Title: Sweetheart
Author: Sarah Mayberry, Heart Eyes Press
Series: Busy Bean #1
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance
Pace: Medium
Format: eBook, Novel
Year: 2021
I was admittedly a little bit leery about reading this, after all, the blurb said that it’s a relationship between a woman and her sister’s ex. That just seems all kinds of wrong to me. But then I read it, and there is no wrong, just beautiful sweetness. I totally get why this story was called Sweetheart. It is honestly just too damn cute!!!
I found the personification of Jess to be really interesting and unique in this tale. For Beck, she’s the nightmare ex who totally messed him up, abused him and just shattered some of his sanity. In a normal story, she’d be the villain throwing a spanner in the works of the relationship going forwards. And it did do that, a lot. But then you see her through Haley’s eyes, and it’s impossible to hate her. Because although Jess has done some truly horrible things, she’s still Haley’s sister. And we tend to love and adore our families, even when they’re seriously difficult.
I also loved how Haley’s family dynamic was structured. From experience, I know that sometimes if there is a child with issues, the other one gets swept under the rug. And sometimes being the passive, easy-going one means that people can forget about your own needs and desires. Again, instead of just villainising the parents and having them as the “bad guys”, Mayberry is able to show how those dynamics can happen. Even when we love, we make mistakes and sometimes fudge things up a little.
I absolutely adored this book. The relationship between Haley and Beck was completely swoon worthy and adorable. Actually, it was just downright cute. But Mayberry was also able to deal with a whole heap of pretty intense and complex issues in Haley’s family dynamic. And provide a great reminder that even when we love each other (familial, romantic, platonic…), we still make mistakes. We just have to be open to fixing them.
Earth and Skye 
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