Hey Babes! Alright, buckle up cause this one is a bit of a longer one, but this book is so damn good! **SPOILER ALERT** This is your warning, so if you have no read this book and you want to and not have anything spoiled, don’t continue reading this until you have finished the book! Alright, so first things first, we are going to continue this little break from the hockey romance books this week, but this book was so worth it! One of the many times I have scrolled TikTok trying to find a good book to read, I stumbled across a few videos of people posting parts of this book and I knew I had to read it.
We start off three years before this book takes place. Jude is working on the opening of a restaurant, Nivoli’s, all is going pretty good until she watches one of the investors belittling the owner, Theo. Jude doesn’t like this and she rips the investor a new one. She almost loses her job at Dime Design’s when her boss Diana finds out what she did. Theo has also moved out of the area. Now jump forward three years, and there is a job opening for designer, the job Jude would have had sooner had is not been for the opening night at Nivoli’s. She makes a deal with Diana to be the lead designer on this project and if it goes well, then she will get the promotion. This is when Jude finds out that it will be for Theo’s fourth restaurant, and he is moving back. There is a bit of awkwardness at first, and Theo leaves Diana a voicemail telling her that he doesn’t think he can work with Jude, which almost gets Jude fired, AGAIN. Diana agrees to keep her on the project, but she will be expected to send daily updates, and if she can’t win Theo over by the end of the project, she definitely will not be considered for the promotion. Jude makes the pitch to add some nature to the design, which takes a little bit of convincing, but they decide to go with it. Theo and Jude go to a nursery to look for some plants for the living wall, and after they pick some things out, and are leaving, it starts down-pouring. They end up having to stay at a hotel, and they end up in ridiculous outfits from the hotel gift shop. They eat dinner together, and then they get a little handsy. It gets a bit awkward again, because Jude is convinced that Theo hates her, and Theo knows that Jude hates him. They make the Sixty-Forty rule outlining the deal for their professional relationship, because Jude is sassy as all hell, and its super cute. Back home, Jude is receiving emails from Theo about the flooring and asking if the change was made without consulting him. She rushes in and finds that the wrong floor is in fact being put in. The floor dude tells Jude that they are looking at being four weeks behind the launch date goal, and Theo freaks out. Jude negotiates with the flooring dude and is able to have the wrong flooring torn out, and the correct flooring put in, all while keeping them on schedule. She finds Theo having a freakout moment in the kitchen and is able to calm him down. Theo reveals that he doesn’t want to get behind schedule because he has already hired his staff and they have put in notice at their jobs, and if they don’t open on the planned day, then they lose their paychecks. We also learn that Carly, the other girl that wants the designer position, watched the incorrect flooring being put in and she just laughed. Theo was trying to get her to help, but she decided she was going to be a complete bitch about it. Jude promises that she will be there everyday watching over everything to ensure they stay on schedule. During this time, Jude pulls out a baggie of Cheerios and eats them. she reveals that she pretty much eats them for every meal. Theo tries to make her lunch, but she insists on making it for him. She gets the eggs out, and milk and decides she is going to make a frittata even though she has no fucking clue what she is doing. When the oven goes off alerting them to the fact the frittata is done, she gets it out of the oven to see that it is a gross gray mixture. Theo tries to convince Jude to try her Frittata and she won’t, so he decides he is going to. They joke about how if he gets salmonella she better take the fall for making the frittata since he is one of the best chefs around. They have a little cute moment, but then they are interrupted. Theo invites Jude to show up on the days that him and his head chef Finn are going to be there finalizing the menu, and she does show up. He gets jealous of how Jude acts with Finn. We also learn that Theo has started counting the amount of times that Jude touches him throughout the day, and I don’t know, but it makes me so damn happy!
