Georgie, All Along: An Uplifting and Unforgettable Love Story

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Oh, AND this book has one of the funniest MEET-DISASTERS I’ve read in a contemporary romance in a long time! By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Levi Fanning, meanwhile, spends his days trying to redeem himself in a small town that remembers his rebellious teen years all too well.

Who she doesn't expect to cross paths with is Levi Fanning, the small-town grump and reformed bad boy. The reason why Levi is the black sheep of his family doesn't get explained until somewhere around the 70% mark, but it does constantly get teased.

I loved that the book told the story of two youngish (compared to me) people growing and learning to love themselves, people can learn a thing or two from this couple.

Unfortunately—or serendipitously—Georgie’s parents have forgotten to mention that they’ve already organised a house-sitter—a local named Levi, who is a bit of a hermit and a man of few words, dealing with a bad reputation that’s followed him from his youth into his thirties. The genuine and vulnerable nature of the characters, as well as their poignancy, are reflected beautifully in the pages. Georgie’s best friend from school Bel also just moved back with her husband and is expecting her first child. Being back in her hometown just shows Georgie how much everyone's unflattering impressions of her have stuck, and how much she lived up to them. Clayborn spins a gentle tale of two people who set out to find themselves and stumble into love along the way.But Georgie's plans hit a snag when she gains an unexpected roommate in Levi Fanning, local troublemaker turned recluse. I’m a bit surprised its scheduled for a January release because I read it on a piece of decking overlooking the Cherwell, with the sun pouring over me, and my hair trailing in the water to keep me cool, and I felt very much connected to Levi and Georgie on *their* decking overlooking *their* river. Up until chapter 15 or so I wasn't hooked at all and was having to tell myself "do it for book club" whenever I was picking this book up. Georgie, who has made a career out of fulfilling others’ needs, find herself jobless and back in the last place she really wants to be, to help her pregnant best friend. This was a surprise to me, as I hadn’t read this author before and was in a place where I have just read one of the best books this year, so this one I wasn’t expecting much, and it blew me away.

Georgie’s best friend, Bel Reston-Yoon and her husband Harry have recently moved back to Bel and Georgie’s hometown. To an overwhelmed Georgie, the diary’s simple, small-scale ideas are a lifeline—a guidebook for getting started on a new path. Levi is an admirable character and I liked how the author gives us insight into his character and his family dynamic without reverting to melodrama.

The only person who gives Levi a chance is Paul, Georgie's peacemaker father, who invites him to stay in their vacant house until his house’s construction gets finished. So here's where I start to fall apart and lose coherence, because I kind of cannot believe how well this book does both of those things. Especially, I think, in the way it interrogates the "flighty, quirky, disaster heroine" archetype with Georgie. Kate Clayborn's books are some of the best of the genre because they grapple with life-changing inheritances, tense friendship breakups, and fraught parental relationships in parallel with the deeply felt romances.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Kate Clayborn is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE authors, and I would probably have murdered someone just to get to read the first two chapters early. okay i also just want to say that the first time georgie tells levi "i love you" is probably my fave scene i've read in a book in a long long time it's just UTTER. And who better to help her than the grumpy older brother of the very same high school crush whose name is all over this friend fic in puffy sparkle pen?

Georgie has to decide what she wants to do next in life since her last boss retired, leaving Georgie as loose ends. This is one of the best books I read so far this year and I have a good feeling that it will stay in that list for the rest of the year. All in all, this read like a shallow “dramedy” rather than the romantic comedy I expected but this novel failed to realise its potential. I'll be honest and that say this didn't pack quite the emotional punch I was expecting, but I did think it was really cute and I appreciated a lot of the elements, especially the grumpy/sunshine dynamic I wasn't expecting. In many other hands, Georgie would've been OTT and cringey but somehow she was made to be loud and chaotic and it feel genuine instead of put on.