MINE AGAIN

In Thome’s romance novel, set in small-town Montana, two 30-somethings navigate potential new love while juggling life’s obligations.

Delilah Spencer, a 32-year-old, commitment-phobic Chicagoan and traveling lawyer, and her longtime best friend, architect Daisy Nilsson, arrive in Sunflower, Montana, to begin Delilah’s four-month coverage stint at John Henry’s firm while he seeks cancer treatment in Minnesota. One of Delilah’s new clients is a retired Baseball Hall of Famer whom everyone in town calls Pop; his 35-year-old son, high school band director Ranger Beckham, is getting divorced, but he still has a close relationship with his 13-year-old stepdaughter, Lucy. After Ranger spontaneously invites Delilah to his and Lucy’s Montana State Fair excursion, she begins to open up to him in ways that she rarely does with anyone. Luckily, the instant attraction is mutual, and Ranger’s parents quickly invite Delilah to dinner at their Deep Roots Farm, hoping to help the relationship along. As the two face drunken nights, family concerns and emergencies, and the prospect of Delilah’s imminent departure, they each must contend with their traumas and responsibilities: For Delilah, her itch to escape reasonably stems from a cheating ex and a father with advanced Alzheimer’s disease back home; for Ranger, a lifetime of putting others first, plus his recent divorce, makes him doubt that he’s worthy of love. Although readers may find the main characters’ voices a bit tough to differentiate, their issues and resulting decisions unfold realistically and sympathetically. The descriptions of Montana’s natural beauty across the seasons (“The sky is burnt orange as the sun begins to dip behind the western mountains”) provide a cozy, well-rendered backdrop.

Robust friendships and strong familial bonds round out this charming first installment in the Sunflower series.