Wren
She hadn’t realized how deep that shadowy place had been until she found herself slowly emerging from it.
This book, in many ways, is such a comfort read. I ended up liking both romantic leads, but Sophie is the one who captured my heart the fastest, and I rooted for her every step of the way. Her entire arc of climbing out of her sadness and giving herself and others a chance made me empathize with her so much, and I absolutely loved her connection to music and everything it meant to her. She’s such a strong and relatable character.
The setting here is one of those cozy towns where everyone knows each other, and most people are kind, decent, and content to let each other be themselves even where it goes against societal norms. Almost too idyllic at times, but hey, it’s a healing place for a story about healing, being lovely and idyllic is kind of its job. I loved the place and a lot of the characters who populate it, especially Mr. Frampton, his own relationship with music, and the way he helped Sophie rediscover her love for the art and her confidence in it.
And then of course there was the heist part of the plot!. I enjoyed the “eat the rich” vibe and the whole thing with protecting the weavers community. The execution of the big plan was appropriately exciting, but weirdly enough, I liked the scenes focused on coming up with it even more, like Maddie’s conversation with Mrs. Money—there were some really cool moments of subtle character growth there.
The weakest thing about the whole book for me sadly was the romance. The whole “one character has just had her entire life ruined by a swindler; the other character *is* a swindler, but for a good cause” premise made me expect a slow burn story with perhaps some cat-and-mouse elements, with Sophie being determined to get proof of Maddie’s plans and stop her before learning more about both Maddie and the circumstances around the heist and changing her mind. And the bones of it are there, but everything’s super rushed. There’s no slow earning of trust, not much real clashing; it feels like they barely started getting to know each other, and Sophie’s magically on board with all Maddie’s plans and they’re in love. It didn’t really ring true to me. I get it that the author wants to make Maddie part of Sophie’s healing, but I think that what with the whole swindling thing, Sophie actually needed to do some healing on her own in order to start letting Maddie in.
Still, for the most part this was really a lovely, heartwarming read. I should really check out Olivia Waite’s other works now that I’m done with this trilogy!
She hadn’t realized how deep that shadowy place had been until she found herself slowly emerging from it.
This book, in many ways, is such a comfort read. I ended up liking both romantic leads, but Sophie is the one who captured my heart the fastest, and I rooted for her every step of the way. Her entire arc of climbing out of her sadness and giving herself and others a chance made me empathize with her so much, and I absolutely loved her connection to music and everything it meant to her. She’s such a strong and relatable character.
The setting here is one of those cozy towns where everyone knows each other, and most people are kind, decent, and content to let each other be themselves even where it goes against societal norms. Almost too idyllic at times, but hey, it’s a healing place for a story about healing, being lovely and idyllic is kind of its job. I loved the place and a lot of the characters who populate it, especially Mr. Frampton, his own relationship with music, and the way he helped Sophie rediscover her love for the art and her confidence in it.
And then of course there was the heist part of the plot!. I enjoyed the “eat the rich” vibe and the whole thing with protecting the weavers community. The execution of the big plan was appropriately exciting, but weirdly enough, I liked the scenes focused on coming up with it even more, like Maddie’s conversation with Mrs. Money—there were some really cool moments of subtle character growth there.
The weakest thing about the whole book for me sadly was the romance. The whole “one character has just had her entire life ruined by a swindler; the other character *is* a swindler, but for a good cause” premise made me expect a slow burn story with perhaps some cat-and-mouse elements, with Sophie being determined to get proof of Maddie’s plans and stop her before learning more about both Maddie and the circumstances around the heist and changing her mind. And the bones of it are there, but everything’s super rushed. There’s no slow earning of trust, not much real clashing; it feels like they barely started getting to know each other, and Sophie’s magically on board with all Maddie’s plans and they’re in love. It didn’t really ring true to me. I get it that the author wants to make Maddie part of Sophie’s healing, but I think that what with the whole swindling thing, Sophie actually needed to do some healing on her own in order to start letting Maddie in.
Still, for the most part this was really a lovely, heartwarming read. I should really check out Olivia Waite’s other works now that I’m done with this trilogy!