LIBRARY OR LATTES?

When high school senior Willa Taylor comes into an inheritance, her decision to accept it (or not) bisects her future into two diverging realities.

Autumn in Oak Falls promises the annual Harvest Festival, pumpkin spice lattes, and small-town New England charm—a setting Willa has always cherished. However, her life takes an unexpected turn when a distant aunt bequeaths her $25,000, conditional upon her using the funds to explore “the world beyond Oak Falls”—and she must decide by Thanksgiving whether to accept. In one of her paths, Willa continues working at the Little Acorn coffee shop and meets James Parker, her boss’ son and the boy she had her first kiss with, who’s recently returned to town after a broken engagement. In the other, she considers leaving to study at the London School of Journalism; at the library, she encounters snooty Theo Carmichael, a new arrival to Oak Falls whose mother is from London. The story’s dual storyline structure lacks clarity, leaving the opening chapters feeling disjointed. While the romantic tension is palpable—featuring enemies-to-lovers dynamics in which both young men initially come across as grumpy and caustic—the two narratives unfortunately contain repetitive beats. The characterization would have benefitted from deeper development to better ground Willa’s, James’ and Theo’s decision-making processes. Willa and Theo are cued white, and James has “dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes.”

Two romances in one—but lacking in much-needed cohesion.