ls1314 's review for:

Where You're Planted by Melanie Sweeney

4.5

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This book is my new obsession which I plan to re-read many times over. In “Where You’re Planted,” we meet Tansy and her daughter, Briar, in the middle of a hurricane. They luckily get out, but their home, the local library (where Tansy works), and their spirits are severely damaged. The library gets temporarily moved into a shed in a botanic garden where Jack, the grumpy and bullish gardener who rescued Tansy and her daughter, works with the hopes that somewhere, somehow there will be new funding to rebuild the library. Until that time, Tansy and Jack must work together. They don’t see eye-to-eye on anything, except that they secretly think the other is incredibly attractive. They may bicker, but all of their angst and longing is hard to contain. So how will this end? In disaster or something newly built?

I absolutely adored the characters in this book. Melanie Sweeney has an amazing way of creating depth in all of her characters, whether they were the main character or the amazing band of side characters (which PS, I could read a whole book of Kai gossiping – they are a true delight). It felt so important to read about how a natural disaster not only physically impacted the characters, but how it also emotionally impacted them. There were so many layers of feelings and reading how the disaster shifted or exacerbated these character’s emotions and personalities was really incredible. 

Beyond the disaster, these characters were fun and swoon worthy and hot. Tansy and Jack have a really fun dynamic and seeing their relationship blossom was perfect. This was the type of book I stayed up reading until 2AM because I was so drawn in. There is also a passage about how hard it is to change deeply ingrained beliefs that I will think about for a long time. 

I highly recommend this book. Melanie Sweeney is an auto-read and auto-buy author for me now.  

Thank you to Penguin Group (Putnam) and NetGalley for providing this eARC! All opinions are my own.