Written by Abbi Waxman, this novel follows none other than Nina Hill, a woman who works at a bookstore, is on a trivia team, and works to stay fairly busy. She has no boyfriend, and is really okay with that. And she has a cat. Her world changes one day when she finds out that her mother lied to her, not only does she know who Nina’s father is, but she had him agree to never tell Nina or anyone else in his life about Nina. Until he is dead and she is included in his will.
While this is a romance, with a certain tall man who smells of sawdust, the main conflict in this novel is Nina finding out who she is. Witty and well paced, this novel was engaging and, even when annoyed at the characters, still kept everything interesting.
The best characters in this novel are Nina, The Love Interest (look down in the spoilers for his name), and Nina’s brother, nephew, and youngest sister. The other characters are very loud and in your face and… I just didn’t care about them. More Love Interest time, please.
Growth of the characters was… kind of there? Really, the supporting characters did the most growth. Nina learned things, but I don’t think she really changed as a person.
The plot was oddly paced, but I did enjoy (in this novel) all of the references.
ONE THING TO NOTE: it was a man who came up with bullet journals. There is a whole video on it. ALL IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN WAS A SIMPLE GOOGLE SEARCH.
Now, who would like this? Fans of contemporary romance and family drama. Seriously, that is who would like this. And book nerds as well, likely. But really, what book nerd would see that title and could resist.
Though, I think she could have done some more reading……
*SPOILERS BELOW…LOW….LOW…low*
Okay, love interest is Tom. The reason I didn’t want to say who it was is that we don’t meet him until a good ways into the story, and they don’t get together until long after that.
Okay, also a friend ruined him for me as he flipped to the middle of the book and read a random line.
Honestly, Tom was my favorite character, other than him not understanding that her needing time alone (I don’t care if you just spent the whole weekend together, you are still a new couple). He was a Good Man.
The family, at times, were very over the top and I actually wasn’t a fan of the cat-and-mouse not paying for the rent thing. I thought that was silly, unprofessional, and really unrealistic. But maybe things like that do happen?
Otherwise, I did enjoy this novel. And would recommend it.
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