Jude and her best friend, Jenna, go out one night and they run in to Finn and Theo. Jenna pushes Theo to admit that he likes Jude and Finn and Jenna hit it off. Theo goes and ends up sleeping over at Jude’s place, not in a sexual way unfortunately. Jude has been doing a good job of making sure that Carly doesn’t go anywhere near the project, and so far it is working, but since Carly isn’t there, Jude has Jenna helping her with the setting up everything for the restaurant. Theo shows up to help with setting everything up, and everyone is a little on edge about it, because it is not normal for an owner to be apart of that, and they all think that he may be there to yell at them for something. Theo ends up taking Jude to talk in the office and they are starting to have a moment when they can hear Diana’s voice state she is looking for Jude. Jenna thinks quick on her feet, and then she is the one to open the office door, see them and then tell Diana Jude is not in there. Theo and Jude end up staying after everyone else and make fudge, and Jude forget the lid on the blender and fudge goes all over the kitchen, which makes Theo laugh. Jude tries to have sexy time in the kitchen but Theo stops her and tells her about his feelings for her. She tells him she likes him but she is scared and does the whole “what if it goes south” and he tells her it wont, and he kisses her before he leaves. It’s the night of the party before opening night, and Jude is definitely going to get the promotion. She ends up meeting Theo’s mom, and she invites Jude to eat with her and Theo’s sister at opening night. Jude gets an email with the invoice for the Nursery and it is way over budget and she starts to panic. She opens it up and sees all the extra plants added to the order, and then she sees that Theo added the extras and signed for it. She realizes its enough stuff for a garden and she asks Finn where there would be enough space for a garden and he tells her the roof so she goes to the roof and then Theo comes running up super fast behind her cause he didn’t want her to find out like that. They both tell the other that they need to be with the other one and then they finally fuck. AT 80%. This is definitely not a book for Ash. Anyway, Jude realized after the first morning, the one where he was at her place, that she had a pile of clean undies out, and she tells him this and he says that he almost took a pair as a souvenir. We also learn that after he learned that she liked Cheerios that he bought cheerios to keep at his place just in case she ever came over to his place. Diana calls and Carly told her that Jude was sleeping with Theo. Diana wants to see Jude first thing Monday morning, after telling Jude that she can’t really expect Diana to keep her as an employee. Theo insists on going to the office with Jude, and they overhear Carly in the office trying to convince Diana to fire Jude. When Diana dismisses Carly, Carly says some nasty things to Jude and Theo gets super mad about it. They explain their relationship to Diana, and that the relationship is new. Like didn’t happen until after the party. Theo says that Dime Designs is still getting the contract even if Jude is no longer employed, as long as the other designers are as good as Jude and he never has to work with Carly, as she intentionally ruined the project. Diana lets out the information about the deal they made in the beginning and after the meeting Theo ends up asking if that is why she changed how she reacted to him. She says no, and he is trying to work it out with her, but Jude decides that she needs to self-sabotage, and she breaks up with Theo. SHE BREAKS UP WITH HIM AT 90%. She gets out of the car and goes to her apartment, and then not long after, Theo gets out and follows her up and bangs on the door and wants to be let in, but she doesn’t until he mentions that her neighbors are freaking out. Theo is very determined to get Jude out of her own way. He finds out that she thought he hated her. She finds out that he is not he one who reported her freakout o his partner 3 years ago and that is was Carly. They fuck. He tells her that if she needs space he will give it to her, and then he leaves. Jenna comes over and they call Judes mom. Her mom apologizes and asks how to make it better and Jude tells her she isn’t sure she can. Jude want’s Theo. She ends up going to opening night. He is talking to his family when his mom asks when Jude will be arriving and he says he doesn’t know if she will. His sister ends up being rude. Like I get the whole being protective of your sibling, but when your sibling says to cut it out, you do. Anyway, the sister asks her what she feels for Theo and Theo gets upset, but then Jude says it’s okay, but she would rather tell him her feelings first. She tells hims she loves him and that she wants him back and she said she was even willing to make the gross gray frittata again and eat it all if that will make him forgive her. Then she says she is his forever, and we end with him looking at the sky and saying “Finally, she gets it now.”
I really enjoyed this book. I loved the interactions between Jude and Theo from the very beginning, and I loved watching their relationship grow. I also loved getting to see how two people can think something that are so different from the other, and how things can look so different from other people. I also really liked how you can see how much someone’s trauma can affect their future relationships, even if it is a different kind of relationship.
I really disliked how Diana went and just took everything she heard first and went with it and made her mind up basically first without trying to figure out the truth on her own first. I was so not a fan of the breaking up at 90%, that had me so stressed out I can’t even put it into words.
The series is called the Sunset Landing Series, and there is one more book so far. I’m not sure if there will be other books after that, but I will definitely read them if there are! I gave this book a 3.5 stars out of 5.
Blue's Library 