Book Blurb:
Trouble just moved in next door.
Veterinarian Cassie Thompson wants one simple thing: to completely start over. New town. New job. New family. That’s not asking too much, is it?
It’s almost as if the universe is conspiring in her favor when an escaped tiger—yes, you read that right—and the two half-sisters she just discovered lead her to a fresh start.
She’s ready to start rebuilding her life one Maryland crab cake at a time. It would be smooth sailing if it weren’t for the rapidly escalating neighbor war with her grumpy lumberjack of a landlord.
Noah Reed has no time for distractions—especially not a spunky, house-stealing veterinarian who can’t seem to stop making suggestions for saving his mother’s exotic animal sanctuary. He has work to do, tenants who can’t seem to stop clogging their toilets, and a literal ton of emotional baggage that he’ll get around to addressing someday.
Cassie would rather neuter a rabid chihuahua than get entangled with another life-ruining jerk. But when one night—and one girthy bottle of wine—changes everything, their contentious professional relationship gets a lot more personal.
With the fate of the sanctuary and Cassie’s career hanging in the balance, these neighbors with benefits will have to put aside their differences and their begrudging mutual attraction.
Tropes:
*Hambright PR ALC *Small Town Romance *family secrets *Family Drama
*Strangers --> more *Forced Proximity *toxic ex *Handy Man MMC
*Veterinarian FMC *Starting over *Spice *banter *Pet side kick
*Grumpy/Sunshine *Mental Health rep *Hallmark vibes *opposites attract
*State Challenge Maryland (Repeat)
Thoughts:
I received this as an ALC and thank the author and Hambright PR for the early listen copy!
This starts with Cassie (FMC) a veterinarian who is starting over after leaving a toxic relationship in California she moves to Maryland, she grew up there and she is on a bit of a trip of self discovery she knew she was adopted but recently hired a private detective to see if her birth mother could be located, unfortunately she finds her mother has passed away but she does have 2 half sisters and she decides to make a brief stop in the small town of Astor Hollow (in Maryland pretty close to where she grew up) to see if she can meet her long lost sisters.
Thinking that her visit to this small town won't be too much hassle... she just got here after all, but she runs into a problem in the way of Noah (MMC) he and a group of men are standing around trying to figure out how to get a Tiger back in it's travel cage... thinking that he is just an irresponsible exotic animal owner she is cranky but says she can help she doesn't want the animal to be hurt and if she can help she will.
Cassie goes with Noah to discover that he and his mother run a animal sanctuary and they are not responsible for the current condition of the emaciated Tiger they are truly trying to help, only lack of funding has caused harder times for the facility. Cassie as helpful as she is jumps in with her "big city" ideas for funding which grumpy lumbersnack Noah doesn't like one bit... she's been here 2 minutes why is she trying to boss people around.
Cassie meets up with her half sisters and finds that at least one of them is happy to get to know her, she has planned to spend just a few days there so she can meet with her sisters and move on to see if she can get a job at a zoo in the big city where she grew up... only of course a wrench goes in her plans as she finds out that her parents are actually selling her childhood home and moving to Arizona to be near their biological daughter who is going to be having their first grandchild soon.
While Cassie's sister in her adoptive family is awesome, their parents have always been kind of neglectful towards her only reaching out when they need something from her... but they did help hire her a great attorney so she could fight for equal distribution of wealth when her marriage dissolved... so that's something.
At this point with no real place to go Cassie begins to think maybe she could settle down in Astor Hollow she has been working with some of the animals at the sanctuary while in town and by word of mouth has helped on another local farm she was made aware of a home for sale and that the last vet retired and his building is still available... She just wants something that's hers that her jerk of an ex can't take from her after he ruined not just 1 but two of her career opportunities in California, if she never heard from this man again it would be too soon.
Cassie buys the house right next door to Noah our grump, he is less than thrilled but over time they both realize they have underlying issues for both of their guarded behaviors her with her controlling ex who left her for another (younger) woman and ruined her chances of finding a job locally, and Noah has a past trauma involving the death of his best friend (which we find out more about later in the story)
Noah and Cassie continue to tip toe around their growing attraction towards each other while still bickering throughout... something is gonna give soon!
Noah while he is a grump starts to soften when he finds out more of her past and he is so sweet, protective and caring towards her. I love a good grumpy x sunshine romance and this one delivered.
Cassie and her sisters as they grow closer together she discovers some old journals of her mothers and wonder if these will be the key to solving who her birth father is since none was listed on her birth record.
I loved the small town everyone in everyone's business (But in a loving/caring way) feel!
This is a cute small town romance with some comedic elements, enemies to more story, there was a bit of a mystery involved and family tension, drama, and secrets I appreciated that both lead characters had some flaws it made it more relatable. Her adoptive parents really go out of their way to exclude Cassie when she drops everything for them it was great seeing her stand up for herself and create some true boundaries with them.
Some drama also occurs with the ex as we find out that not only did her ex take advantage of her and was straight up terrible during their marriage but he's still trying to find her even though he has supposedly "moved on"... love how Noah stands up for our girl right when she needs someone by her side.
I really enjoyed this one and the narrator Emma Wilder did a great job with both the male and female voices.
Some negatives for this book:
A bit repetitive at times with Noah and his brooding mood related to self loathing and pushing everyone away
for the "3rd act" break up I really felt that Noah had made a huge break through being honest with her and opening up and she kind of just shut him down because she was tired of not being put first... he just told you why he couldn't at that time.
The ending felt a bit on the rushed side, I did appreciate the bonus ending scene to kind of wrap things up better though.
Have you read this one? What did you think?
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