„Shucked“ is a new adult, contemporary romance book. It is the first book in the Loew Brothers series (the only one that has been released). It is written by Kate Canterbary who is a USA Today Bestseller contemporary romance author from New England. She is mostly known for her book “In a Jam” which is set in the same town as “Shucked”. I genuinely enjoyed this book; it had such a fun plot and it got so close to being a five-star read, but oh well 😊
“Shucked” is about Sunny du Jardin and Beckett Loew. Beckett is the best friend of Sunny’s older brother. When Sunny moves back home to Friendship, Rhode Island to start her new vegan café business, she runs into Beckett, who has moved back home to help out his family oyster restaurant. Sunny, as her name suggests, is a very sunshiny character, she’s always smiling, she’s kind, friendly, however, she is feisty but only with Beckett. Now, Beck is a grumpy man, who pretends not to be caring, however, he is willing to drop everything in his own life for the people he cares about. At first, Beck sees Sunny as his best friend Lance’s little sister, however, the more time they spend bickering with each other the more Beckett starts seeing her as a grown woman. They slowly but surely fall for each other.
The main tropes of this book are best friend’s little sister/ brother’s best friend, grumpy - sunshine, age gap (about 8 years), forbidden love, opposites attract, one love interest taking care of the other, slow burn romance.
Trigger warnings: chronic illness (epilepsy), mention of childhood bullying, dysfunctional families (absent-ish parents/helicopter parents), guardianship of younger siblings, incarceration, stalking, kidnapping, graphic intimate scenes.
Dedication rating: 4,5 stars. It is dedicated to someone close to the author herself and the readers. More specifically the readers of a certain kind, therefore to them the dedication hits harder than to other readers (I’m including myself in the first part of this sentence 😊)
Favorite quotes: “She gave a s**** but only when you earned it” (p. 51), “Be careful, storm cloud. I can’t look after you all day” (p. 60), “But I also wanted to go in there and rest her head on my lap and tell her I’d keep her safe as long as she needed” (p. 128), “There is no such thing as healthy adjustment anymore. We’re all carrying around reusable grocery bags of trauma simply as a product of being alive in this world and pretending everything is fine” (p. 356).
Overall rating: 4,75/5 stars.
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