title: Steady Now
author: Liberty Stowe
publisher: Rupertbossier
publication date: August 1, 2025
pages: 440
peppers: 3 (on this scale)
warnings: suicide (mentioned), parental neglect, child abandonment, and drug use (mentioned)
summary: When Wren's Mazarati breaks down in the middle-of-nowhere, Texas, she ends up stranded in a small town with Hud, a mechanic who really grinds her gears. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) When her best friend Anderson decides to buy and renovate an old mansion in town, she ends up staying longer than planned.
tropes:
- small town
- stuck here
- gay best friend
- horrible ex
- has a child
what I liked:
- cute kid
- strong best friend relationships
what I didn’t like:
- They go from 0 to 60 without enough steps between. They don't spend enough time on page together for them to be as in love as they claim to be.
- There's an odd amount of product placement, like she's trying to sell Coca Cola, Mountain Dew, etc.
- Male main character assumes (repeatedly) that female main character is a heart-breaker, a love-em-and-leave-em type, but never with any evidence.
- male main character makes a lot of toxicly masculine claims about needing to do things by himself to feel like a man, and nobody questions him.
- We don't learn what's really up with her father until 90% of the book. it felt too late this way.
- They have unprotected sex.
overall rating: 2 (of 5 stars)
As always, you can click on the photo above if you want to buy the book.