Hi friends, I’m so excited to share my review of Shucked by Kate Canterbary! Special thanks to the author for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

TL;DR: Shucked had me feeling all the lovely chaotic emotions, which was perfect because these characters were exactly that: lovely and chaotic, lol. Sunny and Beckett were the perfect combination of grumpy sunshine with a bit of age-gap and brother’s best friend/childhood nemesis sprinkled in. The tension was exquisite and their hate-to-love banter and button-pushing was hilarious! Let’s just say I am so ready for the next book in this series and I need it now, please~!

We return to the small town of Friendship, Rhode Island, where Sunny and her partners have opened up a new vegan cafe and Beck finds himself sorting out the hot mess that his family’s Oyster business has found itself in. For those who have read (and loved) In a Jam, a few characters make cameo appearances in this book and it was great! Not to mention there are a few other name-drops from Canterbary’s other romances/couples too. As a fan of her work, I absolutely loved catching those moments! 😍 As per usual, I loved coming back to this small town and seeing a different side to it though my favourite part was the quirky characters that added to the charm of the town, such as Ranger, Phil Collins, and Hale. There were so many side characters who I couldn’t help but want to know more about and I hope that Canterbary will surprise us with potential books (even novellas!) for them because I adored these characters (Mel, Beth, and Mars!) and just want more time with them! Pls?

Much like her name, Sunny is unbridled and high-octane sunshine energy. She radiates positivity, support and comfort and I loved her character. For most of her life, she has been restricted from doing much of anything due to her epilepsy and overprotective parents but since she left the nest after school, she has basically lived by whichever way the wind takes her. She was easy to relate to and I admired her fighting spirit and positive energy. She has a wonderful group of boss-ass friends/partners who opened up the cafe with her and I loved all of their sassiness and banter so much! Beth, Meara and Muffy were fantastic secondary characters and I hope we continue seeing more of them.

Despite being the sweetest to just about everyone, there is one person who takes away all her calm and makes her mad-angry with only the slightest provocation and that is Beckett. He’s her brother’s best friend and her childhood nemesis, and he riles her up like no other—something that her friends are very quick to point out, in addition to the fact that he’s fit AF. Beckett is the total opposite of her sunshine energy with his stoic, slightly manic, broody gremlin vibes and I loved him so much! 😂 With parents who were made more for the whimsical roadie lifestyle, Beckett has always been the caretaker in his family and he carries the stress and weight of all this responsibility on his own while not really having anyone who can do the same for him. My heart broke for him and his need to take care of others, not knowing to ask for it and accept it in return. He doesn’t have many close friends but I loved his relationship with his brother Parker—the few scenes we get with Parker were hilarious and I can’t wait to read his story tbh.

From the first page, I could already tell this book would be chaotic AF (in the best way tho) and the playful banter and bickering between Beck and Sunny really added to that amazingness! The wild energy of these two opposites learning how to be civil neighbouring businesses while simultaneously fighting their growing attraction for each other created such fantastic sexual tension, not to mention the SIMPING and the YEARNING?! Yeah, I gobbled it up, friends! Things definitely get super steamy as they discover new kinks, have sexual awakenings, etc. and it made the tension so worth the wait! Let me tell you—the whole reading thing plus the sexy times? Phew, it’s fire. 🔥 I loved them so much as a couple. The care, respect and honesty between them had my heart fluttering and had me feeling flustered at the same time!

I will say that there were moments when the pace seemed to slow down quite a bit which made it feel like a small lull in their story, so I think maybe it could’ve been cut down just a little bit as it’s close to 500 pages (lol, I just learned this) but overall, I had such a fun time with these characters. I’m just grinning thinking about how much I enjoyed reading about them and I can’t wait for more of the Loew brothers!

Have you read Shucked or is it on your TBR?

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