Desert Isle Keeper

In this delightful book from Sara Rider, Nora is having trouble adjusting to her new life as a chemistry professor at a small college in Washington State. Newly divorced and far away from everyone she knows, she’s having trouble making friends and decides to join a bookclub full of hateful women out of sheer desperation. Another bane of her existence? Her neighbor Eli, who seems to have no respect for noise ordinances or cleanliness or order or any of the other elements of life that Nora holds dear.

Eli cannot understand why his neighbor cannot just lighten up. He’s renovating his house! Of course there’s going to be noise! But then one night he hears how her supposed friends speak to her and intervenes by taking her on a date. This simple meal – which initially goes disastrously – opens up new worlds for both of them. Nora begins to trust Eli’s go with the flow attitude, and Eli understands Nora’s need for order and certainty.

This book is gentle and quiet in all the best ways. There’s no massive drama to contend with, except for all the tiny and miraid ways that people have to bend when they’re learning to love someone. Both Nora and Eli have to decide what’s mandatory in their created worlds and what they can shift to accommodate the other and the result is an engrossing story that left me hoping for Ms. Rider to pen the next installment overnight!

I haven’t given a lot of DIKs out this year, but there was a touch of book magic in this one I wasn’t expecting. If you’re a fan of enemies-to-lovers, heroines who have been just a little bit battered by douchecanoe exes but who fall for lovely men worthy of their trust, or men who learn to be the best versions of themselves by falling for resilient women – then this book is for you.

Buy it at Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes and Noble/Kobo