October 28, 2024
An unexpected living situation leads to love in the charming latest from Wood (The Tycoon’s Diamond Demand). United Nations translator Rheo Whitlock was put on medical leave after she was caught complaining about climate change on a hot mic and, subsequently, dumped by her boyfriend. In the four months since, she’s been squatting in her grandmother Paddy’s vacation home in Gilmartin, Wash., while trying to regain her confidence. Paddy, who doesn’t know Rheo’s there, rents out the property to wilderness lover Fletch Wright, and Rheo gains a surprise roommate when he shows up at her door. Fletch will be staying for two weeks before embarking on a kayaking trip with Rheo’s cousin, Carrie, a travel influencer whose fearlessness and adventurous spirit make homebody Rheo insecure. Fletch, too, is a thrill-seeker. After a serious illness confined him to bed as a teenager, he’s spent his adulthood summiting Mount Everest and hacking through the Amazon. Despite their differences, Rheo and Fletch have white-hot chemistry—and then give into it. But what will happen when Fletch’s two weeks are up and Carrie arrives for the kayaking trip? Woods makes the opposites-attract trope sing with believable leads who must come to realistic compromises and rethink their assumptions about each other. The result is sure to tug on readers’ heartstrings.
December 13, 2024
A viral hot-mic moment has left United Nations translator Rheo Whitlock hiding in her grandmother's vacation home, licking her wounds. Rheo knows she needs to get back to work sooner rather than later but is unable to overcome her anxiety. Then another curveball is thrown into her once orderly and predictable life when she learns that the house has been rented out to someone else. The doctor of documentary-making adventurer Fletcher Wright has ordered him to take it easy for a few months, so a vacation in the Pacific Northwest mountains seems like the perfect compromise. An adrenaline junkie, Fletcher never expects to be so drawn to his decidedly indoorsy new roommate in Rheo, but the more time they spend together, the deeper their attraction grows. Fletch's one-adventure-to-the-next lifestyle represents everything Rheo hated about her nomadic childhood, though, and Fletch's teenage bout with chronic fatigue syndrome made him vow to never be held back again. Can these two opposites possibly create a life together? VERDICT Wood's (Hired for the Billionaire's Secret Son) story about finding love and life outside one's comfort zone has a fun premise and a sweet ending.--Rebecca Moe
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