A gardener and librarian love story? I am definitely the target audience. Where You’re Planted is a lighthearted, joyful, and romantic that’s a perfect addition to a cozy afternoon with a cup of tea. It’s not quite sunshine x grumpy, maybe more like feminist x capable-yet-ally-man? Either way, it was sweet and heartwarming, with a reasonable amount of personal development required on both sides without too much miscommunication trope. Recommend for romance lovers who are garden-inclined.

4 stars. ARC provided by Putnam via NetGalley.

Very sweet story - great characterization and a slow-build start to a romance. I appreciated both characters having emotional baggage that made them somewhat reluctant to get involved and fully trust each other - their own personal lives were well established separate and apart of their dynamic as a couple. I look forward to reading more from this author!

Perfect enemies to lovers yearning and sweetness where she runs a County library and he runs a public garden?! More civil service romance novels please! I loved loved loved this absolute dream of a story.

Thank you NetGalley and Putnam’s for the advanced reader copy 🌱📚💕

So many are going to fall had for this book. It's about recovering from a natural disaster, the power of found family and love.

I'm a sucker for a librarian heroine so I for sure wanted to give this a try. I mean she's trying to salvage her library y'all how is that not admirable? I really loved the characters here. Tansy felt so real to me. She struggles but she tries and I found that to be an admirable trait. Her character reminded me of so many women in my life and I think other readers will too. Jack is the softest man I've read in a while. He's just a grumpy sweetheart. Tansy and Jack start out as enemies to lovers with the best banter. The tension between them was so good! I was yelling get together already so many times haha. These two are also for the grumpy x sunshine lovers.

I really liked the setting too. I felt like this could have been my town. I was able to picture it clearly.

Wonderful, heartwarming book!

This book is SO GOOD!! I fell in LOVE with Take Me Home when I read it last year, and honestly I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Hazel and Ash have such a special place in my heart! And Tansy and Jack are right next to them!!! This was everything I was hoping for and MORE! I’ve had the arc for a little bit, but Jessica Joyce mentioned it in her newsletter and if there’s one thing about me it’s that I WILL be taking a recommendation from her! and as ALWAYS she was right. Jack is so soft and sweet and he is GRUMPY but there is so much going on behind the scenes and Melanie really wrote him SO WELL!

JACK AND TANSY! The perfect grumpy/sunshine duo!! With their perfect little sidekick Briar!! I loved everything about all three of their stories! They were so complex and thought out and seeing everything unravel was so beautiful. I loved how Tansy was teaching Briar that they were independent women!!! Even if sometimes it was to their detriment, but the sentiment IS important! And Jack is the SOFTEST MAN ALIVE!! And seeing him fit so seamlessly into Tansy and Briar’s lives??

And not to mention the tension?? The BANTER! The kind of enemies to lovers banter was SO GOOD! From the start Jack and Tansy have such good chemistry!!! And the fact that they really could go full relationship mode for a week and then be done?? CRACKS ME UP! I love them deeply and honestly I’m going to have to read this one again!!

not only is this book beautiful, it also showcases how important libraries are! Which is so important and so prevalent. Throughout the book Tansy is fighting for her library and she never stops!! She helped build a community and she wants to continue especially after the hurricane! By the end, seeing everyone also rallying for the library warms my heart and I hope we can all do the same for our libraries!!!

Thanks to Putnam for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons for giving me access to this ARC!
Where You're Planted by Melanie Sweeney is going to be released on July 8th. After a hurricane forces single mom Tansy to relocate her damaged library to the county botanic gardens, she clashes with grumpy gardener Jack, who once rescued her and her daughter from the flood. Despite their differences, they must work together on the spring festival, leading to an unexpected and undeniable attraction. But when a crucial funding opportunity pits their dreams against their growing feelings, they must decide if love is worth the risk.
I tried several times to get into this book, but I just couldn’t. The MMC wasn’t just grumpy—he was unnecessarily mean to the FMC from the start, which immediately pulled me out of the story. If I can’t understand the attraction or feel the tension, the romance just doesn’t work for me.

Ahhhhhh!!! I loved this book so much! It’s EVERYTHING I wanted it to be and more. The characters in this novel are fantastic! Their personalities and personal struggles, their love for community, especially the public library, and their love for their friends were perfection. I loved the easy flow of this story and the writing kept me picking this one up any spare minute I had. This contemporary romance is sure to hook any romance lover and even packs a little heat which I wasn’t against either. I will be recommending this one left and right ahead of its release and long after!

I thought the characters were very relatable and liked how they realistically let one another into their life and complimented one another. Love the found family aspect of it. Behind all his grump, the MMC is someone we all hope to find…a man who loves deep.

Tansy is a librarian whose life gets turned upside down by a hurricane in Houston,TX. The library floods and they have to move into a shed at the botanical gardens. The grumpy assistant director (and plant lover), Jack, is not happy about the new visitors and is dealing with his own issues also.
Both have to work together on a plan to get funding for their respective jobs, and they come to a truce even if there are some qualms on both ends.

