Perfect Rows

by Holly Day

Everything would've been perfect if Grayson Dawe hadn't been forced to share his garden with Camden Hensley. Grayson has everything he needs in life -- a job, friends, a house he loves, and a garden. He wants to grow enough vegetables to cover his needs over the summer, and he has a plan for how to achieve it.

Camden Hensley loves his garden. He loves beautiful flowers in perfect rows, sweet scents and buzzing bees, but his neighbor, Grayson, messes everything up. He mixes vegetables with flowers in the growing beds and is incapable of placing plants in straight lines. And when Cam pulls out the plants growing in the wrong place, Grayson snarls at him.

Grayson doesn't want to fight with Camden, but he's completely unreasonable. Cam only wants Grayson to stop creating chaos and to grow flowers instead of vegetables. Neither of them is willing to back down, and days in the garden usually end in shouting matches, at least until Grayson realizes he can shut Cam up by kissing him. But will they ever be able to agree about what plants should grow where?

Genres: M M Romance, Contemporary

193 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 7, 2022

About the author

According to Holly Day, no day should go by uncelebrated and all of them deserve a story. If she’ll have the time to write them remains to be seen. She lives in rural Sweden with a husband, four children, more pets than most, and wouldn’t last a day without coffee.

Holly gets up at the crack of dawn most days of the week to write gay romance stories. She believes in equality in fiction and in real life. Diversity matters. Representation matters. Visibility matters. We can change the world one story at the time.

Reviews

[Len Evans Jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super Sweet and Adorable!

Wonderful short piece about a grumpy social worker and a laid back painter who learn to see past each others quirks and annoying habits. Turns out once they saw past their annoyences, they were perfect for each other! Another super short from Holly Day!!!!

[Shelba · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is two releases in a row from Holly Day that I have found one of the MCs just mean.

Cam:
- snaps Grayson’s tomato plant
- mocks Grayson for not finishing school
- mocks mixing black tees with his whites
- belittles his job
- mocks him not finishing school
- belittles his job
- calls him illiterate
- belittles his job
- assumed Grayson was a slob
- listens to Grayson explain how his mother nags him about school and then proceeds to tell him how great it would be to get an education and get a real job
- belittles his job
- belittles his job….

Are you seeing a trend? Honestly, the amount of times he tells Grayson he could and should get a “real job” and do something worthwhile with his life is ridiculous. Grayson should listen to his friend Ryan and stop going for the condescending, belittling guys.

Cam never even seems to realizing how much of a dick he is, and never really even apologizes. And he goes from belittling Grayson once more to demanding why Grayson is mad… and then they are making out and getting down and dirty in the garden.

Grayson, where’s your self respect?

“I hate when you act as if I’m stupid, but I find you kinda hot. When you’re not being condescending, that is. I don’t like the condescending, so stop treating me as if I’m stupid, and I might blow you more often.”

Oh, well… since he’s kinda hot… I guess it doesn’t matter that he makes you feel stupid, and is condescending.

There are two apologies in this book, and both are Grayson apologizing to this little shit Cam.

[Holly Day]

Read an excerpt

[Sandali ♥️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Received a copy from Booksirens for the exchange of an honest review
Rating - 2 stars
I wanted to love this but Camden was annoying and rude and as much as I tried to like him, I couldn't. His reading of social cues was absolutely awful. I know my ability to read social cues is awful. But he definitely doesn't know how to read the room. And HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE SAID WRONG AFTER INSULTING GRAYSON???? That's just rude. And his obsession with everything being so proper and perfect? I genuinely feel like Cam might be on the spectrum. Sometimes it feels like that and sometimes it's just him being rude. Honestly the book could've been so much better if Cam was less rude and more understanding.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Amy Spector · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opposites attract? Enemies to lovers? Someone needs their ass kicked? Hard to say, but I really enjoyed this story. It's fun, frustrating, and rather sweet. I relate to one of these two a little too much. I won't tell you which, but I'll give you a hint. The one that needs his ass kicked.

[DLB2572 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another good story. Opposites attract, enemies to lovers. These two seem to be anything but friendly only for them to finally get the opportunity to let down walls and get to know each. Quick read and entertaining.

