I wanted to love this book, I really did. At the very least I wanted it to have hallmark movie vibes, but unfortunately it fell far short of even that.

Jake and Emily have been friends for almost 25 years, since they were five and met in his family’s orchard. Now, Jake has asked Emily to come back to their hometown to help him plan the 100th celebration for the orchard. This could have been full of cozy farm moments and fall vibes in a small town, but alas.


Jake and his girlfriend have been dating for FOURTEEN YEARS, while Emily has spent all her time playing 3rd wheel, even though she’s been in love with Jake since forever. As a result, after losing her parents, Emily sold the family home and moved away. Now that she’s back, she finds being the third wheel to Jake and Claire (which shes not even that because theyve broken up) to be even worse than she remembered.

Every problem in this book could have been solved if any of the characters had an ounce of communication skills. Instead, however, they all act like they’re still in high school, despite being almost 30 (dont worry, you’ll be reminded of their age A LOT). Jake cannot effectively communicate with Claire that their relationship is done. Claire is horrendously manipulative and attention seeking, and honestly, did not receive even close to adequate consequences for her 3rd act villainy. Emily acts like a 13 year old girl at all times and absolutely refuses to talk to anyone about any of her feelings. Jakes dad is one dimensional and presented as ‘angry boomer can’t handle even the suggestion of change’ when Jake and Emily try to bounce ideas for saving the orchard off of him.

Despite this book being set in a supposed small town, the town is barely featured and while Jale lives there, he clearly never leaves the orchard as he repeatedly runs into people “he hasn’t seen since high school”. High school was 12 years ago so how thats possible is unclear. At the very least youd think he’d run into former classmates at the piggly wiggly occasionally.

In addition, this hook is described as “low spice” and while I guess thats technically true, the main characters spent quite a bit of time mentally describing each others looks and body shapes in more detail than felt necessary.

After 300 pages of dithering and a LOT of whiny internal monologue from both the main characters, the resolution of the story felt very rushed. Overall, I give it 2 stars.   It’s fine, but don’t get your hopes up for something new and inventive.

Disclosure: I received this book as a complimentary copy for review purposes, I was under no obligation, contract, or expectation to provide a positive review. The opinions, ratings, and critiques expressed in this review are entirely my own.