I remember exactly where I was when Hurricane Harvey hit. It was a disaster for so many Texans, and this story gave us a look at what it may have been like for some people.

This story was a little on the slow side for me, but I really enjoyed the growing connection between Tansy and Jack. Tansy is a single mom just literally trying to stay afloat, and I really felt for her. One thing that was kinda eh for me was her “I don’t need help” mentality. Like sis please take all of Jack’s help when he’s offering lol. I really loved seeing Jack open up, because he was very closed off to any relationship after his divorce years ago. This mentions infertility issues, and it hurt my heart when there was any mention of it with Jack.

This was a cutesy &heartfelt spring read.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc!

3.5

I really enjoyed Melanie Sweeney's previous book, Take Me Home, so I was excited to give her upcoming release a read. While Where You're Planted was good, it just didn't quite reach the same level as Take Me Home, in my opinion. The characters and story were well-written and interesting, but I didn't feel the pull to keep reading. I wasn't invested enough to see what would happen next.

I'd definitely read another book by the author.

A beautiful story that emphasizes community and a swoon worthy enemies to lovers romance. This book was a treasure, a treat, and a delight. I laughed. I felt the feels. I’m so glad I read this book.


I voluntarily read an early copy.

This is a cute fun book that will make a great beach read! I loved the story and the characters. Love the grumpy sunshine trope!

When Houston gets blasted by a hurricane resulting in a 1,000 year flood, Tansy encounters Jack not once, but twice, in her attempts to save everyone and everything important to her. The flood destroys everything, including Tansy and her daughter Briar’s home as well as the library where Tansy works. Fast forward a few months into the recovery, Tansy’s library gets a temporary (shed-like) home at the local botanic gardens where Jack happens to be the director. The two of them can’t stop getting in each other’s way and they’re not thrilled about it. But when it becomes clear that this could be a mutually beneficial arrangement for both of their organizations, they agree to a truce. What Tansy doesn’t know, however, is that Jack has also applied for the restoration grant that Tansy is banking on to save her beloved library. So has Jack and Tansy fall deeper into their enemies to lovers trope, shit goes bust when the truth about the grant is revealed.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️

I am so thrilled to have had the opportunity to read Melanie Sweeney’s sophomore novel! I loved Take Me Home and I really enjoyed Where You’re Planted. One thing Sweeney does really well is create a lot of nuance and depth in characters who have had a rough go of it. I loved that Tansy was so fiercely determined to not be a damsel in distress and also was a complete mess. While she got in her own way so much, it was clear where her heart was coming from and why she behaved the way she did. This isn’t exactly a positive trait but one that was relatable - she reminded me a lot of myself and my own mom in that regard. I loved the blue collar heart of this book and the grit of the middle class on display. It really told the story of how a community needs each other in order to survive, even when one member thinks they can carry the world on their own shoulders.

Let’s not overlook the fact that Jack also tried to carry the world on his shoulders. I like that they were both burnt by life and both carried that pain in their own stubborn ways. I loved this line from Jack: “After my marriage fell apart, I became too fucking much of the worst parts of myself.” It seems that this was quite true for both of them, Tansy’s life having fallen apart slowly then all at once over the course of Briar’s life.

The relationship both MCs had with Briar was such an excellent backdrop for this book. I think single moms will feel quite seen in this one. The protectiveness, the fear, the anguish of co-parenting — Tansy exuded those so well. I loved that Jack and Briar were so much alike - it made it so easy for him to relate to her and set her at ease.

The found family in this one was wonderful, the cast of librarians were such a bright spot in this one.

My nits on this book were that Tansy held onto her “I don’t need no savior” act for a little bit too long. I know that’s kinda the point of the grand gesture, but Jack tried the grown-up way (talking and clear communication) multiple times with her first before the grand gesture and she didn’t relent. That got a little old for me.

🫡Tropes deployed: enemies to lovers, natural disaster recovery, found family, forced proximity, single mom, messy FMC, grumpy MMC

4.5 / 5 Stars
This book is my new obsession which I plan to re-read many times over. In “Where You’re Planted,” we meet Tansy and her daughter, Briar, in the middle of a hurricane. They luckily get out, but their home, the local library (where Tansy works), and their spirits are severely damaged. The library gets temporarily moved into a shed in a botanic garden where Jack, the grumpy and bullish gardener who rescued Tansy and her daughter, works with the hopes that somewhere, somehow there will be new funding to rebuild the library. Until that time, Tansy and Jack must work together. They don’t see eye-to-eye on anything, except that they secretly think the other is incredibly attractive. They may bicker, but all of their angst and longing is hard to contain. So how will this end? In disaster or something newly built?

