WhiskeyintheJar Romance

*For free on Amazon but author did alert me to the book asking if I'd review, so in full disclosure, sort of an ARC :)

Norah works in a high powered, fast paced job in the marketing field in Chicago but when she finds out that her company has been lying to her and taking advantage of her honest nature, she is crushed. She loses her job and casual boyfriend when she refuses to lose her integrity and leaves to a small town in Mississippi to lick her wounds and visit an old college friend. Cam was on the road to a successful city life when his mother got sick with cancer and he decided to ditch grad school and return home to care for her. His highly driven girlfriend couldn't handle his new life direction and ditched him, so when he meets his cousin's old college friend and starts to develop feelings for her, he is wary. However, when Norah and Cam band together to save the small town of Wishful, they find they can't fight their feelings and a small town guy and a big city gal might just work.
 
The first in the Wishful series, To Get Me To You, was an even paced and cozy read. The story mainly centers on Norah and Cam fighting to keep GrandGoods, a big chain company, out of Wishful as Cam feels it will ruin the integrity of the town and Norah's work experience tells her that it will. We follow along as Cam and Norah implement strategies to change the townspeople's minds. Through this we get to meet the secondary characters (townspeople and Cam's family) and what works the best in this story. There were some obvious characters that could be set up for their own books but rarely have I read a story that so cohesively integrates a plethora of characters without it feeling forced or series baiting. Each secondary character added to the story and helped to create the setting, tone, and feeling of Wishful. If looking for a small town feel and all inclusive stories, this would be a great pick.
 
While the overall setting was great, Norah and Cam's relationship took a hit because of this. They start off with a bit of insta-love but then separate as Norah doesn't want to confuse their working relationship and then have more of a building up romance; in a blink they're together, slowly pulled apart, and then find they simply can't resist each other. The focus on the battle to keep GrandGoods out of Wishful overtook their romance and why I would categorize this as more of a cozy romance read rather than strictly romance as the romance takes a backseat. Norah and Cam have a valuable connection, it just wasn't focused on as much as I, personally, like.
 
An interesting aspect of this story was the bit of role reversal from the usual romance tropes; Norah is the high powered workaholic who swoops in to save the day, while Cam was the small town guy who had a moment of overreaction when he overheard something. The character dynamics were new and fresh and added a different flavor to the story. I would have liked some of the working to keep GrandGoods out of town story to be cut, as I felt it clogged up the story at times, in favor of more Norah and Cam.
 
This book is currently free on Amazon for kindle right now and although, I caught a few editing mistakes, wrong word choices, the overall editing and writing is good. If you like small town focused stories with a touch of romance and a cozy women's fiction feel, you'll want to give this one a try.