I came to this book expecting a cute, swoon-worthy romance story (look at the beautiful cover, who doesn’t expect some kind of cuteness? ^^), but the novel turned out to be completely different from what I expected. And I couldn’t be happier. Because what Sarah Morgan created in this book is so real; it matches with the fact that no one in this world is perfect, and it may take some people a lot of time to grow and finally come to embrace the love that they deserve.
We have Harriet Knight – a shy, introverted 29-year-old dog walker who had a lot of trouble opening up to people. She stammered whenever someone made her feel anxious or someone was angry at her, which made it hard for her to communicate with other people, and which made her feel embarrassed. I relate a lot to Harriet, in a sense that I am an introvert just like her, who also feels it’s difficult to open up to strangers, and may take lots of time to eventually warm up to people. And believe or not, sometimes I also stammer, especially when I get nervous or anxious about something that I’m not comfortable with or in some situations that I don’t want to be in.
Then we have Ethan Black – the dashing doctor who had chosen to build his professional life around the emergency unit, which made him constantly have to face all sorts of awful situations and angry patients. This forced Ethan to develop an ability to switch off his emotions in order to be detached from all the crazy stuff that happened around him at work, to the point that he often came off as a rough man.
The first time Harriet met Ethan, some sparks did fly, but they went away fast, as during the second time they met, when Harriet had to come to Ethan’s apartment to pick up his sister’s dog for walking, Ethan was furious and shouted at her because the dog Madi messed up his living space. And just like that, Harriet’s stammer came back to haunt her. We cannot get any more real than that, can we? Relationships don’t always have a meet-cute moment, when everything is all rainbows and unicorns, and this book proves just that.
But the more Harriet and Ethan spent time together, especially when Ethan asked her to stay over as a dog sitter, not just a dog walker, the more they learned about each other’s different sides and personalities. Behind that frightful, anxious, quiet, and unassuming appearance, deep down inside, Harriet was such a brave and passionate person, whose life up to this point had been traumatized by the fact that her father didn’t love her, and also by her fear of stammering. Behind that rough and sometimes snarky facade of a doctor, too engrossed in his professional life, was a man who was ready to listen to Harriet, to allow her the time to finish her sentences, and who saw Harriet as she was, not as someone with a stammer.
The way both of them started to open up to each other, to grow as individuals and as two soulmates who finally found the other half was both so real and so beautiful to read. I immensely enjoyed the banter between Harriet and Ethan, especially the one when Ethan was so sick and Harriet chose to stay to take care of him. So cute, hot, hilarious, and sensual ^^ They both brought out the best in each other, and helped improve the other’s undesirable traits. With Ethan, Harriet learned to be more confident, to challenge herself more, and to appreciate herself more. She learned that it was not her fault that her father didn’t love her, although obviously it would still hurt. In return, Harriet softened Ethan’s rough edges, helping him realize that he was not a cold person; he had emotions, he was capable of feeling them, feeling that he truly loved Harriet, and that she was the one for him. And did I mention this book features some hot sex scenes? Oh yes, Sarah Morgan delivered me some really steamy and sensual moments, and I’m not complaining :))
Overall, this book touched me a lot, on so many levels, especially when I read about the life story of Harriet. I can relate to her so much, in terms of not only her shyness, her being an introvert, her difficulty in opening up to strangers, and her stammer, but also how her family’s story, especially her father’s behaviors, left emotional scars in Harriet. Not that my father did something to seriously impair our father-daughter relationship; it’s just that a lot of things he has done prove to me that he is not a good husband to my mother, and that hurts… That’s why I cried a lot while reading the parts in which Harriet talked about her family, the lack of love and light that stemmed from the strained relationship between her father and mother, and how he used Harriet as an entity to vent the anger that he felt toward his wife. Poor young woman, growing up in that kind of household… I’m glad that she learned to heal all the scars and become a bolder woman, free from any emotional baggage that she had been carrying all along before meeting Ethan.
Final verdict: 10/10 because this book so touching and awesome!!!
Little Corner of My Mind 