e-ARC provided by Penguin Random House International
Author: Cara Bastone
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After losing her best friend to cancer. Lenny is a mess. She’s become the queen of avoidance: she won’t talk to her parents or go back to the apartment she shared with Lou. The only things keeping her grounded are her temporary babysitting jobs. When she’s approached by a very busy mother who needs help with her precocious girl while she works, she takes the job. But little Ainsley’s uncle is there all the time, hovering, lurking and being a jerk.
Miles can recognize the signs. He’s been there, he’s been through major grief. When he sees how (unlike they are to him) Reese and Ainsley are to Lenny, he proposes a trade-off: he’ll help Lenny tick off the items on the “to live again” list that Lou left her and she’ll “teach” him how to connect with his sister and his niece.
As they hop around Manhattan, Brooklyn and spend endless nights going back and forth on Staten Island ferry, they find way more than they were expecting.
The subject of grief is hard to approach, especially intense grief, without turning a story into something dark and depressing. Cara Bastone makes you empathize with Lenny without veering into pity towards her and keeping it light and funny while respecting that feeling.
Miles is a major green flag disguised as a red one. As Lenny explains at some point, if you push him, he’ll push back, but if you hold his hand, he’ll walk through hell with you.
This is a VERY slow burn and extremely low spice book and that’s a good thing. They both have to navigate through a lot of baggage before acknowledging their budding love.
My only complain about this story, which I really liked it, mind you, is that although it feels unnecessarily long at times, I still felt that some issues were left unresolved. There was one big thing and one small thing I was expecting Lenny to do and she never did.
The romance is swoony, though. Lenny, even while grieving, is a hoot and you root for them to be together.
Content notes: loss of loved ones, grief, estranged relationships with a parent, sibling
