Review: Sweet Pea Summer

Sweet Pea Summer by Alys Murray
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

2.5 stars 

The truth was that May Anderson left Tom Riley. You've got to remember that, because no one else in Hillsboro did. 

The youngest Anderson sister has kept to herself ever since something happened between her and her highschool sweetheart Tom, caused him to leave town without her after graduation. May's sisters, parents, and whole town assumed Tom left her behind breaking her heart because in a small-town, youthful indiscretions, like accidentally throwing a baseball through a window, aren't forgotten and Tom got the reputation as a “bad boy”. May never told the truth, she ended up being too scared to trust Tom to leave her when they went into the big wide world and broke up with him. So May ended up being pitied and protected by the townspeople and not wanting to lose that, as her family's farm business relied on the towns good favor, she didn't correct anyone. But now Tom is back in town, trying to save his family's winery and seeing how everyone is treating him is making May feel very guilty and when they have to work together for a festival, old hurts and buried emotions are coming out in the open. 

Even after everything, holding her this close was like coming home. 

Second in the Full Bloom Farm series, Sweet Pea Summer brings readers back to the small-town of Hillsboro, CA and the Anderson family. If you read book one, you'll remember that Tom was engaged to Annie, the sister of book one's male main character but it didn't last long and they're just friends now. A lot of this story was spent in May and Tom's heads. The crux of the issue is that May doesn't want to admit that she lied by omission and let Tom unfairly take the blame for their break-up, the whole town treats him like dirt, causing his wine business to be suffering, but May doesn't want to tell the truth because she doesn't want the town to turn on her. It's cloaked in May wanting to stay in her “safe” life space but after two-hundred plus pages, it got frustrating and, frankly, whiny. It was all too drawn out and mewling and, as there are not flashbacks to the couple's romance in highschool, you'll begin to wonder why Tom is even waiting around for May. 

She'd let the small-minded gossip of people they didn't even particularly like---gossip they'd spent most of their lives laughing at and ignoring---completely alter the trajectory of their lives. 

The Anderson family and sisters, Harper and Rosie, for the most part, were out of the story but they came in a little at the end to hassle Tom, find out the truth and be angry with May, and then have their make-up scene. Dad Anderson shows up to have a father-daughter talk and Tom gets some friendship scenes with Annie and a kick in the pants talk from his grandmother but other than that, it's pretty much character head space and May-Tom interactions. 

Why did he want nothing more than to throw the past away and start over with the one person who'd made that very thing so impossible? 

This kisses only story had May and Tom mostly made-up a little after the half-way point and into the second half, May finally starts to take direct action to help Tom's reputation (still too scared to tell the truth, though). We then get a very late third act break-up that just about had me wishing they were done for good because of how ineffectual May was still being, our female main character gives us the Grand Gesture and it finishes with a happily ever after. 

She'd missed him. And having to miss him in the first place was entirely her fault. 

May was too scared to trust Tom and leave with him after graduation breaking both their hearts, lived the next eight years cocooned in a safe haven protected by the lie that gave her the goodwill of their small-town and Tom traveled the world lonely only to come back home and find out he was the “bad guy” and thought it was honorable to wait for May to the tell the truth. As May kept being quiet, it was harder for me to give her character the benefit of the doubt and therefore harder for me to cheer for their romance. This did have small-town vibes, cozy and mean gossip, a touch of women's fiction, and an eventual happily ever after.

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