Review: Flipping Hearts and Homes by Chris Zett

Flipping Hearts and Homes
by Chris Zett

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: f/f

Blurb:
A heartwarming, low-angst lesbian romance about finding a home and family in unexpected places.

Handywoman Rowan is rooted in her small-town community, accepting every odd job to keep her family’s hardware store afloat. When she inherits an old house, it’s the perfect opportunity to flip it to pay off her mom’s debt.

She never intends to get tangled up with beautiful, adorably nerdy Maia, a visiting big-city radiologist, staying at her aunts’ place to mend a broken heart.

Evenings at a nearby lake, renovation projects, and a wild storm keep throwing Maia and Rowan together, and an undeniable attraction sparks. But what future could there ever be for two people with such different goals?

My Review

I received an ecopy from the publisher through Netgalley and an audio copy from Tantor Audio. I ended up listening to the audio copy and voluntarily reviewed it.

I remember really looking forward to reading this book when I got it, then somehow not getting to it, so I got the audio as well hopeful I would get to it sooner that way. Somehow it still took a while to get to it, by the time I picked it up all I remembered was the low angst mentioned in the blurb and that was exactly what I was in the mood for. I am so glad I finally read this one as I had a great time listening to this one, it fit my reading mood perfectly and it was such a nice low angst romance story.

Flipping Hearts and Homes is told from dual points of views of both Rowan and Maya. Rowan has always lived in the small town, but Maya is only visiting and plans to return to the big city. Maya just broke up with her fiancé who was cheating on her and now decides to visit her aunts who live in the small town while she works remotely. Rowan and Maya meet and end up spending more and more time together.

I just had such a good time listening to this one. Rowan and Maya are both interesting characters and feel real, they have their baggage and struggles, but also their hobbies, dreams and hopes. They seem opposites at first with Rowan being sporty and doing house renovations in a small town while Maya is studious and is a radiologist who wants to work in the big city again. Both have a lot of personality and they felt like real people.

The romance was quite a slow burn with the two slowly spending more time together and then a perfect solution to some of their current problems showing up which leads to them spending more time together. And along the way they grow closer and fall in love. Their romance felt realistic and sweet with a bit of steam toward the end. I liked the way they connected by talking and helping each other out. And it was so great to see them actually communicate, even if they didn’t have a solution to their different directions in life and how that would impact their relationship, they kept the conversation open. I really liked this. There are so many great scenes with the two of them, from the way they see each other and spend time together enjoying each others company to the scenes were Maya helps Rowan with the house and later with her website. I liked being able to visualize what the house renovations looked like. I love how supportive and encouraging they each are of the other.

The ending was awesome and I liked seeing how everything fell on it’s place. Throughout the book there are all these scenes foreshadowing the solutions and how things will resolve and while it could feel obvious for the reader, I also kinda liked seeing how every plot line this way had been addressed already and the solution didn’t suddenly appear toward the end.

I also really liked the small town setting with plenty of nature and the lake where Rowan swims. It was such a lovely setting to read about. I thought Rowan being dyslexic was well written, while I don’t know much about being dyslexic, it felt well done and I liked how it was a part of how Rowan perceived the world. The way Maya supported Rowan and got upset on her behalf was awesome too. The side characters were well done too, there are a bunch of great side characters and I enjoyed seeing Maya and Rowan interact with their friends at the beer garden as well as with Maya’s aunts and the dog.

This was a new to me narrator and I had a great time listening to this one. The narration was well done and was pleasant to listen to and I am glad I decided to listen to the audiobook.

To summarize: This was a great low angst romance book. I really enjoyed it and had a great time listening to this one. Both main characters are interesting characters and feel real. I liked seeing them connect and slowly grow closer. There are so many great scenes involving the two of them and I really enjoyed reading about them. I also liked how they communicate and keep doing so even if they don’t have a solution yet. The ending was great and I liked seeing how everything got resolved. I also liked the small town nature rich setting, the side characters and the dyslexic representation. The narrator was pleasant to listen to and I really enjoyed listening to this book.

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

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.