I absolutely adored the characters in this book. Melanie Sweeney has an amazing way of creating depth in all of her characters, whether they were the main character or the amazing band of side characters (which PS, I could read a whole book of Kai gossiping – they are a true delight). It felt so important to read about how a natural disaster not only physically impacted the characters, but how it also emotionally impacted them. There were so many layers of feelings and reading how the disaster shifted or exacerbated these character’s emotions and personalities was really incredible.

Beyond the disaster, these characters were fun and swoon worthy and hot. Tansy and Jack have a really fun dynamic and seeing their relationship blossom was perfect. This was the type of book I stayed up reading until 2AM because I was so drawn in. There is also a passage about how hard it is to change deeply ingrained beliefs that I will think about for a long time.

I highly recommend this book. Melanie Sweeney is an auto-read and auto-buy author for me now.

Thank you to Penguin Group (Putnam) and NetGalley for providing this eARC! All opinions are my own.

After a thousand year storm ravages Houston, Jack and Tansy are forced to share space when neither have the budget to fully repair their workplaces. Tansy’s library is destroyed and Jack’s botanical garden is on its last leg when the county commissioner decides that the library will temporarily be housed in a building on the garden’s grounds.

Neither Tandy or Jack are happy about this. Their initial meetings and subsequent interactions have been icy at best and confrontational at worst. But Tansy’s 8 year old daughter Briar has been overcome with anxiety in the months since the storm. And suddenly the person who is making her feel safe and understood is the grumpy, burly garden director.

I love a (future) step-dad book. There are some great ones out there and this would definitely be on the list. When a guy falls hard not only for a woman, but for her kid, I’m all in. I really enjoyed “Take me Home,” this author’s debut, but found myself loving this one even more!

I received this ARC via NetGalley. It releases July 8, 2025 so add it to your TBR if you like a single mom, grumpy/sunshine, work-place enemies to lovers with great banter.

This was so sweet and cozy and colorful feeling. We looooove a good grumpy sunshine filled with a FABulous slow burn (the spice was spicing). And oh how unbelievably relatable and lovable are these characters 🥹. The storyline sucked me in and I didn’t want to stop reading.

Even though this was sweet, it also told the harrowing journey of rebuilding your life after disaster. The toll that takes on your mental health and a realistic view of what the road to discovering your “new normal” looks like. I really appreciated the attention to detail regarding the issues people have to face post natural disaster. This feels like one of those stories that (especially given the current state of our country right now) was written at the perfect time. It shows how important things like a community library are, or a beautiful botanical garden that can act as your place of respite in the loud and busy world we live in. How needed these places are in our local communities.

very interesting premise and storyline, but the two main characters kind of ruined the whole reading experience for me, the mmc was just too "grumpy" and the fmc felt a little too immature, overall I just didn't like the two of them together and their interactions.

Not vibing with these characters, or even the story line really, which makes it so hard to want to continue. I remember starting Sweeny’s other novel, Take Me Home, and immediately being invested (and I ended giving it 5 stars), so I’m bummed about this one not working out.👎🏼 We’ll try again with her next one!

Thank you to G.P. Putnam’s Sons and NetGalley for the eARC!

I adored Melanie Sweeney's book, "Take Me Home". It was one of my top reads of 2024, and I read about 100 novels a year. So, I was super excited to receive a copy of "Where You're Planted". I have to be honest that I have struggled to connect with this book. I love stories and books set in Texas, but maybe my trauma of living through the hurricane might be influencing my opinion of this book. I am having trouble finishing. I wanted to love it, but I am more in a "like" place with this book. Solid 3.5 stars for me.

I was so exited to receive an ARC for Where You’re Planted by Melanie Sweeney. I really enjoyed Melanie’s first book, Take Me Home, and I love that she is a local author to me. While reading this book, I quickly resonated with the story because I am all too familiar with enduring hurricanes and their aftermath. My first home with my husband was located near a creek that easily floods the neighborhood, and multiple trees fell on it during a terrible storm. We had to replace our kitchen, drywall, floors, and furniture. In addition, I could easily picture the gardens described in the book because we visited Mercer Arboretum often (which I was excited to see mentioned in the Author’s Note as the inspiration for the location in the book). In addition to relating with the plights of the main characters, I found Tansy’s need to be an “independent woman” (and not be a damsel in distress) refreshing. She is a single mom who pours her time and energy into raising a little girl all on her own. Putting herself on the back burner while trying to save her library branch from permanent closure. She meets Jack, a gruff gardener at the botanic gardens where her library was relocated after it flooded during a category 4 hurricane. She is determined to make it on her own, but Jack insists on helping her rebuild her library and her love life. Very well written. Great character development. Had me tearing up and remembering my experiences rebuilding from catastrophic hurricanes, and the sense of community when neighbors were helping one another overcome the destruction.

Where You’re Planted releases July 8, 2025. Hoping for a local author event where I can get a signed copy 🤞🏻.