Review: An Introvert’s Guide to Life and Love by Lauren Appelbaum

An Introvert’s Guide to Life and Love
by Lauren Appelbaum

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Women’s Fiction/ Contemporary Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Inheriting a seaside cottage comes with strings attached in this touching romance where an introverted remote worker must leave her city apartment and learn to connect with others—and find love—in real life.

Mallory Rosen loves working from home—minimum contact with others suits her just fine. Nothing could make her leave her comfortable Seattle apartment. Until she inherits her late grandmother’s seaside cottage . . . with strings attached: Take care of your grandfather.

Fine. She can quickly check on Gramps, rent out the cottage, and return to her life. Yet when she arrives at the independent living community, the WiFi keeps dropping, Gramps interrupts her meetings, and the cottage needs renovating—according to the handsome, extroverted property manager.

So much for grand plans. Soon Mal finds herself caught up in senior citizen aerobics, new friendships, nightly chats with Gramps—and in the sparks flying with her charming property manager. Then, just when her new life and chance at love feel worth leaving her safety net behind, she gets the worst notice ever: All employees must return to the office.

My Review

I received a free copy from the publisher through Edelweiss and voluntarily reviewed it.

An Introvert’s Guide to Life and Love sounded like a book I would enjoy, the premise sounded fun and I was excited to read this one. I have to admit I struggled a bit with the start, while I enjoyed the writing style, the story took some time to get going and didn’t immediately hook me. I gave it some more time and I am glad I did as I ended up really enjoying this book.

In An Introvert’s Guide to Life and Love the main character introvert Mallory enjoys working remotely in her cozy apartment in Seattle. Her life changes when her grandmother dies and Mallory inherits a cottage as well as a request for her to look after her grandfather. Overwhelmed by being a new home owner and no clue how to look after a grandfather she reluctantly boards a plane to Florida. She plans for this to be a short trip, but she ends up staying longer as she doesn’t feel comfortable leaving her grandfather alone yet and the cottage needs pricey renovations. Slowly Mallory grows to like the sunny small town in Florida and falls in love with the place as well as a hot guy who turns out to be her property manager.

This book had some slower parts, but I ended up really enjoying it. The gentle pace and seeing Mallory slowly grow at home in this small Florida town was awesome. And I especially liked seeing her slowly figure out what she wanted out of life. I was a bit frustrated some of her realizations took her so long and she never thought of a certain solution earlier, but the conclusion at the end was just wonderful and I really loved seeing Mallory find the courage to change her life and start living the life she wants to live.

I liked Mallory and enjoyed reading about her. The romance was fun too, although I feel it takes the backseat to Mallory’s personal development arc. After sharing an impulsive hot kiss with a hot guy Mallory finds out he’s the property manager for the cottage. I liked seeing them spend more time together and get to know each other. There are some really sweet and fun scenes with the two of them. There’s a bit of steam as well. I liked reading about the two of them. Again there was a moment I was a bit frustrated with Mallory for getting upset when Daniel wasn’t more clear in communicating, but she wasn’t either. Despite that I really liked their romance and how it got resolved and the epilogue was wonderful as well.

Besides the romance there are some friendships and connections Mallory makes. I liked seeing her get to know some of the people living at her grandfather’s retirement community. There’s a new friend she makes who runs a bar and that slowly leads to more friends. And I especially liked seeing her grow closer to her grandfather, the two don’t know each other well when she arrives, but they slowly grow closer. Malory doesn’t always gets it right and they have their awkward and uncomfortable moments especially at first, but then they eventually get to know each other better and there are some really great scenes with the two of them. I liked the deeper conversation they have and also how Mallory apologizes early on when she oversteps. I loved the gift Mallory gives him later in the book, it was just so perfect for him. I also really enjoyed reading about the sunny Florida town during and seeing Mallory slowly fall in love with the place as well as the cottage.

To summarize: I really enjoyed this book. Mallory inherits a cottage in Florida when her grandmother dies and a request to look after her grandfather. Reluctantly Mallory boards a plane to Florida, but when she has to stay there longer she slowly falls in love with the cottage and the town. And she figures out what she wants from life and love along the way and gathers to courage to create the life she wants to live. I really liked reading about Mallory and seeing her figure things out and eventually creating the life she wanted to live. The romance with Daniel was sweet and a bit steamy as well. I liked them together and there are plenty of sweet scenes, although the romance does take a backseat to everything else going on. I liked getting to know the small town and seeing Mallory make friends with some people there. I really liked seeing her grow closer to her grandfather and how they get to know each other and grow close. The sunny Florida setting was a fun one to read about. I really liked the ending and the way it wraps things up.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.