonderful and exciting in many ways, it had left Willa in debt and exhausted after he died. She needs to be sure that she is co-piloting her next relationship. Hudson has put aside his own dreams to raise his children (with a lot of help from his parents) while his ex-wife went to law school and worked on her career. Side note: Hudson’s ex isn’t made into a bad guy.

I also love that Cathy Yardley understands the purpose of a third act break-up and uses it to very good effect here by making it more of a pause than a break-up.

I received this as an advance reader copy from Montlake and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.

I thought that maybe the small-town romance, sweet meet-cute, with older characters wasn't just my cup of tea until he started calling her “baby” in the most cringe way, and I lost it.

We have Willa, a forty-six years old widow whose entire personality is being horny, and for which she keeps claiming to not understand why.
And Hudson, a forty-one-year-old, father of two twins in their twenties, a big - sooo big it’s affirmed many, many times - handyman with a passion for fixing broken things and letting us know how much of a good, celibate man he is. A father who wants to let his kids live their lives so much that he doesn't even stand up for them if needed, but that's for another day.

Honestly, I've nothing against them. They make a cute couple and I'm happy everyone got their happy ever after.
But I'm wondering if all of this was necessary.

For example, Willa is a widower, it's a sad story but she’s ready to live again, yadda yadda yadda. Why, in the very first page, the stormy night in which she meets Hudson, she gives the impression she's afraid for her life?
Looking back, she wakes up because of the storm and he's worried about his husband needing help, but when you start a story like this, with little to no explanation, I'm just gonna assume she's in danger and waiting for something of that genre to happen because I don't know what you, author, know - which is: she's not in dangerous, there's no ex trying to murder her, the handyman will not end up in prison.

And then him.
I don't hate Hudson, I believe is very noble and his profession is much needed, but he's very annoying.
You're a good person because you don't sleep with women who could be your daughters, you’re a good person because you take care of others and love your community, you’re a good person because you don't want to scare the neighbour for whom you developed a crush. We get it, you're a nice man in a vile world.
Also, a very humble one.

Thanks to Montlake and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

This book was soooo cute!! My favorite aspect was the growing apart and growing together element. Despite the characters being in their forties, they still need to get their shit together, which was scary and refreshing at the same time. Willa was such a delightful character to follow, and Hudson was hot AF —a thoughtful man and an amazing father with clear boundaries??? Perfection.

I love the concept of older characters finding love it's so refreshing but unfortunately this one just fell flat. It was just okay for me nothing more.

I was so excited to read a book about "older" characters but this just didn't land for me.

I'm not even sure why, I think I just didn't find the characters relatable enough, and I ended up chucking this on the DNF pile at around 30%.

I would read this author again as I enjoy the way it was written, this just wasn't the one for me.

Do Me a Favor is a fantastic slow burn romcom. Cathy Yardley has become my go-to author for Gen X romances, with relatable characters, plenty of humor, steam, and cute dogs too.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Widow Willa moves from California to an island near Seattle when she inherits a house from her great aunt, with plans to continue her career as a cookbook ghostwriter. But then Noodle, the escape artist dog next door immediately introduces her to Hudson. Hudson is the island’s divorced handyman, who lives on his parents’ farm along with his adult children. While Willa is wary of accepting help from anyone, Hudson offer renovation assistance and companionship. He knows their connection isn’t something that comes along everyday. But can they work through their different outlooks and build on their attraction? Um yes.

Anytime you begin a book by introducing a dog named Noodle, I’m in. But I adore this romance for the way it showcases two characters in their 40s. Both Willa and Hudson arrive with completely different life experiences. Their desires for something different linger beneath the surface, along with their struggles to make changes. Willa’s resistance to relying on anyone but herself makes sense given her past, both as the child of a Vietnamese mother who’s a first generation immigrant and as the primary caregiver for her late husband. It makes it that much more satisfying when she slowly learns it’s ok to ask for help.

This book looks like a romcom, but Yardley also tackles themes of grief and loss. I love the way Hudson is so careful and considered with Willa, knowing that one wrong move could scare her away. And note: when one of the main characters is a cookbook ghostwriter, it leads to lots of yummy food descriptions.

