I saw faintingviolet’s review for the third novella in this series, and she mentioned that in the first novella, the parents had ambushed all four of their adult children with Thanksgiving set ups which were based on romance novellas tropes – the set ups were a disaster but I was curious to see what tropes their parents had tried to force, and picked the Thanksgiving novella as a result.
Nick is the middle brother in his family, and lives in Toronto. He loves the city live, the variety of the restaurants, the many people he can meet, and he doesn’t do relationships. When he overhears Lily mumbling about the difficulty of finding a one night stand at a bar on a Friday evening, he is more than happy to help her with her search. Surprisingly, Nick finds himself thinking of her after their one night stand but he has no way to contact her.
Nick is not excited about going back to Mosquito Bay for Thanksgiving, and even less so when he and his siblings realize that their parents have invited four extra guests because they are afraid their children are getting old. Nick gets a chance to see Lily again but she is there as his brother Greg’s date.
Since this is novella, that part is quickly resolved, and the main conflict is about Nick and Lily becoming secure with themselves, the idea of a relationship and redefining what they want. Lily is afraid she is too boring for Nick while Nick realizes that there is a middle ground between his current life and the small town life his parents chose for themselves. It is possible to have a committed relationship and live in a city.
It was kind of nice to have a relatively low stake novella but I wouldn’t have minded slightly more external conflict. It was basically internal angst, and followed by an adult conversation. So sweet but also not the kind of story line that makes a romance super memorable to me in the long term. I’ll definitely check out the rest though, especially since the third one (fake relationship) sounds right up my alley while it sounds like the 2nd one is the second chance romance their parents tried to force on their daughter when it may have worked better for a different one of their children.