"A small-town bartender juggles motherhood and a sexual awakening in this heartwarming queer friends-to-lovers romance from the author of Sammy Espinoza's Last Review.
Cash Delgado has a good life in the quaint town of Ridley Falls. She has Joyce's Bar, where she manages a familiar group of regulars and emcees the ever-popular Karaoke Thursday. She has her six-year-old daughter, Parker, whose spunky attitude always keeps life interesting. And she has her best friend, Inez O'Conner, who improves Cash's sometimes overly responsible outlook with one full of joy and potential.
But change is on the horizon when Chase Stanton, the former bar manager at Joyce's (not to mention Cash's last hookup), returns to town with business prospects that could threaten the local institution and all of Cash's plans to someday bring new life to the place. And if that isn't enough, Cash starts having very intimate dreams of Inez. Dreams that could threaten the foundation of her well-ordered life.
As Cash embarks on a reluctant journey of self-discovery, she's forced to confront all the ways she's been hiding in her own life. But will she choose to remain the same, or will the desire for love (even a love that looks different than she ever imagined) prove worth the risk?"
I got an ARC of this book.
This was pretty cute. It was a little angsty, which I appreciate. I like that it was two established friends. I like that there was a cute kid that just clearly ran the show. I liked the busybody grandma. I liked so much about this. The side characters were all exciting and fun. The issue I had was realizing you are into someone, because you have sex dreams is just annoying to me. It just felt like it underminded the actual feelings for me. Probably a me problem though.
The plot was fun. I was invested in if they could save the bar. I had no doubts they would. It is a romance after all. It has been a pretty common sapphic romance trope that they have to save something together and it bonds them forever. It is the third I have read in the last few months and since I have been in a reading slump thanks to school that is quite a few. The ending felt a little too put together for me. Them potentially saving the bar was great, but that last detail was eh.
The romance felt like it was all physical, because the MC was so clueless. The romance could have been so much cuter if there were more non-sexual signs. It would have make this book pretty near perfect for me to have a few more "why would I go out with anyone else? I have Inez and our movie night!" sort of comments. Either I missed them or it really was all about the sex dreams when they had such a better connection outside of it. I did appreciate the angst of falling for someone unexpected and not really knowing what was happening. It made Cash feel so real.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I just wanted a little more romance for the romance instead of just staring and drooling.
4.5 out of 5 stars. I would recommend this book.
You can buy the book here.
~Isaiah
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