Unraveling Him by Claire Kingsley

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The October book for the Smart Women Read Romance exclusive Patreon review was Unraveling Him by Claire Kingsley. This is the third book in her Bailey Brothers series. Also, I should mention this was chosen for the prompt of small town romance. I was able to use this for the Fall in Love board 2 prompt new mc in town.

Evan is the reclusive and loner of the Bailey brothers. He owns a cabin outside of town and also has a shop where he rebuilds and makes custom cars. Fiona is the daughter of a repair shop and helps track down cars for purchase as well as hard to find parts. When she finds out her father is getting back with his former dealers that have criminal leadings and finds him sleeping with her friend, she has to get out of there. However, her clutch is going out on her car and she needs a place to fix it. In exchange for allowing her to use his shop and tools, Fiona offers to help find Evan a new car.

Oh my gosh, guys this book. It hit me on so many levels and is one of my favorite books of the year. First off, Evan is one of my top book boyfriends. He is the grump we all need in our lives. I absolutely love that he is all or nothing with Fiona. He's also very possessive and it hits all of my buttons. Fiona is such a sweet and relatable girl. I could connect with her in a lot more ways than I expected going in. She's an admin worker at a family run repair shop (same here, although it's not run by my dad and we do lawn equipment not cars). She struggles with being taken advantage of by her family and whom she considers her friends. She talks to her houseplants and is such a happy and optimistic person.

I'm just getting emotional thinking about how much Fiona and I have in common and these are the kinds of books that really show me why I read romance. I haven't been to open about it lately, but I've been struggling a lot emotionally since about mid-September and this book really helped me. I read romance because I love that it always has a happy ending. Whatever characters go through, they make it out the other side. Guaranteed. This book really gave me a lot of hope and really made me start to consider the relationships I have and how toxic they are, whether family or not. Now, the biggest difference is that I had a great relationship with my Mom. Since she passed away 6 years ago (I can't believe it's been 6 years), that's been a big piece missing in my life. In that way I can connect to her. It honestly just made me grateful that I had those good memories to look back on.

So, this book hit me differently than it probably would others and I don't want to get too emotional with my review. We're already here though and I'm an emotional reader. I love Claire Kingsley writing and I can't wait to read more. The way that the relationship evolved between Fiona and Evan was so well done and felt so natural. Plus I loved his dog Sasquatch and how he immediately took Fiona into their "pack." Even before Evan accepted his feelings. This did feel a little long as well, but I was so wrapped up in their story that while it felt a little long once we hit the 60% mark, there was still so much happening with the plot. None of it felt unnecessary to me.

If you like small town romances and/or the grumpy sunshine trope. I feel like you do get the best enjoyment if you read the Miles Family and this series in order, but enough is explained that you could read it by itself. Before I finish wrapping up, there's one scene I really want to mention. Fairly early on when Evan and Fiona are on the road trip to get his new car, they end up having to share a hotel room and bed. He starts out on the floor and when he hears her trying to settle in the bed he thinks it's odd that his instinct is to ask if she's okay and wants to hold her. That scene made me pause and if I was someone that did highlights and quotes, it would be number one from this book. Seriously, read this book. I already bought Unraveling Him in paperback!

Have you read Unraveling Him?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATSTICS: Unraveling Him, Claire Kingsley, 5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 460 pages, published in 2020