Overall Grade: A- / B+
Tropes: single dad MMC; small town; grump-sunshine; nanny FMC; surprise baby; age gap; insta-attraction; close proximity
Jessica Peterson’s I Wish You Were Mine is the type of romance you expect from a socially-conscious, writer such as herself. Tuck and Maren’s story is a tangled mess of forbidden feelings, combustible chemistry, and charm. This is a complicated bind that leaves you with whiplash as Tuck and Maren find their way through a messy love.
I enjoyed the first book of Peterson’s newest series, I Wish I Knew Then, but nothing prepared me for how much I would love Maren and Tuck’s romance. And Peterson doesn’t make it easy on her readers’ emotions. She has incorporated the theme of fear into Maren and Tuck’s characterizations. Their fears are different, but the idea of fear, to a certain degree, binds them, allows them to cling to each other. Peterson beautifully shines the differences in approaches to handling their fears: one who resolves it through the buoy of love and the other who momentarily destroys because they don’t lean into love.
Throughout the story, Peterson intertwines Katie as an amelioration of the tension and chemistry between Maren and Tuck, and she provides the reality. Even more, Katie’s characterization provides humor when the book feels heavy. Add to all of that a supporting cast of characters in Tuck’s family and friends as well as Maren’s parents to add both the flame to the tension but also the wizened guides necessary to helping Tuck overcome the shadows of his past.
Jessica Peterson deftly and carefully ties together a romance that tugs at your heart in I Wish You Were Mine. One of the things I love about Peterson’s romance voice is her willingness to dive deep into difficult situations, showing us all sides of an issue through her characterizations and plotlines. Of the two books in her Harbour Village series, I Wish You Were Mine is my favorite thus far.
In love and romance,
Professor A
Professor Romance 