This romance was cute! It had a nice balance between plot and character driven narratives. The character development arcs for the MC's really centers on their need and desire to start over. For Holland, the FMC, it's about taking a step out of her comfort zone and uncovering the truth about her biological family as an adoptee. For Noble, the MMC, it's about challenging his identity, which has been entirely wrapped up in his work as a CEO. From a plot perspective, both main characters also have a fair amount of reconciliation to do with members of their family. Holland's journey of discovery around her biological parents and extended family was especially intriguing, and kept me engaged to see how that plot thread would be resolved. There is a thematic element of "there's never a perfect time to be in a relationship," that drives most of the conflict between the characters towards the latter 10% of the book. The ending relationship reunion and resolution felt rushed. I wondered if I'd inadvertently skipped a chapter. Alas, the reunion fast forwards straight to the epilogue with the MCs in an established relationship, which felt a bit unsatisfying.

I listened to the audiobook and felt that the performance by the narrators was just ok. Both narrators lacked the intonation and emphasis to enhance the emotion underlying the text. Additionally, neither really changed their vocalization when transitioning between character dialogue.

Tropes:
City mouse / country mouse (aka fish out of water)
Neighbors
Family secrets

Holland davenport decides to start over in a new town after a health scare. She is given a package from a great aunt that passed away that ended up changing her plans. Noble Washington is a CEO of a successful company until he is pushed out by his board members. This book was an absolute wild ride. It made me almost wish the story was split into two books as it is so much story to tell. It felt like trying to cram a lot of information all at once.

Thank you NetGalley and harlequin audio for the ARC

3 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️

🎧 AUDIOBOOK REVIEW 🎧

This book was cute. I enjoyed the narrators and feel like they did a good job with the characters. No complaints on the audio at all!

Holland moves it NYC into her aunts brownstone and meets her new neighbor. In the process she finds herself and processes her grief. I loved the chemistry between Holland and Nobel the MMC.

I picked this up on a whim and sadly didn't love it. There was a lot of insta love, some heavy family drama (a dying father, adopted family vs biological parent mystery), grief, loss and starting over. It was steamy and emotional but yet still felt a bit too surface level for me? I don't know what it was exactly but it was a quick listen, the narrators did a good job too but this one just didn't grab me. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio and digital copy in exchange for my honest review!