I received an ARC and this is my unbiased opinion

[Jacquie Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy these novellas that celebrate random holidays, in this instance, Naked Gardening Day.
Cam and Greyson share a garden space and Greyson wants to grow food to be more self-sustaining, while Cam wants flowers for a peaceful space. There's a lot of antagonism between them and for me, the change to love interests happened a little quickly. There was more interest on Greyson's part than Camden's.
Overall though, it's a sweet short and I'm glad I picked it up

[Mir]

Not finishing, because I couldn't stand how Camden treated Grayson, whose only offense was...being loud in high school? wtf? Having a bad childhood does not justify being abusive to people who never did a thing to you. I don't know why other than low self-esteem Grayson put up with Camden repeatedly telling him he was stupid and his job was worthless.

I looked at reviews and there was not a huge plot twist where Grayson got a lawyer to separate the gardens and fell for the lawyer, who just wanted a nice guy to cook for him and garden. That would have made me happy.

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It isn't quite hate between Grayson and Camden, more like a crazy, irate grievance. Sharing a garden, one with flowers and the other with vegetables should be easy, but it's not, they rub each other the wrong way. It's a fun but short read as these two spar continually, although I found Camden a bit of a prissy snob looking down on Grayson because he never finished school, but it's a really great story.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

🌱Insecure man with chip on shoulder: maddening!😑

I liked strong but silent house painter Grayson and ended up enjoying the tug of war between him and his annoying neighbor over use of their shared garden. Seems the one thing guaranteed to get Grayson's blood boiling is someone carelessly ripping out his plants! This short novella pits vegetable gardener Grayson who wants to make maximum crop use of his plot against Camden, a casual gardener who just wants their patches of growing space to look neat and smell nice.

I have to admit, I found Camden more than a bit of a jerk even after learning of the hard-knock life that resulted in his rigidity and superior, know-it-all attitude. For all his education he repeatedly makes stupid and insensitive remarks and does not even recognize why his words hurt. Of course, he's really hiding his insecurities.

But their arguments at least keep them talking long enough to really interact and, low and behold, there's an attraction there that can't be denied! The shift to romance is abrupt and the ending comes a little too quickly thereafter for me, but still the result is happily satisfying.

I also totally identified with Grayson's attitude toward gardening and letting nature loose to find its own scheme that may jumble things up but still produces a tasty result🍓🍅.

This one will probably stick in my mind for a while BECAUSE Camden had such an annoying vibe.🙃

I read a complimentary advance copy of the story; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

[Flick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written and I liked the idea but the relationship was problematic for me

I love Holly Day’s books and, honestly, I wanted to love this too. Probably, if it were twice the length I would have. The problem for me was that while I understood (to some extent) why Cam acted the way he did, I couldn’t stop thinking Grayson deserved better and that Cam was borderline abusive. I think that mainly came from the fact that we don’t actually see him make the effort to change and apologise for the truly hurtful and cruel way he treated Grayson. If I’d been able to read that then I actually think I would have really enjoyed this (I love a redemption arc and complicated characters are awesome). Without it though, I was just really worried that Grayson was going into what looked to be the possible start of an abusive relationship and he was far too kind and sweet and loving to deserve that. It was still well-written and the characters had depth (which is always an achievement in such a short book) it just needed to be double/one and a half times as long so we could see the progression, not simply assume it was there.

[The Word Nerd Reviews Blog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect Rows is a cute story. It's a light, no angst read that makes a great refresher read.

I'd classify it as a novelette, longer than a short story, but a bit shorter than a novella. Due to the more concentrated page length the story does not have the strong character development and world building that usually characterise this author's works. That's not to say Cam and Grayson are not great characters, they are, but they start out as well fleshed out individuals and the character development is focused strongly on their interactions.

Some reviews have said that Cam is a bit of a jerk, and yes, he is. But his negativeness stems from his own psyche. We learn a bit about his childhood, and his views of education, 'a real job', and security, stem from the trauma of his youth. They are not really a true reflection of Grayson. Grayson has his own chip on his shoulder, which colours his patience and communications with Cam. Together they both learn to bend, and to some extent, reshape their points of view.

Perfect Rows is a lovely book with a beautiful happy ending. I really enjoyed reading it.

