"Best Laid Plans," by Roan Parrish

Contemporary MM Romance

0 Smooches ~ No Heat 1 Smooch ~Cozy 2 Smooches ~ Warm 3 Smooches ~ Simmering 4 Smooches ~ Red-Hot 5 Smooches ~ Scalding

	
Smooches ~ No Heat

Smooch ~ Cozy

Smooches ~ Warm

Smooches ~ Simmering

Smooches ~ Red-Hot

Smooches ~ Scalding

Book Blurb

A man who’s been moving his whole life finally finds a reason to stay put.

Charlie Matheson has spent his life taking care of things. When his parents died two days before his eighteenth birthday, he took care of his younger brother, even though that meant putting his own dreams on hold. He took care of his father’s hardware store, building it into something known several towns over. He took care of the cat he found in the woods…so now he has a cat.

When a stranger with epic tattoos and a glare to match starts coming into Matheson’s Hardware, buying things seemingly at random and lugging them off in a car so beat-up Charlie feels bad for it, his instinct is to help. When the man comes in for the fifth time in a week, Charlie can’t resist intervening.

Rye Janssen has spent his life breaking things. Promises. His parents’ hearts. Leases. He isn’t used to people wanting to put things back together—not the crumbling house he just inherited, not his future and certainly not him. But the longer he stays in Garnet Run, the more he can see himself belonging there. And the more time he spends with Charlie, the more he can see himself falling asleep in Charlie’s arms…and waking up in them.

Is this what it feels like to have a home—and someone to share it with?

My Review

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this book. I am providing a voluntary review. All thoughts and views are my own.

Ever since I read Better Than People, the first book in the Garnet Run series, I’ve been champing at the bit to get my hands on Charlie’s story. In Better Than People, Charlie was Jack—one of the MCs—older brother, and I fell sooo hard for him. He’s just this insanely loveable caretaker without a single selfish bone in his body and I needed him to find his HEA. Like, it was a physical pain I needed it so bad. And in Best Laid Plans, Parrish gives Charlie everything I’d dreamt of and more.

I love the small-town Wyoming setting of Garnet Run. While I’m a city girl (mostly) through and through, there’s just something delightful and dreamy about the idealized small-town life. And because of my own connection with mostly bigger cities, I could relate to Rye when he left Seattle and found himself in the very, very different world of Garnet Run.

Parrish does such a stupendous job with character development. Her characters are all extremely unique, with their own personal backstories that help to build who they are, and with individual motivations and desires. Parrish also tends to not shy away from harder-hitting character issues, such as mental health battles and deep-seated insecurities. Her characters always feel so fleshed-out and real because of this. At the same time, I feel like she gives voice to many marginalized communities and does so with care and a focus on honest portrayal.

I would recommend this entire series (which, thus far is only two books, but I hope continues forever and ever, amen!) Anyone who loves love, or who loves to see real people represented in their romance will truly adore these books. Oh, and if you’re an animal lover? You will absolutely fall head-over-heels for the way Parrish depicts the fur-characters in her books! They have true personality and feel like they could jump off the page and curl up in your lap at any moment.

Roan Parrish
She/Her

Roan Parrish lives in Philadelphia, where she is gradually attempting to write love stories in every genre.

When not writing, she can usually be found cutting her friends' hair, meandering through whatever city she's in while listening to torch songs and melodic death metal, or cooking overly elaborate meals. She loves bonfires, winter beaches, minor chord harmonies, and self-tattooing. One time she may or may not have baked a six-layer chocolate cake and then thrown it out the window in a fit of pique.