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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
✨ Thank you to the author for the ARC of Free Spirit in exchange for my honest review - and congrats on the debut! ✨
It’s such a treat to see places where I have physically visited and spent ample time vacationing as a kid as the setting for a novel, and a debut novel at that!! The Okanagan is the PERFECT setting for Free Spirit.
I can’t believe how daunting it must be to put your book out in the world, so I want to commend Lila Prairie for working hard to put together Free Spirit! She has definitely done the Okanagan area justice with her rich descriptions (I can feel the dry, summer heat from here!), and portraying life at a winery in an accurate way.
Unfortunately, this one just didn’t vibe with me for a few reasons:
🍇 Going into Free Spirit, I thought I was signing up for a sweet summer romance where the main characters reconnect after being apart for 15 years, while also developing a wine together. Wine + romance?! I was ready!! However, the wine making plot seemed to be placed on the back burner for the majority of the novel, which left me a little disappointed.
🍇 The chapters are L O N G. Each chapter represents a month (since Harper and Beau’s objective for the novel is to fulfill Harper’s aunt’s wish of having them develop a new wine together over the course of six months). Within these chapters, we bounce between Harper and Beau’s POVs quite a bit - sometimes in the midst of the same sentence. As a result of this, the chapters felt rather choppy, which was distracting.
🍇 Harper and Beau call each other by their names A LOT. Like almost too much, and I found this to be rather annoying by the end of the novel.
🍇 The hidden identity aspect of Free Spirit didn’t really hit with me either. I found it EXTREMELY far-fetched that Harper wouldn’t recognize Beau at all. They (and their families) spent so much time together on such an intimate level growing up and for her to not recognize him until way later in the novel…? Hmmmm…..
🍷 Childhood Sweethearts
🍷 Long Chapters
🍷 Dual POV
🍷 Baseball Subplot
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Thank you @authorlilaprairie for this opportunity to ARC read for you in exchange for an honest review! I absolutely LOVE Beau + Harper (and Harper + Beau), and can’t wait for everyone else to fall in love with them too.
Spice: 2 open door scenes with suggestive language
Some people know that my favorite romances are a combo of best friends to lovers,second chance, small town, and set in the summer. I have a decently high standard for those and this exceeded all of my expectations!
An added bonus: they have to fulfill tasks together to receive her aunt’s full will. Love!
First of all, I rarely fully relate to a fmc, but here, I do with Harper. Cutie, confident, chaotic, spunky, funny, engineer girl. I love her so much. And Beau. Are you kidding me?? So thoughtful, goofy, and the right amount of shy. These early 30 year olds actually ACT like 30 year olds. Which is rare. But I admire so much how maturely they communicate with each other and resolve conflicts. TRULY a breath of fresh air!!!
I adore their banter (before and after Harper realizes who Beau actually is to her). They were quite (pardon my French) horned up for each other. They are so playful with each other, while also knowing exactly what each other needed. I’m in love with their love. It is so so sweet. I was also a big fan of the side characters featured in this story! It kept it fun and exciting. Side note: i really like how this book was structured in months.
I for sure recommend this book for a sweet and swoon-worthy summer romance!