The One Who Loves You by Pippa Grant
Tickled Pink #1
Contemporary Romance/Romantic Comedy
July 12, 2022, by Montlake
ARC
Review by Angela
Y’all I NEEDED a romantic comedy in my life when I snatched this book up for review. Anyone who’s read a Pippa Grant book knows she has a zany, sometimes outrageous brand of humor and some really unique characters. This book is no different. I know with all the cutesy covers floating around Romancelandia nowadays anything labeled as a romantic comedy is given the side-eye, so I was thankful for the hot guy cover and that The One You Who Loves You gave me exactly what I expected… laugh out loud moments with a great emotional payoff.
The entire premise of this book revolves around a billionaire family whose matriarch (after almost choking to death on a piece of Kobe beef) has moved them to the small town of Tickled Pink in order to save their souls. Why Tickled Pink? Because it was the location of a movie that featured a woman doing good deeds in order to get into Heaven. Does this have a Schitt’s Creek feel? Yes and no. These are truly entitled, snobby people, and some of them have very few redeeming qualities, but rather than be forced here because of losing their fortune, these people still have money… but the one holding the strings is determined to make them suffer their way into heaven.
The heroine is Phoebe Lightly, who finds her true self in Tickled Pink, and being in her head was actually kind of fun. Phoebe’s one goal in life has been to be the first Lightly to be CEO of the family company since her great grandfather. She’s driven, and like any true Lightly does not fail. Yes, she takes shortcuts and has a bunch of people to do her bidding at every turn, but she knows how to claw her way to the top and stay there. Then she arrives in Tickled Pink after her grandmother’s near-death experience and it is literal hell on earth. There is no way she can stay in a rundown, abandoned high school, be expected to clean said high school, in a town with bad coffee, no wifi, and the annoying Teague Miller.
Teague loves his life in Tickled Pink. It’s a wonderful small town with truly colorful characters. He’s a fisherman, goat farmer, and apparently dabbles in real estate and helps run the town. He and his ex-wife are actually friends and together with her wife raise their daughter in peace and under the radar. The money gotten from the sale of the old high school should be enough to fix the old bridge and maybe resurface some roads, but he still wants the Lightlys gone. So he reluctantly makes a deal with Phoebe to make life for her family so difficult in town that they will voluntarily leave. The last thing he needs is for their notoriety to be the cause for the press to show up.
There are so many things to like about this book. The comedy is top-notch. There are just so many scenes of ridiculousness that I couldn’t help but laugh as Phoebe and her family fumble their way to being better people. It doesn’t take Pheobe long to realize that she doesn’t like who she is, and she’s not a very good person. Of course, Phoebe is more than her spoiled brat exterior and Teague is sympathetic to her growing pains. Because he has his own issues with his family and the past. It made me smile to watch them slowly become friends and then burn up the pages together as Phoebe goes on a journey to find herself and what makes her happy.
But this book is more than its comedy and laugh-out-loud moments. There are some real and important themes addressed and this author handles them with care. There is a transgender character who stole my heart. I just loved her so much. Her courage and absolute certainty about who she is stand out as Phoebe and the rest of her family struggle day to day to figure out that same thing. This is absolutely a book about choices and learning to be the best version of yourself. About figuring out what makes you happy and living that life even though that might mean changing every part of your current circumstances. It’s heartfelt and sweet, funny, sexy, and endearing all at the same time. I really enjoyed.
Final grade- A-
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