Pumpkin Everything by Beth Labonte

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Moving on to my next fall themed book, I finally picked up Pumpkin Everything by Beth Labonte. This is the first book in her Autumnboro Sweet Romance series. This book has been on my tbr for a couple years now and I'm finally getting to it. I applied this to the prompt friends to lover for Fall in Love. This will also cover the Bang in the Night Bingo prompts pumpkin on cover, trick or treat and PSL vibes.

Amy receives a call from her mother that her grandfather accidentally drove through the local Dunkin' Donuts. Her mother starts talking about selling his house and business and putting him in an assisted living home. Amy doesn't want to lose the family's house and business and decides to help him while he's injured. There is some trepidation since she left for college. Kit lives downstairs in the house and they were childhood friends and started dating in high school. When Kit's mother passed away, things went south between them. Amy is still dealing with a lot of guilt. She also just broke up with her fiancé, shortly before the wedding. That has led to her being in a writing slump, not good as a best-selling horror author that's now past due on her latest book.

Oh, I really struggled with this book. There were parts I absolutely loved, but then there were things that really bothered me. I liked Amy a lot. I could really connect to her. The one thing was that she felt a little too self-aware. I know that her guilt over leaving was something that needed to be addressed, but there were times when she and other were calling her selfish but I don't think that she really was. Maybe it can be considered selfish, but at the same time she needed to do what was best for her and her mental health. I don't know. Since that's something I've been trying to do better at, I can see it both ways. Yes she could be selfish, but isn't it also selfish for those around her to not even consider how their actions are going to affect her.

Then there's Kit. He was almost trying to be too perfect and I just didn't connect with him. I didn't really feel the chemistry between them too much. It was sweet and I could see how the memories between them were still there. I just struggle with second chance romances. So this'll be a spoiler, but I didn't like the main conflict between them. Kit wants to renovate the house into an inn since they found a notebook that was his mother's plans. Now, I really struggled with this plot. Yes, I totally understand that when they were growing up they talked about renovating one of the hotels(?) on the outskirts of town and doing all these fun things. Yes, he wants to create the Autumnboro Inn in memory to his mother. But here's the thing, you can do something in memory of you mother and want to cherish their memories and aspirations. But you also need to factor in what you want and how that works with your own personal aspirations. I also didn't like how everyone kept talking about how selfish Amy was that she didn't want him to ruin her childhood home. That house has been in her family for generations and she considers that her home. Yes home is where the heart is and you'll always have the memories, but there's something about a physical location. What makes this worse is that the person doing the renovating grew up in the downstairs portion of the house and KNOWS everything this house means to her and her family (outside of her parents). I was 100% on Amy's side and got so pissed off how everyone was glorifying Kit's mother's dream. Nobody even knows how seriously she thought of it. I just really struggled with it as you can tell. I feel like plot coupled with the second chance romance just didn't work at all for me. I know that they ended up working things out, but I feel let down with how it ended. I hoped that once they finally talked and he realized how much the house meant and that it could instead become their house to raise a family in that part would be over. But then she goes and changes her mind and they sign it away.

There were parts of this book I really liked and am sad it didn't quite meet up to not only my expectations, but the first 30% of the book. I also thought the whole town hating on her for using them as inspiration for her books. It's fiction and I didn't really like how that was wrapped up. Okay, so at the start of this review I was thinking it was 4-stars, but now that I'm wrapping up my thoughts, I gotta switch it to 3-stars. Maybe 3.5, but rounded down. I just wanted so much more from it. I'm intrigued by the next book in the series and know it has the fake dating trope. I might pick it up closer to thanksgiving, but we'll see. I just wanted something more cozy and romantic than this ended up being. Also, I feel like I should also mention this is a clean romance. Just a heads up.

Have you read Pumpkin Everything?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Pumpkin Everything, Beth Labonte, 3-stars, 2 days, eBook, 192 pages, published in 2018