Do Me a Favor is an outstanding romance. If you are a fan of romcoms, along with likable and realistic characters in their 40s, Cathy Yardley’s latest book is a must read. It’s just a bonus if you like adorable dogs and delicious food too.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A cute small-town romance! this one for the acts of service girlies! Loved the dual POV. Some issues with the way the kids and diabetes are represented but overall fun read,

10* stars. I didn't think this author could top Role Playing but she did. These characters (as the young kids say) "hit" different. It was so refreshing to be reading about a couple so close to my age. It was beautiful and so heartfelt. I was so very happy on how they got their HEA.

This book was a second chance romance in that both main characters had partners previously and both, for different reasons, are no longer with those partners they’d once been tied to with rings and vows. Their story began with an adorably lost dog named Noodle, an old-new home that needed a bit of fixing up, and a cookbook that needing ghostwriting and inspiration.

This was a really sweet romance about two 40+ year olds finding themselves and falling in love again. It really gave me the feeling of it never being too late to figure out what gives you joy. And that there is no age limit on when you can fall for your perfect person.

More than the romance, the descriptions of the food had me drooling. Like I kinda wanted to try so much of it and I definitely connected with the character's love for experimenting with different dishes. I wanted to reach through the screen and pull out so many of the dishes Willa was experimenting on to try myself. Everything sounded so creative and incredibly delicious!

'Do Me a Favor' is the first book I have read by Cathy Yardley, although I've read hundreds of books in the 'romance' genre.

What I thought this book did well:
- I liked that this was a romance between two fortysomethings, because so many romance books are relationships at milestone ages; just turning 30 and just turning 40. I liked that this was different.
- The overall plot was intriguing: a widowed woman inherits her aunt's house on an island. She is at an inflexion point in her career and is trying something new, ghostwriting a cookbook, which happens to be for a social media influencer who does sexy cooking videos. The woman herself is very shy sexually so she has to step outside her comfort zone to do this. She decides to move to the vacant inherited house on the small town island and get it fixed up in case she needs to sell it for income, and in the process meets a local man who can do the repairs, and the romance ensues. Meanwhile, he is trying to reign in his playboy era and desires a meaningful relationship.

Where I felt this book had room for improvement:
- Voice of the narrator. The narrator was sort of a third person omniscient who also editorialized a bit. This did not work very well imo. In the case of this book specifically, with the chapters seemingly going back and forth between the main characters, it would have relayed the characters internal thoughts better if each chapter had been written in the first person, Willa or Hudson, and labeled as such.
- Inconsistency of characterization. I could not reconcile Willa being like a giddy 13 year old in one sentence and being internally embarrassed that she found Hudson's arm sexy, which is honestly really wild for a 46 year old, and yet later her internal thoughts were that she wanted to 'bang him like a screen door in a hurricane.' Aside from this not being good 'steamy writing', (are there people who actually have thoughts like that?) it was completely inconsistent with her character. This kind of thing happened a lot with Willa specifically and it detracted from the story.
- Way too much italicizing for intonation or effect. It got really annoying and then I couldn't stop noticing it. Using it sparingly and ONLY in dialogue would be more effective in the future, imho.
- A lot of the dialogue did not feel realistic, and there was little good or funny banter.
- Several scenes felt completely unrealistic to me, but were trying to be realistic. It's one thing when a book isn't trying to be realistic because then you can just abandon reality. But when they are trying to be, and aren't, it doesn't work. For me.
- I also didn't love that it seems like Willa's deceased husband died because he didn't mind his diet for his type 1 diabetes. It would have been so much easier to have had him have sudden cardiac arrest after having known blocked arteries or something. I can't put my finger on why I found it off-putting - maybe the unnecessariness of it? but it just didn't sit well with me.

Overall this book was a 2/5 star for me. Conceptually it had legs but the writing left me desiring more. Perhaps I am an outlier!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced review copy of this book and provide my honest review. All opinions are my own.