TL;DR: I’ve heard so many good things about this book so I’m glad to say that I definitely understood the hype! This is for those who love small-town romances and the single parent trope, oh, and a good dose of angsty back and forth! Although this does have a lot of drama and suspense, there is no third-act breakup, which is great cos there was already enough drama surrounding Memphis from the start. Overall, a fun introduction to The Edens and Quincy! 😂

This was my first book in The Edens series and I enjoyed the small-town and close-knit family vibes. Quincy seems like an idyllic and picturesque town that’s far away from big city life and it wasn’t hard to picture the sprawling fields and rolling mountains surrounding it. In Quincy, The Edens are like royalty and they’re basically known everywhere and by everyone and it was fun getting to know all of them. I think if there’s anything that I wished we got more of, it’d be the closeness between the siblings. We’re told they all have a good relationship and I enjoyed the loud and messy family moments but this aspect felt more “tell” than “show”. I was really missing more of the sibling/family banter and conversations which I usually love in these romances and I was bummed we didn’t get more of that here.

Memphis and Knox were a great couple and although I felt their romance was a little rushed and perhaps a little ‘insta’, I thought they made a great team. Memphis is a single mother and former Park Avenue Princess who has been disowned by her heartless snobby family in New York. She comes to Quincy looking for a fresh start and ends up staying in Knox’s loft with her baby, Drake, and she basically tries to survive from one day to the next. Although at times I felt her storyline became a bit too dramatic and mopey, especially as she kept crying, it wasn’t hard to empathise with Memphis. She’s led a spoiled and sheltered life but she also knows it and she’s willing to do anything to give her son a better life without the control and restraints put on her own. She’s tenacious, hard-working and has quite the fighting spirit but it was also heartwarming to see her receive the love and care she never got from her own family through Knox and the Edens. Knox was your typical grumpy MMC with a hurtful past that drove him to live a solitary life in Juniper Hill. He’s the big muscled, tatted-up chef at Knuckles, the restaurant at The Eloise Inn owned by his family and I gotta tell ya, it’s a combo that really worked for him. 😂 I love how supportive Knox was of Memphis and how he basically worshipped at her altar. Every time he’d cook for her and take care of her and Drake it’d make me melt a little more inside. If you love a simp hero, Knox is your man!

The tension between them built up beautifully but it was pretty taut from the beginning. You could’ve sliced through the sexual tension with a knife and oof, the angst of them trying to stay away while continuously orbiting each other was intense! Did I think their romance moved quickly? Yeah, it felt like ‘instalove’ because I don’t know how quickly time passed for them to get so close and develop such strong feelings. But there was something about their relationship that just felt right and (as corny as it sounds) “meant to be”. Their steamy scenes were also a lot of fun and a surprise because I’ve read one book by this author which was fade-to-black and reviews for the first book in this series said it’s closed-door too, so I assumed this’d be the same. With their intense chemistry, it was really no wonder that when they finally got together it’d be fire hot! 🥵

Overall, this was a great single-parent romance and I’ve already picked up the next book in the series because after that cliffhanger in the epilogue, I can’t wait to read Talia’s story! 😍

Have you read Juniper Hill or is it on your TBR?

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