How can work and private life be kept separate when the one you start to like is the one who can take your family away?

Synopsis

Tall, dark and handsome. That’s what I thought the first time I saw Rupert Evans in the library. 

But then I found out he was the developer who just sent my community garden a cease-and-desist letter because he plans to raze the garden and construct some towering monstrosity there.

The only one who is going to cease and desist is him. That community garden is my found family.

But then he asks me out at book club night.

Suspicious, right?

I’m attractive but I’m not the type hot bachelors are lining up around the block to ask out. Let’s be real. I’m still in the brunch date spot with my next-door neighbor after a year of my pursuing him.

Rupert is trying to butter me up and lead me down the garden path so I concede. Never. 

He has no idea what we’ve planned to stop him. Our little community group may look like a bunch of frail roses, but we’ve got thorns. As long as I weed out these pesky feelings for him, I know we can win.

My review

Lily is a librarian in New York city. She loves her job, she loves living with her best friend and absolutely loves spending time in the neighbourhood’s community garden. After losing her mother and her father going constantly on trips on his own, Lily has created he own little family with people she cares about.
So when a developer sends the community garden a cease – and – desist letter, Lily won’t go down without a fight!
But then she learns that the developer is Rupert Evans, the tall and handsome man she met in the library. And when he shows an interest in her, it for sure is suspicious, isn’t it? Or is Rupert honestly interested in Lily, no matter if the garden is standing between them? 

There are authors that you don’t even need a blurb of their books to know that you will read it anyway. And Kathy Strobos is for sure a great addition to that kind of list of mine! 

The story may seem a simple one, woman meets man of her dreams, oh no there is a conflict, they work it out and poof – happily ever after.
But trust me when I say that this story goes way deeper, and it makes it so easy for you to love reading it! 

From the very start, it’s crystal-clear that Lily is an amazing character. First of all, she’s a librarian, so how can we not like someone who loves books just like we do?
But that’s not all to like about Lily. The lengths she went for the community garden (even before the conflict) and how she truly cares about the visitors, shows her kind heart. 

Yet she has also a vulnerability in her. Losing her mother, and having a rather distant father (literally and figuratively speaking), made her feel alone and lonely. That made her create her own family, with all her friends and the people taking care of the garden. And that makes her very protective of each and every one of them. 

When she meets Rupert, she obviously has no idea who he truly is. But her offering her copy of the book Rupert is looking for, shows again just how altruistic Lily is. 

Rupert… obviously he is a great guy. Despite his plans for the garden, he is just amazing. He has always wanted to work in the family business, and now with his goal so close within reach, he has to decide which path to follow…
He is at a crossroad, to pursue the career he always dreamt of, or to follow his heart and risking to lose everything he worked so hard for? 

But Rupert isn’t only focused on the job, because we see Rupert ‘outside the working hours’, and we see a kind man, a caring man, a man who sees more than we would think. But he is also a man that doesn’t fall in love easily and a man that isn’t sure if the women who like him, like Rupert The Man, or Rupert The Man With Wealth…
He is also the kind of man that doesn’t make any promise he cannot keep. When he promises something, he want to be sure he can keep them. 

What I absolutely loved about this book, is that Lily and Rupert are falling for each other, yet they don’t expect to stop their battle concerning the garden.
Both Lily and Rupert want that they both give all they’ve got and not let their feelings interfere with their plans.
Yet it never turns nasty. They respect each other’s fights and even when they are standing on opposite sides, they will always look after each other. just like how Rupert makes sure the protesters are being looked after and provides them everything they may need on a cold day. 

It was wonderful to see how both characters, despite the conflict they have, find each other and understand each other better than anyone else. But also it was refreshing to read how somehow there is still an inch of a doubt or scepticism, because after all, they don’t know each other that long. 

Of course this wouldn’t be a Kathy Strobos book if there wasn’t time for laughter and humour in it too, voluntarily or not. I could just imagine Lily in a dress on a bike, or her in disguise! And even the children protesting in costumes put a big smile on my face! 😊  

Lily surrounded by her ‘family’, ready to fight for a little bit of heaven in the city, Rupert almost fighting against his own family, there is a lot of fight and strong character in this book. But the harder the fights are getting, the more I felt the warmth and love in it. Because it’s all done out of love. Love to protect what has been built, love for the community that comes together, love for family, that is what the characters are fighting for.  

And in the end, that is all that matters, love and what it makes us find in perhaps the least expected ways!