E-Galley/Audiobook Review: Do Me a Favor by Cathy Yardley

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Do Me a Favor by Cathy Yardley
Narrator: Elyse Dinh, Teddy Hamilton
Published by Brilliance Audio on July 23, 2024
Genres: Adult Contemporary Romance
Length: 09:00
Source: the author
Format: Audiobook, E-galley
My Rating:
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Blurb:

Cathy Yardley, author of Role Playing, serves up a delectable rom-com about a widowed cookbook writer and a divorced handyman who find that it’s never too late for a fresh start.

Willa Lieu-Endicott moved from California to the Pacific Northwest to start over. Since her husband’s death, she’s been struggling to get back her old career as a cookbook ghostwriter. Unfortunately, her latest project—ghostwriting for a viral cooking sensation known more for his washboard abs than his meals—has her stuck.

Until she meets her new neighbor.

Hudson Daws, the handyman next door, lives on a farm with his parents and two adult children. He’s the opposite of everything she’s ever known. His happily chaotic life includes biker barbecues, an escape artist dog, and adorably menacing goats. He’s also got a sinfully sexy smile and a rumbling bass voice that makes her shiver. He inspires her.

From their first meeting, the two fall into an escalating cycle of favors, paybacks…and attraction, even though Willa’s trying to keep her distance.

They both have their own pasts to deal with. Now, they just have to figure out if they have a future.

My Review

I love how the author has given us a bit of a later in life love story. Both characters have had a first marriage and lost their significant other due to divorce or death. One has kids, one is floundering and unsure where to go at this point. The story takes place in a small town with a fun cast of supporting characters.

Willa is reserved, still dealing with her husband’s death, she’s unsure how to move about in this new world and new reality. She married pretty young, against her parents’ wishes, and her life never became the steady, safe one they’d always wanted her to have. Now she’s kind of trying to move on, to start a new life on her own, with the luck of her great-aunt’s home in this small town. The first job opportunity that might actually help her get on her feet comes along, but it’s not an easy one. The antics with trying to come up with “sexy” recipes for this influencer’s cookbook is so much fun. Even as I could feel the stress Willa was dealing with to complete it.

Then there is Hudson. He’s the flirty divorcee, with two grown kids, because he also got married at a young age. He’s a few years younger than Willa, but also at a point in his life where he thinks he wants to be. But as he gets to know Willa, and learn about her life, he does start to wonder about a few of his own misses in his life. However he is a giver, he’s there to help out anyone, and so that has always come first, like raising his kids when his wife left them. His family is a blast. His daughter and his mom, and even his dad. All of them just want him to be happy, and of course are shocked when it seems he’s interested in this new woman on the island.

The romance progresses at a slow pace, both attracted, but Willa unsure and not wanting to accept help, and Hudson worried about scaring her away if he moves too fast. When Willa visits her family, it makes sense why she feels the way she does. But I love how she makes her decision on what to do next.

Another thing I loved about the story is that we don’t get that third act break up really. There is a bit of the disaster we need to move the story along of course, but the two of them are able to figure that out, and then we have other things to worry about messing up their relationship, or them figuring out what they are going to do and how they can move on.

Another sweet romance, with a little bit of spice from Cathy Yardley.