Pride is just fear with a sharper edge.
Samantha is taking a two-month sabbatical to finish writing her first romance novel. She’d written other novels in the genre of mystery, until a betrayal cost her almost everything.
The inn that she booked looks like it should be have been closed for the winter, and the grumpy handyman Damian (who is also the owner) absolutely does not want her there. Thank goodness that Millie, a woman in her seventies and whom I swear is a fairy godmother, is there to help these two hurt people realize that they’re blaming themselves for the actions of others. Oh, and she’s also helping them fall in love.
Damian loves to punish himself. But having Samantha around softens his edges a bit, until they can actually have civil conversations. Of course, the road to true love is always full of potholes and detours, and said road is pretty rocky for these two.
Part of Samantha’s problem is that the aforementioned betrayal has now colored all of her future interactions. She never saw it coming, and was completely gutted by someone she loved and trusted. So now, everyone is out to get her. Everyone is waiting to betray her. It’s certainly no way to live, but she can’t see her way out of it yet.
Damian is in pretty much the same boat. Someone betrayed him and his brother died because of it. He took on the inn, which used to be his father’s, with the intent of restoring it, though he was going about it very slowly. I feel like he did that because he needed to feel useful, and had purposely avoided replacing failing equipment and appliances to drag things out even longer. It was a way to avoid actually living his life, because he doesn’t feel like he should be living while his brother isn’t.
There are some things in this book that resonated strongly with me, such as being betrayed by someone you love and finding it hard to trust again. The first instinct is to close off, to not get close to anyone, because then you can’t be hurt. But you also can’t be loved. Ah, there’s the rub.
I enjoyed this story very much. It’s not overflowing with characters, and the focus is truly on Damian and Samantha. I might have even cried at the sweet happily ever after. It’s a well-written book, and, as this is the first time I’ve read a book by this author, I will definitely be checking out more of her work.
