In a Jam by Kate Canterbary
When Shay Zucconi’s step-grandmother died, she left Shay a tulip farm - under two conditions. First, Shay has to move home to the small town of Friendship, Rhode Island. Second - and most problematic since her fiancé just called off the wedding - Shay must be married within one year. Marriage is the last thing in the world Shay wants but she’ll do anything to save the only real home she’s ever known.
Noah Barden loved Shay Zucconi back in high school. Not that he ever told her. He was too shy, too awkward, too painfully uncool to ask out the beautiful, popular girl. A lifetime later, Noah is a single dad to his niece and has his hands full running the family business. That old crush is the farthest thing from his mind. Until Shay returns to their hometown.
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This book was absolute perfection. There is a reason why it has such high ratings on Goodreads. This book made me like tropes that I usually can’t stand. It was just done in such a cute and tasteful way that I couldn’t help but fall for it. Shay was so quirky and realistic. I found a million and one ways to relate to her. Noah was the perfect grump with one too many responsibilities which made him such a reliable character. We knew just what to expect from him and he never disappointed. This was the best sunshine/grump trope I’ve read and somehow made miscommunication, fake relationship, and forced proximity tropes into something cute and fun instead of something I’d be forever rolling my eyes at. How did that happen?! I couldn’t put this book down. It was long, but it was worth every page and I devoured it. The best part of the entire thing? Noah’s niece. She stole the show and had me cracking up in nearly every chapter. Highly recommend this for any romance lovers out there!
Shay is a quirky kindergarten teacher who just got abandoned by the guy she’s been with for years. She doesn’t care about anything but has nowhere to go, until she finds out her step-grandmother left her the farm. She doesn’t really plan to stay there, or to find the roots she’s spent her entire life looking for. Noah is a closed off grump. The one good thing in his life, his high school crush, took off without even saying a proper goodbye and his family is a mess, leaving him to pick up the pieces. Now with his niece as his responsibility, he’s become the mayor of “No Fun” town. Until Shay shows up. Both of their worlds are turned upside down when they meet again.
The characters in this book drove the story in so many ways. Let’s start with Shay. Shay was all of our insecurities combined after her failed wedding day and I think all of us could relate to her running away from her problems to some random farm where she could hide away for a year before figuring out what to do with her life. Her inner thoughts and external actions were extremely relatable, as was her support group. The found family that came with Shay’s character brought her personality to life even more as there were little pieces of her reflected in her friendships. Noah was the perfect, prickly, parent. I liked the flashed to teen Noah who was sweet and awkward. This also made the gradual transition of trusting teen Noah into closed-off, angry at the world Noah all the more interesting. I loved how stable and dependable he was and his overprotectiveness was done so tastefully without any of that toxic possessiveness that I couldn’t help but love his character.
Then we haven the star of the show, Gennie the pirate! Gennie is Noah’s niece that he has full guardianship of. She’s a spontaneous and adventurous little kid who is obsessed with pirates (I instantly related to her because, same girl). She’s having troubles in school and got kicked out of summer school and is facing the daunting idea that she may have to repeat kindergarten. Enter Shay, her personal hero who spends the summer playing with her and helping her catch up to the other kids. The relationships both Shay and Noah had with Gennie were adorable and her character was so layered and fun that she quickly became one of my favourite parts of the book (especially when she was muttering her hate for the evil chickens). Each of the individual character relationships and dynamics were so rich and layered that the characters just leapt off the page.
Then we have the plot. It sounded sooooo cheesy. You need to marry someone to inherit the farm? That doesn’t happen in today’s day. Yet it worked so well in this book. Shay didn’t just drop her life to live on a farm, it took some winning over and ultimately, she had to make her choice based on her wants and not what other people wanted from her. The fake marriage is set up to be a huge plot point but I didn’t find it impacted the characters or the trajectory of their relationship at all. It just make the forced proximity make more sense which we all appreciated…
I loved this book wholeheartedly and I will definitely be reading it again. I highly recommend this to all the romance lovers out there, this book stood up in comparison to Emily Henry and Talia Hibbert for me and that’s definitely a big win! 5 stars all around.