Sweetheart (Busy Bean #1)by Sarah Mayberry
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Synopsis:
The first Busy Bean novel is an achy breaky romance with gorgeous writing! - Sarina Bowen
I just wanted to get my hands on his beans
Four years ago, I had a ridiculous crush on my sister's boyfriend. But when they moved away together, I put Beck out of my mind and my heart. But now he's back, and roasting the best coffee in Vermont. I need to convince him to supply the Busy Bean. And I need more of those kisses we accidentally shared outside the coffee shop. He still makes my heart race faster than a triple shot of espresso.
She should be off limits, but instead she's pushing mine
Her sister burned my life to the ground, so Haley Elliot is the last woman I should bring into my bed. Although our business relationship is giving way to something more than a fine grind. Neither of us can help ourselves. And what’s worse, I think I’m falling for her.
But it’s a small town, and ours is a big secret. And when her sister blows back into town, suddenly the coffee isn’t the only thing brewing...
Review
OUT TODAY, PEOPLE!!!
Soooo, wow. As I was reading this book I was like “oh wow there are so many funny one liners, this is amazing. So glad to be back in the Busy Bean. Dang these two have some explosive chemistry, amirite ?!?!?” and then BOOM. The emotional kick that this one has at the end got me good (and I say that in the best way possible). But I’ll get to that in a bit…
First of all, can I just live in the World of True North? CAN I? Because I’m telling you, even excluding the amazing characters and strictly thinking about the places like the Busy Bean or Shipley Farms has me wanting to move out to that version of Vermont, lol. THEN we DO add in the characters and it feels like coming home every time I pick up one of these books. I love it.
I was so interested to start this story because it came with a trope that I haven’t seen often. Haley, who is a waitress and barista at the Busy Bean and has an Etsy shop on the side where she makes GORGEOUS leather creations (shoes, belts, you name it), has always had a crush on her sister’s old boyfriend Beck. They had a messy breakup a few years back that she knows nothing about and hasn’t seen him since. UNTILLLLL she does some sleuthing on a new coffee company that’s been stealing business away from the Bean and runs into the handsome Beck himself. Of course he’s part owner of this coffee bean company (see, do I even need to point out this is another reason for moving there?!?) with his brother, Sam. Beck, who we find out did in fact have a VERY very messy breakup with Haley’s sister, does not react well to seeing her.
I’m not going to break down the whole story but what you need to know is that Beck is wise enough not to let that stop him from doing business with the Bean. He and Haley are obviously thrown into close quarters a few times because of it and eventually this crazy explosive chemistry comes blasting out after one single kiss that was meant to just be comforting.
At first I was a bit wary of how fast things were going between them but they themselves wondered about it enough that I felt it was all natural. After all, sometimes you do just find yourself having an insane amount of chemistry with someone else. Once that was settled, the thing I was most worried about was how they were going to pull off telling Haley’s sister, Jess.
At first we don’t get a full picture but what we do get isn’t all that pretty. Haley does love her sister, there is no doubt about that, but it’s clear that Jess struggles with extreme highs and lows and takes the people close in her orbit long with her for the ride. Because of this, Haley has always unconsciously been put in second place by her parents. After a failed suicide attempt years ago, their parents are always on high alert of things setting Jess off and are constantly having to talk her out of these dangerous moods and lows. We find out later that Beck himself had to endure this behavior for a year and is still pretty messed up from it.
Despite that though, Beck and Haley decide that this explosiveness between them is worth exploring and before long fall madly in love. There is a moment where things come to a head on the Jess front but what I loved was that Haley decided that enough was enough of not coming in first. She chose to be happy with Beck instead of denying herself of that and I was so happy. I’m not going to lie though, the ending was very emotionally intense. Once we find out more about Jess and Beck’s relationship and the severity of the issues that Jess has been dealing with her entire life my heart hurt for ALL of them so badly. I was so relieved with how everything turned out in the end so rest assured there is that HEA that we all crave. 🙂
Huge thanks to Heart Eyes Press LLC for allowing me to read an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!♥
