“The Honda driver’s eyes are huge, her hands up over her mouth. “Oh shit! I’m so sorry! Thank-you Snickers.” What’d she call me?”

After winning the lottery, Alice, aka Rose, is overwhelmed by the amount of people trying to get a portion of her wealth. Deciding to escape, she gets into her car named Lillian and ends up in the quaint town of Galway. Upon entering the small town, she runs into the town grump, Angus, who helps push Lillian out of the snow. After Angus helps Rose, he decides that the woman is a menace and is glad she is passing through town. But, unfortunately for him, Rose decides to stay in the small town forcing Angus to adapt to her chaotic energy.

Rose is a likable former waitress who doesn’t want to end up like previous lottery winners and maps out a plan for her millions. As she settles in Galway, she buys a house, starts classes at a community college, and aids the community. Along the way, she falls for Angus. Angus, a therapist that helps veterans, is caught off guard by his feelings for Rose. As he takes a job to help refurbish her house, the feelings continue growing, and the two begin dating. It is not until the last few chapters that Angus finds out about Rose’s millions. It results in Angus and Rose briefly breaking up until Angus explains the reason for feeling betrayed, and Rose explains her reasons for keeping the money a secret. For the most part, it is a lighthearted read about likable characters in a small town with a strong sense of community and full of warmth. 

As these characters start their relationship, they open up about their past traumas and desires. There is not much to pick apart in this book; it is a fast read about a small town with likable characters trying to heal.

However, one moment took me right out of the book. When Rose gets her passport, Angus peeks at her passport to figure out her birthday. I assumed that would be the moment that Angus realizes that Rose is lying about her identity since you do have to use your legal name to get a passport…but later on in the book, during the angsty “we were on a break,” Angus mentions that he had no clue as to Rose’s real name. I squint at this because did he not realize her first name was not Rose instead, but Alice? It really did confuse me a bit. And I wonder if the author originally wrote the “we were on a break” portion to happen earlier in the book. But I do get wanting to spend more time with Rose and Angus as a couple, but it was just a small moment of, “Wait, what?”

Thanks again to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.