Review: Lauren Layne's YOURS TO KEEP.

Q: have you ever named your car?

Ok. This book is adorable.

Carter Ramsey’s an injured MLB player who’s about to be named Man of the Year. When he succumbs to peer pressure from his twin & travels to his hometown of Haven for their high school reunion, he never imagines that the first person he’ll run into at his temporary lodgings will be his former lab partner, Olive Dunn.

Everyone loves Olive. She’s capable, confident, & never met a problem she didn’t cut off at the knees. She’s also a whirlwind of energy & when she sweeps into Carter’s life—literally repeatedly barging into his home or imposing on his plans—he’s not prepared to like her. A lot.

Feelings happen, but Carter’s got a secret he’s only confided in Olive. He’s also home to *possibly* reunite with the other half of his golden high school coupledom (don’t worry about a real love triangle here!)

Yours to Keep is a consistently funny (I know, I know, does that even mean anything in reviews anymore?!), steamy read with a lot of heart. Both leads are genuinely nice people & I always love that when happens. Especially when one nice person is really drawn to another nice person & then they kiss.

Layne offers a friends to lovers story that I think will appeal to a lot of people—a pro baseball player + a high school biology teacher who seems confident in most ways, insecure in others—& she writes the ending of the book (the chapter before the epilogue) in a way that feels hopeful for their relationship but that doesn’t make either one of them entirely sacrifice their personal aspirations. & the Epilogue is 🏻.

There are some aspects of the romance that I think could have been expanded on throughout the book—like the storyline with his former high school girlfriend, which feels a little flimsy for me. Also the ending, which doesn’t seem to have as much introspection or reflection as I’d like.

But I definitely recommend Lauren Layne’s Yours to Keep for a lighthearted small town romance that kept me smiling.

4⭐️. Yours to Keep is available now. Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.