ARC Review: Waylaid by Sarina Bowen

“I’m totally invested in the Shipley family and always rush to read more about them.”

~ Under the Covers

Back for another new adult-ish vibe in the True North series! I have to admit that the stories in this series that are set in college are not my favorite of the bunch. But what they do deliver, WAYLAID included, is a lot of family fun. I’m totally invested in the Shipley family and always rush to read more about them.

This is Daphne’s story and the hero is Dylan’s roommate, Rickie. It’s the Summer and he’s come to work at the Shipley farm with Dylan, of course running into Daphne and wanting to get closer to her. Except Rickie had a head injury and he can’t remember the past year. And that includes a time when he stood Daphne up for a date. Daphne on her part has had a rough year thanks to her horrible ex and is unsure what is the right next step for her. Getting involved with Rickie is not part of her current life plan.

There are a few things that stand out about this story. 

The romance

Daphne and Rickie have this sort of adorable chemistry, they just seem to click so perfectly in all their interactions that I would mostly even forget about his past “behavior” that Daphne was holding a bit of hard feelings about.  With good reason! But they were so cute together that honestly, I just wanted all the issues to go away so they could be together. Extra bonus how Dylan acted when it came to Rickie making jokes about dating his sister.

The family

Score another huge point for this book because the Shipley family was another star of this show. Noteworthy, grandpa dating two women. There were plenty of great family moments in this one and I loved every bit of them.

Mental Health

Another thing this book does pretty well is talk about mental health and therapy in a healthy way. Rickie was very open about seeing a therapist and reaching out when he felt he needed it. I found his character very self aware and I definitely appreciated that and it was one of the things I liked the most about him.

The dark elephant in the room

I don’t want to give out spoilers but I definitely suggest you go into this book knowing it deals with some very serious and heavy subjects that I thought were in contrast to all the light feeling of this book and honestly, this series. So I was not expecting that and I think a good heads up would be necessary if you need trigger warnings. If this is something you think would affect you, you can always message me.

Even though Griffin is still my main man, I love coming back to this series. It’s like visiting family and if this series ever becomes a Netflix show, I’ll be the first one in line to watch it.

 

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[about-author author=”Sarina Bowen”]

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