🍂🔨 The Fixer Who Finally Became Someone's First Choice 🔨🍂
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 Stars | 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3 Chili Peppers
Give me a quiet, capable man who shows up without being asked, expects absolutely nothing in return, AND has spent years believing he's destined to be everyone's dependable guy but nobody's first choice...
Yeah, I was never surviving Rhett Montgomery. 😂❤️
Restored by You was such a warm, cozy little comfort read. Between the small-town Montana setting, fall atmosphere, house renovation, chaotic Montgomery family, found family, and one seriously swoony contractor, I flew through this story.
Shea Winton comes to Montana with a very specific plan. Restore a hundred-year-old house, film the pilot that could launch her dream show, take care of her teenage stepbrother Tyler, and head back to California by Christmas.
Then an unfortunate house mishap brings Rhett Montgomery to her door.
And apparently Rhett's plans are immediately ruined. 😂
Their chemistry is there from the beginning, but I really enjoyed that the relationship still gets time to develop. Shea has goals and an expiration date on her time in Montana, and she's hesitant to start something she already believes has an ending.
Rhett, meanwhile, is very much thinking, I'll give you a reason to stay. 🫠
This man was EVERYTHING.
Rhett is the guy everyone calls when they need something. He's steady, capable, patient, and dependable. But somewhere along the way, being the person everyone counts on has also turned into being the person people take for granted.
He's watched everyone else find love and stopped believing he'd ever be someone's first choice.
Then he meets Shea.
What I loved most about Rhett wasn't simply that he could fix practically anything. It was the way he quietly showed up for both Shea and Tyler over and over again.
No keeping score.
No expectation that Shea owed him something because he helped.
No trying to take over her life.
He listened. He encouraged her. He supported her vision. He noticed what needed doing and simply did it.
And most importantly, Rhett saw Shea.
Not the designer.
Not her father's daughter.
Not the woman trying to launch a television career.
Her.
❤️
Shea's journey was just as important to me as the romance. She's ambitious and determined, but she's also spent a lot of time living beneath other people's expectations. Montana gives her the space to start figuring out what she actually wants.
I especially loved her relationship with Tyler.
Shea has so much on her shoulders already, yet she's determined to step up for her teenage stepbrother and make sure he doesn't have the same kind of experience she had growing up. Watching both Shea and Tyler start coming alive in Montana gave this story so much heart.
And then the Montgomerys basically say, Congratulations, you're ours now. 😂❤️
I LOVE a good found family, and this one delivered. The Montgomery family is big, loud, messy, chaotic, and incredibly loving. Watching Shea and Tyler gradually become part of that world made Montana feel like more than the temporary stop Shea originally intended it to be.
It started feeling like home.
I also appreciated that Shea's growth isn't about abandoning her dreams because she falls for a man.
She starts recognizing her own worth.
She finds her confidence.
She fights for what she wants.
And Rhett supports those dreams instead of asking her to make herself smaller so she'll fit into his life.
That made their relationship work for me.
Shea sees Rhett too. She sees beyond the contractor everyone calls when something breaks and recognizes the man underneath all that usefulness. The man who deserves to be wanted for more than what he can do for everyone else.
And while this romance is incredibly sweet and cozy, don't mistake “comfort read” for innocent. 😂🔥
The chemistry between these two is HOT, and those three chili peppers definitely find their way into this little fall romance. Rhett may be quiet and patient, but that's all I'm saying. 🫠🌶️
I also loved the restoration theme woven through the story.
Shea comes to Montana believing she's there to restore an old house.
Instead, she and Tyler begin building lives that actually feel like their own, while Rhett starts believing that maybe he isn't destined to stand on the sidelines of everyone else's happily ever after.
None of them needed someone else to “fix” them.
Sometimes you just need people who see the value that's been there all along.
Restored by You gave me exactly what I wanted from a fall small-town romance. It was quick, cozy, heartfelt, spicy, and filled with characters who made me smile.
And Rhett finally getting the chance to be someone's first choice?
That might have been my favorite restoration of all. 🍂🔨❤️
Thank you to A. Boss and Happily Booked PR for the gifted advanced reader copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.