Book 52, 2022

[chez_jae]

Hand Picked by May Archer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I rocked through Hand Picked, by May Archer, in two days. It's the second in the "Sunday Brothers" series, but the first I've read. Story is told in alternating first-person point of view of the main characters, Luke Williams and Webb Sunday.

After winning a contest, Luke pulls up stakes and moves to Vermont, convinced he's landed in a fairytale. Unfortunately, the house he won is in shambles and he's forced to live in a small trailer on his property. Luke wants to fix up the house, but money is definitely an object, as is trying to get some help. He's convinced that the residents of Little Pippin Hollow are snubbing him, simply because Webb Sunday still blames Luke for misplacing his son, Aidan, several months ago. Webb knows he shouldn't still be annoyed with Aidan's teacher, Mr Williams, but family is everything to Webb. However, when he and Luke end up in a local bar one night, drinking Rusty Spikes, Webb decides it's time to be a little more neighborly. He and Luke end up blowing the Unity Bugle on the town green, believing it simply symbolizes their new friendship. To the rest of the town, however, it means they're now hand-fasted. Per town law, they must now complete a list of tasks to cement their bond. Luke and Webb have no intention of doing any such thing, but they didn't count on how seriously Hollowans take their match-making. Soon they're being urged, goaded, and tricked into ticking items off the list. However, the better they get to know one another, the less Luke and Webb want to deny the attraction between them. Is it possible that a grumpy apple grower and a too-cheerful teacher will find their fairytale ending?

I didn't just love this book, I effing loved it. I swear, I had the silliest grin on my face all while reading it. Luke is so charming and adorable, how can Webb resist him? Webb's family are all fun, funny, and quite mad. The way the townsfolk made such a big deal of the hand-fasting was a hoot, and the sparks that flew between Luke and Webb were sizzling. Yum! There was just enough conflict to keep things from being an utter fluff-fest (although I do love me some fluff!), and it was just such an enjoyable and uplifting read.


♦ "Montreal couldn't score a goal if they were the only ones on the ice."
♦ I was so drunk, I was thinking Luke Williams--a dude--was kind of...good-looking. Which was a level of drunk I'd literally never achieved before.
♦ "Chandra North and Joyce Chan were arguing over your ship name. Joyce says Williday."
♦ "Nothing says empowerment like being stranded on your own roof."
♦ "We're gonna want to be careful, otherwise we'll find out too late that eating pancakes together at Jack's somehow made our betrothal official because of the Little Pippin Hollow Breakfast Food Consumption Act of 1742."
♦ My family was a bunch of assholes, and I was going to sell every last one of them except Aidan on ebay.
♦ For months and months, I'd felt like a total outsider in the Hollow. Then I blew a bugle with the town's favorite son just once...and suddenly I was the target of nonconsensual home repairs?
♦ "There was no...come-hithering. There was no hithering of any kind." // "Oh, there was hithering," he said decisively. "I felt very, very...hithered."
♦ "You'll be playing hockey for the Habs in no time." // "Yeah, right. I'll settle for just staying upright." // "If you manage that, you'll be doing better than a couple of their wingmen."
♦ Holy freaking mackerel. I was going to pop wood in the middle of a family breakfast.
♦ Was I doomed to forever associate breakfast with the horror of being attacked by colonial-era bylaws?
♦ "A mutual mistrust of relationships is the cornerstone of our friendship, Webb Sunday. That's why you and I have never become the Hollow's most scorching power couple."
♦ "Taste this for me. If you die, I won't put it on the menu next week."
♦ "It's not his fault you managed to stick your foot in your mouth and have your head up your ass at the same time where Luke Williams is concerned. That little pretzel of dumbfuckery is of your own making."

Such an enchanting, delightful story! I want to move to Little Pippin Hollow. Hee! Loved this, and will certainly look for more, not just in the series, but by this author. Five stars!

Comments

[wpadmirer]

That sounds like it would be really fun to read. I'm going to have to look for it!

[chez_jae]

It was amazing! I had a hard time putting it down. Highly recommend, especially if you like funny, fluffy m/m romance.