My Thoughts:

Martha is a librarian’s assistant at her local library, but her presence is felt deeply. She has single handedly implemented multiple programs to assist the children’s book department to help kids in town and now the library is struggling to afford to keep those programs. With her job and those important programs on the line, she is determined to help the library find a donor to cover the expenses. But to do so, she has to reach out to the family who shattered her dreams of being an author.

She grew up in a cottage on the land owned by the Kings, owners of one of the largest publishing companies in the country. Her parents are the hired help for this family and when she tried to pitch her own books to King Sr. many years ago, he crushed her telling her that her writing would never amount to anything. Now she’s showing up at his publishing house to ask for help to get the library the money it needs. But when she walks in, it’s the younger King at the helm and both of them are surprised to see one another again.

Her childhood crush and the son of Mr. King, Julian, is who she now has to ask for help. He’s willing to help her but only in exchange for a favor of his own. He needs someone who can help him bring his family’s children publishing portion of the business back to life.

As they pair up to help one another, feelings start flying all of the place. They are adorable together and bring out the humor in one another. Although there are lots of awkward moments where Julian is more concerned about making her uncomfortable with his attraction to her, that it ends up coming across as disinterest. These kinds of mixed signals go one for a little while and it was hard to watch Martha question her beauty because of her size. She’s a larger woman, filled with plenty of confidence, except that many of Julian’s actions lead her to question herself.

These were hard moments to watch because any woman knows this feeling from various perspectives. Question our own beauty and confidence when we think someone else doesn’t find us attractive. But when he does finally explain to her that all of his actions were simply because he was worried she didn’t reciprocate his feelings and also because he’s concerned about employer/employee relationships, the result is a very intense and sweet moment during their adventure.

This is a book for any woman who has felt uncomfortable in their own skin and struggled to see their own beauty. It’s a challenge for us all to feel attractive at times and the main character of this book is so beautiful inside and outside it makes my heart heavy how she struggles at times to believe Julian could ever find her attractive. Remember you’re beautiful, too!

So many wonderful moments and developments in this book. I’m sad to see this trio of books come to an end, but the epilogue at the end made it all worthwhile. Being able to see the characters from each of the books throughout this one was a treat as well!