Review: Shelf Awareness by Katie Ashley

Shelf Awareness by Katie Ashley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was super funny. I loved Finley and Zeke as a couple. I also loved "the girls" aka Finley's grandmother GramBea, and her Great Aunt Dot and her Godmother Estelle. They were kind of like a more pious version of the Golden Girls, and they were hilarious with their pearl clutching (except for progressive Estelle) and meddling. Finley quits her job as a journalist and moves to Green Valley after she finds her husband in bed with someone else. She moves in with "the girls" in order to figure out what she wants to do next. When she takes a job at the newly renovated library as a history curator, she encounters Zeke Masters. Zeke is volunteering his time and IT skills at the library while on sabbatical from his life in Seattle.

Zeke and Finley quickly hit it off, but she is going through a divorce and that is emotionally draining and he is going through some emotional stuff as well. They find comfort and support in their budding friendship. He pulls her into his outdoorsy, nerdy lifestyle, and she introduces him to the ways of the south. As they both navigate through their own emotional issues, they keep ending up back at the same point. They can't deny that there is something between them. Their romance picks up fairly quickly and it is pretty heated. GramBea and Aunt Dot would definitely be clutching their pearls if they knew what those two had been getting up two.

This was so enjoyable. I will say that it lacked the character interaction from the Pennyverse that I've come to know and love having read all of the other Smartypants Romance books. With this being the final book in the 2019 release cycle, this one was the most independent of the releases. The author kind of stuck with her own characters and locations, which were great, but if you've read the other books you expected more interaction from the main players in Penny's books and the other Smartypants books as well as more visits to the main locales in Green Valley. There were brief mentions of some of the characters and places, but the interactions were brief. That doesn't take away from the fact that this was a great read, I'd just like to see more interaction with the characters and places we've come to know and love from Green Valley.

Overall another great addition to the Smartypants Line and the Green Valley Library Series.

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