Member Review

Ingrid Dahl is a librarian known for being cheerful and steady, until her boyfriend of 11 years convinces her that they should start the new year by taking a break and dating other people for a month before getting back together and, eventually, getting married. This puts Ingrid on a path to discovering that there is more to life than stability, and exploring those things can be very uncomfortable. It also leads her to finding her voice, her joy, and her future with someone she loves.

I liked Ingrid, and I love her story. Its themes of growing by getting out of your comfort zone and doing things at your own pace are fantastic. The rest of the characters are enjoyable, if only mostly there to push Ingrid and the love interest, Macon, into action. But it is slow. You experience Ingrid's growing pains along with her in what feels like real time because everything seems to take forever to happen. It's a game of patience where the focus is on enjoying the slow burn of everything from the romance to anything in Ingrid's life happening.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Saturday Books for the emotional read!