Season of Love by Helena Greer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Cass Carrigan, her Cass, had been sick and no one told her, so that she could say goodbye.
Miriam hasn't been back to the one place that she was happy in her childhood in ten years. When she gets the call that her mother's aunt Cass, and Miriam's North Star has died, she's devastated and anxious to finally go back to Cass' Christmas tree farm. Her childhood bestfriend Hannah is there along with Cass' mother and family drama that she ran away from. The plan was only sitting shiva and then leaving but when Cass' will throws everyone for a loop, Miriam has to decide if she wants to go back to her old life and fiancée or stay in the one place that truly makes her happy.
She had to figure out the whole picture of Miriam Blum, whether she could trust Miriam to be a part of this place Noelle needed for her own survival— and if she could work with Miriam, without combusting in ill-advised lust.
When Miriam gets to the tree farm, she meets the farm manager, Noelle, and even while Noelle is cold to her, Miriam still can't help having not-safe-for-work thoughts about her and neither can Noelle. Season of Love was a holiday themed romance set on a Christmas tree farm that came with all the seasonal trappings, ice-skating, mistletoe, snow, and a festival. There was plenty going on with characters and their issues to keep readers involved but even with all the glitter, curtsy of Miriam's artworks and her upcycling business, the glue was missing for me.
Her mom knew why their relationship was relegated to fifteen carefully curated minutes a month.
We're introduced to Miriam first and it's sprinkled in here and there that she doesn't have a good relationship with her parents and that's why Cass' farm was a haven to her. We know that there was a blow up that caused Miriam to leave and never come back but it isn't until the second half that we know the reason and full extent of how much Miriam's dad damaged her. We get some scenes with Miriam and her mom and since the dad isn't shown, he plays villain off screen, the mom takes most of the anger. Even though Miriam is engaged, it's made clear that it's not a romantic relationship between her and her fiancée, they do have sex, but it's more about appearances and businesses. There's also a little bit with anger and hurt feelings between her and her cousin Hannah. Hannah works at the farm and along with the farm's cook and general maintenance couple's son, Levi, Miriam and them were best buds. So, when Miriam shows up at the farm, she's dealing with all these emotions, how she needs to get back to where she lives because she's opening up a new store, and has a friend from college, Cole, tagging along with her.
She wasn’t ready to go to a second funeral for a second mother.
Noelle takes a little longer to get to know but she's a recovering alcoholic and her parents died before she could ever resolve the issues between them. Noelle has a degree from Yale and is a pro at sustainable farming, she's been the tree farm's manager for a couple years and has become bestfriends with Hannah and looked at Cass as a second mom. Seeing Hannah left alone to deal with the farm and Cass' sickness has made her angry and bitter towards Miriam, even though they've never met before, she just sees Miriam as the one who left. The beginning has Noelle crossing the line from grump into rude towards Miriam but Noelle also has lusty feelings towards Miriam.
“She said she had a dream that Carrigan’s was a ship. Miriam was the sails, the creative wind. Noelle was the anchor that kept everyone from blowing off in wild directions. Hannah was the captain, Levi was the map to unknown lands, and she, Cass, was your North Star.”
When the will gets read, it's found out that Cass left the farm to not only Hannah and Noelle but also Miriam and Levi. Levi and Hannah have their own issues with them falling in love as young adults and getting engaged, Levi wanting to leave to see the world but Hannah feeling she had to stay to help Cass so they break up and Hannah tearfully tells Levi to not come home, so it's been four years since he's been back. Miriam is shocked but when they find out that the farm is in financial trouble she wants to stay and help. So our grump now has to deal with forced proximity and while Miriam is engaged, her fiancée shows up around 30% and they, with some hurt on Miriam's fiancée side, break-up. At this point, Noelle has done some talking with Miriam to get rid of some preconceived notions that made her hostile but I still felt the feelings were still grounded in lust. Instead of the fiancée, now the impediment keeping them apart is Noelle's worry that if they breakup, it would make them owning the farm together intolerable.
She’d spent all her childhood trying to convince people who didn’t love her to change their minds about her, and she was done with it.
As you can tell, there was a lot going on in this story, all the characters, their personal issues, and the issues they have together but even with all this, it still oddly felt like not much was happening. In the beginning, there were a lot of time jumps, Miriam arrives at the farm but we're jumping from the funeral, through shiva, and not sitting in some of those moments to deliver the emotion, making them feel fleeting. It's that glue I was talking about, the spaces in-between characters and moments that give us their thoughts and emotions. Around 60% Miriam and Noelle start dating and while we get some kisses, this was a firmly shut bedroom door story.
“I might be worth the risk,” Miriam said softly, her eyes huge and hopeful.
Then ending gives us a rush of a last minute save the farm auction, finally dealing with Miriam's off-screen villain dad, learning to not emotionally or physically run from both Miriam and Noelle, Miriam's mom having her own heroine moment, saving the farm by turning it into an all-year-round destination (series!), last minute third act breakup that involved a blink and you miss it decision from Miriam that still gets Noelle to get all self-righteous, and, of course, our happily ever after. The story had a lot of elements but not enough substance for me, I needed those moments of emotion instead of jumping from one thing to another; I kept thinking this felt like a book that could have been written on Twitter, if that makes sense. With all the family and personal trauma issues, this wasn't quite as light as I thought it was going to be, but if you're wanting some winter wonderland activities in your seasonal reading, this does deliver on that.
