Band Together by Piper SheldonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was provided an ARC of this book via the author and Smartypants Romance, all opinions are my own.
As with all of the books in the Smartypants universe, this reads as a complete standalone. We first meet Mari and Leo in Passing Notes, which I highly recommend, but that follows a completely different couple.
I love a good found family story and this really delves deeply into that. Sometimes the family you choose is better for you than the family your were born with, and Mari discovers that in this book. While her family isn't necessarily terrible to her, they don't respect her and often treat her as if she is an afterthought. I really loved that she had a support system in her cousin Clara and found one in Leo. No one wanted to change her, they only wanted to help her and be there for her. On the flip side Leo had some internal struggles as well, he had to deal with returning home home after being on tour with a successful rock band. Green Valley is the last place he wanted to come back to, but he has some healing and soul searching to do. When Mari asks Leo to tutor one of his students, it forces him to face alot of his feelings about his band, his music, and himself in general. There are quite a few emotional moments in the book, but they are well balanced with humorous and tender moments as well.
I hope we get more from this series. I loved so many of the side characters and I hope we get to see more of them in the future This has great banter and chemistry between the characters. When the communication between our main love interests starts to slip, they either talk about it or one of their support people is there to give them a nudge to talk to their partner about what is going on instead of jumping to conclusions and letting things fester. I loved the resolution that Mari's student Cath came to about her future, it was perfect! I thought I knew how that was going to end but I was pleasantly surprised, I also loved Leo's grand gesture at the end.
I love a good found family story and this really delves deeply into that. Sometimes the family you choose is better for you than the family your were born with, and Mari discovers that in this book. While her family isn't necessarily terrible to her, they don't respect her and often treat her as if she is an afterthought. I really loved that she had a support system in her cousin Clara and found one in Leo. No one wanted to change her, they only wanted to help her and be there for her. On the flip side Leo had some internal struggles as well, he had to deal with returning home home after being on tour with a successful rock band. Green Valley is the last place he wanted to come back to, but he has some healing and soul searching to do. When Mari asks Leo to tutor one of his students, it forces him to face alot of his feelings about his band, his music, and himself in general. There are quite a few emotional moments in the book, but they are well balanced with humorous and tender moments as well.
I hope we get more from this series. I loved so many of the side characters and I hope we get to see more of them in the future This has great banter and chemistry between the characters. When the communication between our main love interests starts to slip, they either talk about it or one of their support people is there to give them a nudge to talk to their partner about what is going on instead of jumping to conclusions and letting things fester. I loved the resolution that Mari's student Cath came to about her future, it was perfect! I thought I knew how that was going to end but I was pleasantly surprised, I also loved Leo's grand gesture at the end.
