5 Stars
A study in stubbornness
Our female main character is Chelsea, who is Jewish (which isn’t necessary to know for the story), who was working at a B & B in Boston hoping to be promoted. She finds out the owners of the Bed and Breakfast are closing it in one month, but the woman owner has family member in Galway, Ireland who is running a hostel and is willing to give Chelsea a summer job. After much denial about taking the job, she does, and then constantly moans about going back to Boston to “live” her life while traveling to Galway and then getting to the hostel. She meets the staff which includes the male main character Collin who is like a guide for the guests. Besides all the “I am going back to Boston as soon as I can” that is repeated over and over by Chelsea, the main part of the story is where she and Collin spend time together seeing the Ireland that surrounds her. I felt that the middle of the book was too long and seemed to take longer than the beginning or the ending. But the ending of the story was worth it. Other reviewers have given a synopsis of the story, so I will say that the book is well written, with the two main characters being developed as you would expect. Neither is completely likable at the start, but they do grow on you. Chelsea is very stubborn and doesn’t want to see that she has the opportunity to grow and learn. That takes the entire book to happen. I loved the setting of Galway and the looks at other parts of Ireland- we just returned from two weeks there and the descriptions were accurate. I look forward to seeing if the author will give some of the other characters in the book stories of their own.
I was given an ARC of this book through NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.
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