Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Hand Picked
SERIES: Sunday Brothers, Book 2
AUTHOR: May Archer
NARRATOR: Michael Dean
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 9 hours 7 minutes
RELEASE DATE: April 11, 2022
BLURB:
Once upon a time, I moved to Vermont…and wound up accidentally sort of married.
Webb Sunday is the straight single dad next door. He’s lumberjack-gorgeous, strong and steady as the trees in his family orchard, a grumpy fairy-tale prince…and entirely off-limits.
Or so I thought. Until the drunken night the two of us walked into a bar…and landed ourselves in the middle of small-town history.
Who knew hand-fasting was still a thing? The town of Little Pippin Hollow did. And once this bunch of meddling Vermonters gets wind of our accidental betrothal, they are determined to see us seal the deal.
But while the chemistry between us is hot enough to melt the winter cold, Webb isn’t interested in a relationship…. And I’m not sure how long I can keep pretending I don’t want our hand-fasting to be real. Because while the man might not be the happily ever after I came to Vermont for…he’s looking more and more like the one who’s been hand-picked for me.
REVIEW:
Hand Picked is hands down my favorite May Archer solo title. She gets everything right in this hysterical, sweet, sexy romance between Thomas Webb Sunday, aka Webb, and his neighbor and beloved local elementary school teacher, Luke Williams.
Luke is new to Little Pippen Hollow, Vermont, having won the home and property neighboring the Sunday family’s farm and orchard. Webb’s seven-year-old son Aiden has Luke as his teacher and adores him, but Webb knows nothing about Luke. He presumes that Luke’s living it up on his new property that he got for free. He’s also moderately annoyed by Aiden’s idolatry of Luke and constant parroting of everything “Mr. Williams” says or does. Then Webb’s opinion of Luke sours further when Luke unwittingly releases Aiden from school into the custody of Webb’s estranged, soon-to-be-ex-wife, after which Aiden disappeared for several harrowing hours. (These events are told in book one, Pick Me.)
The Sunday family are fixtures in Little Pippen Hollow, so after Luke’s mistake, he seems to get the cold shoulder from the townsfolk and the Sunday family, so he feels ostracized and lonely. Suffice it to say that not all is as it may appear regarding Luke and his circumstances, which Webb slowly discovers as the story unfolds.
Hand Picked is a delightful story of misunderstandings, miscommunication, and presumptions, and features the endearing Webb and Luke learning about each other and their feelings for each other. It contains UST for days, Webb and Luke’s delicious, witty banter and bemusement, and off-the-charts chemistry.
This lovely romance sits squarely within Archer’s wheelhouse. She delivers what she does best – a sweet, heartwarming romance with a small town, found family vibe, rounded out by a bevy of colorful, quirky characters. The town history and “hand-fasting” premise is genius. It creates a fake relationship for Webb and Luke with an inventive, unexpected twist. Webb and Luke’s accidental, unintentional “engagement” results from a hilarious drunken encounter in the local bar. They acknowledge it’s fake yet pretend that it’s real even though neither intends to consummate it, either physically or through marriage. Archer then spins out a terrific storyline full of twists and turns while fluidly connecting the dots on a laundry list of unlikely circumstances that bring Webb and Luke to their well-deserved HEA.
Hand Picked showcases Archer’s writing at its best, with a well-executed balance of humor, poignant moments, heat, steamy times, and plenty of swoon. All built around expertly drawn characters that I look forward to meeting again and again.
The only thing that could make Hand Picked better is having it told by a talented narrator through an immersive, impactful, surround-sound type experience. And voilà. Archer delivers again, tapping her go-to narrator, Michael Dean, to continue his audio work on this Sunday Brothers series.
Dean provides a nuanced, emotionally connected, exceptionally executed vocal performance that alternatively had me in tears of laughter, tears of sadness from heartstring-pulling, and tears of joy from the beautiful HEA. His vocal choices, pacing, and consistent distinction reflect his vocal chops and his thoughtful inflections and intonations capture the complexities and details of the events and emotions in the scenes. Listening to this audiobook is auditory bliss. I loved every minute of listening time and could have easily listened to hours more.
If I had to pick, I’d hand pick Hand Picked as my recommendation for an engrossing, flirty, fun, book hangover-inducing, unputdownable romance. I’m eagerly awaiting Cherry Picked to see what Hawk, Jack, the Sunday family, and the quaint, quirky, meddlesome people of Little Pippen Hollow get up to next.
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