An Opposites Attract, Small Town Romance!
Maggie Moves On
Contemporary Romance, Women's Fiction, Romantic Comedy
Forever
June 21, 2022
ebook, audiobook, paperback
Can these opposites turn up the heat… without burning down the house?
House-flipping sensation and YouTube star Maggie Nichols can’t wait to dig into her next challenge. Arriving in tiny Kinship, Idaho, with only a cot and a coffeemaker, Maggie is prepared to restore a crumbling Victorian mansion in four months or less. She has her to-do lists, her blueprints, and her team. What she doesn’t have is time for sexy, laid-back landscaper Silas Wright.
The man takes flirtation to a whole new level. And he does it shirtless…sometimes pants-less. He and his service school-dropout dog are impressively persistent. But she’s not interested in putting down roots. Not when fans tune in to watch her travel the country turning dilapidated houses into dream homes. A short-term fling on the other hand could fit nicely into her calendar. After all, Maggie remembers what fun is like. Vaguely.
As their summer gets downright steamy, Silas manages to demolish the emotional walls she’s spent years building, sending Maggie into a panic. He’s the wrench in her carefully constructed plans. With the end of the project looming, she has a decision to make. But how can she stay when her entire career is built on moving on?
“But the house? Well, there was magic here on this bluff. She could feel it shimmering just beneath layers of rotting wood and what was most likely lead paint. Like a buried treasure waiting to be unearthed.”
If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading a Lucy Score book yet, then Maggie Moves On should be at the tippy top of your “must read” list. Equal parts steamy romance, laugh out loud comedy, and feel good-find your roots storyline, Maggie Moves On has the distinction of being my new absolute favorite book written by Lucy Score—a feat indeed.
Maggie Moves On starts out innocuously enough. Maggie Nichols is a YouTube sensation known for her home renovations that transforms dilapidated dumps to a dream home while taking viewers on a journey with each newly released episode. With partner, ex-husband, and best friend Dean (who I can only picture as David from ‘Schitt’s Creek’) right by her side, Maggie rolls into Kinship, Idaho, with her eyes set transforming the once glorious Campbell home back into the beauty it was over a century before. Looking for local contractors to help aid in this renovation, Maggie meets Silas Wright and his goofy, ice cream loving, kleptomaniac of a dog, Kevin. Right away Silas’ outgoing and positive attitude reminded me so much of Ted Lasso that I was immediately smitten with his over-the-top charm and outrageous flirting.
“She needed to be a hell of a lot more careful where Silas Wright was concerned. The man could charm his way into places he had no right being. Including her pants.”
The biggest part of the overall plot of Maggie Moves On is Maggie’s insistence that her project here in Kinship is just like any other job she’s taken, yet she sets roots with each day that passes. Her formula is simple, and Maggie always moves on to the next job. Seeing Maggie blossom under careful ministrations of Silas’ friends and family and helping solve a mystery surrounding lost gold with the town’s curmudgeonly historian won my heart over with each page. You can imagine how meticulous and fact-driven Maggie reacts when confronted with the notion
that her time in Kinship isn’t as temporary as she’s lead herself to believe.
What I loved most is that Maggie surrounds herself with a found family in Kinship. Her stepsister and nephew, to a down on his luck teenager, a pair of kittens, the surly historian, as well as Silas and Kevin. By the end of Maggie Moves On, the Campbell home has been filled with people whom Maggie adores. It reminds me so much of that wonderful scene from ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ when Frances is reminded that every single thing she had wished for herself had come true for the people around her, and her joy was being able to bask in a house full of the people she loves most—which is exactly what Maggie needed too.
“He looked like he belonged here under the waterfall in the wild. And for once, Maggie felt like she might belong, too.”
Between the bittersweet nods to the mother Maggie lost when she needed her the most, to a beautiful and poignant reconciliation with her estranged father, Maggie Moves On made me cry happy tears. Lucy Score has written a romance with depth, one that comes with comedic relief, a large happy family, and a happily ever after that would warm the cockles of any surly curmudgeon.
If you can’t tell, I loved this book. This is your cue to go and purchase your own copy of Maggie Moves On, which is available on all platforms and retailers as today is release day! Go get your copy and then come and tell me your thoughts. I hope Lucy Score celebrates with a bouquet of tacos and lots of love from her readers such as myself.
Jes is a self-proclaimed bookworm, who recently moved from the PNW back to the Midwest. When her nose isn’t in a book, she’s spending time with her husband, two kids, and her three fur babies, or exploring the globe. She also firmly believes that you should start the day with coffee, and end the day in bed with a good book.
