LOST AND FOUND

When two old friends decide to move in together, they’re not prepared for the feelings that inevitably resurface.

Bea Marshall and Merritt Young have been best friends since fifth grade. Their connection feels too strong to be broken, but when Merritt is diagnosed with cancer, Bea is forced to face the brutal truth that she’s going to lose the person she loves most in the world. Merritt’s death isn’t the only event that shakes Bea to her core: It turns out Merritt had harvested her eggs when she was first diagnosed, and wanted Bea to have them after her death. Bea always planned on being a mother one day, but this isn’t the way she envisioned it happening. When she realizes she needs to save money to begin IVF, Silas Byrd steps in to help. He and Bea have a complicated history going back to high school, when the two harbored feelings for each other but refused to act on them because of Merritt’s long-standing crush on Silas. When Silas offers Bea a room in his house, they’re forced to contend with romantic tension that’s never truly gone away. Meanwhile, Silas is dealing with his own issues as a firefighter recovering from the aftermath of an accident that left him scarred both physically and mentally. Neither of them is going into this temporary living arrangement with any expectations, but the longer they spend time in close quarters, the harder it becomes to remember that they should stick to being friends as a way to honor Merritt’s memory. The concluding chapter of DeWitt’s Spunes, Oregon, series isn’t just a love letter to the fictional setting she’s crafted or the characters who inhabit it, chiefly the Byrd family and those who love them, but also to her loyal readers; it’s hard to imagine any dry eyes after reading the epilogue in particular. Despite the heavy subjects the book navigates, including grief and post-traumatic stress, Silas and Bea’s dynamic is sweet and tender, and the author is utterly unafraid to dig into the vulnerability that makes this romance achingly believable and ultimately human at its core.

A tremendously beautiful conclusion to this small-town romance series.