[Guardian.angel54 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute read - albeit short - about warring neighbors, Camden and Grayson. Sharing a garden between their houses should be an easy thing, except that Cam wants to see neat rows of flowers while Grayson wants to grow vegetables - in a haphazard manner. Both men have chips on their shoulders from rough childhoods and they seem to bring out the animosity in each other. There wasn't much world building - most of the story took place in the shared garden space. You get small glimpses into their individual lives but nothing that really makes either character stand out. The resolution to their garden war was resolved a little too quickly and tritely for my taste. One blow-job, no matter how good, is not enough to solve their personality clashes and yet it does! I've liked a lot of this author's books a lot more than this one. This just felt like the framework of a story without the filler. Not my favorite.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved the premise but...

It started off well with two neighbours arguing about their shared garden but didn't live up to its potential.
During their conversations, Camden is not at all nice to Grayson. He has reasons for the way he is, the way he sees things, but that doesn't excuse his behaviour. Grayson has never done anything to deserve the way Camden talks to him, and Cam has no clue why Gray is so upset each time. Camden is a social worker and, as such, you'd think he would know how to be diplomatic or at least, have an idea of how much his thoughtless and condescending words could affect someone.
After all this, the end happens unrealistically quickly. I would have liked it to be a bit longer so Cam could try to redeem himself, rid himself of his misconceptions, and their relationship could have a more solid foundation than Gray getting them naked every time Cam starts again.

[L · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novela had potential to be a cute story of neighborhood enemies turned lovers. But instead one of the main characters was horribly nasty to the other who didn’t deserve such blatant and repeated cruelty. Since the story was shortened the pair also never really resolved this; they simply hooked up and then a time gap happened and it was all in the past. That didn’t work for me at all.
They also didn’t really address or resolve the trama the one character had faced, which was incredibly jarring considering the author was still writing about in the last few pages.
I likely would have rated this much higher if it had been longer and fleshed out all of the storylines that were cut short due to the novela format.

[Merit · Rating 3 out of 5]

The situation in this book would be a nightmare for the permaculturist in me.
For the reader in me, that only meant I could easily relate to main character Grayson, and I was with him in his journey to get to know Camden.

Perfect Rows is light on the romance but heavy on the get-to-know-each-other.
Grayson and Camden are both so different and come from different places, and there are some opinions about each other that need to be revisited.

Their developments are beautifully crafted and I couldn't help but feel for them and with them.
This author has a talent for addressing serious topics/backgrounds without making them too heavy. Well done.

[Gabis Laberladen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darum geht’s:

Grayson und Camden teilen sich den Garten zwischen ihren Häusern. Weil sie aber völlig unterschiedliche Vorstellungen davon haben, wie man den Garten nutzen sollte, geraten sie ständig aneinander. Keiner der beiden will zurückstecken, bis Grayson entdeckt, dass er Camden mit Küssen sehr gut ablenken kann.

Meine Meinung dazu gibt’s hier

[Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Grayson is a delight and Cam is an asshole. Like, a genuine asshole, who constantly belittles Grayson and sounds like he'll be a nightmare to live with. It's not just what he says, but he has zero empathy - he's mostly thinking about himself when he makes an iffy decision at work that results in someone getting hurt, and he has less than no interest in how anyone else feels or what makes them happy, including (or especially, since that's what we see most of) Grayson. YIKES.

[Janet Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect Rows was in celebration of Naked Gardening Day. Seriously loved Camden and Grayson!! They share a space for gardening, Cam wants to grow flowers while Grayson wants vegetables. They kind of antagonize each other! I seriously loved this premise, my only wish is that it was longer. Overall, a great read that is well written!

[Rhonda Boone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a funny, short, angsty read about a messy painter Grayson and proper social worker Camden. Loved the fast paced story as it held my attention from the start..and the conversations about chickens was absolutely some of the best parts!!😉

I received this as an ARC and voluntarily this is my review.

[David Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book but it doesn’t seem like it’s complete to me. The story leaves many things open with out a resolve. It seems like the story is just a moment in time scenario with not thought of filling in the holes. Also there is no real sex scene in the short story.

[Bárbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read that manages to have the gentlest development of the romance, the right amount of sexy, and plenty of room for decent emotional depth.
Holly Day wins. Again.

I received an advance review copy via BookSirens for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[MsS · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Michaele · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars