Gracie Harris is a newish widow. Getting through the first year by writing essays about it in the NYT have landed her a book deal and some well-meant date set ups, but Gracie's not ready to move on yet.

Not until she temporarily moves to a mountain home she and her husband bought shortly before his death. With her kids in summer camp and in the midst of writing her memoir, Gracie finds the perfect handyman to help her fix up the house.

Will he also be the perfect man to fix Gracie's life?

This falls under chick-lit. It's a cute story without a ton of depth. My opinion only!

Josh is a good guy. A REALLY good guy. He has a knack of finding out all about Gracie under the guise of practice interviews. Not much to not like about him!

I thought the story was thin in parts. The questions that Josh asks Gracie are probing, without her ever seemingly to want to know anything about him, other than the gossip she hears around town.

I also felt like the book dragged on in parts. There were nuggets in there that I enjoyed and I'm not by any means downplaying her attempts to move through her grief, but tbh I found myself skimming through certain sections. It all got a little repetitive from the middle on.

I always enjoy hopeful books. This one made me hopeful.

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Created Feb 13, 2026 at 2:35pm • Submit your own review...