“Being delusional is our downfall but it’s also our saving grace: we’re deluded enough that we don’t see why tomorrow shouldn’t be better, even if the last thousand days in a row have been bad.”
I am probably one of the few people in the world who hasn’t read Hogle’s highly acclaimed and 2020 favourite debut, You Deserve Each Other. And I kind of want to go back to 2020 so I can kick my old self in the butt for sleeping on this author because Twice Shy was an absolute delight. I started it one morning with the intention of only reading a few pages and ended up finishing the whole thing in one sitting.
This remarkable story follows Maybell Parish, who feels stuck in her life, as she learns that her great-aunt Violet has died and left Maybell her mansion. Having only good memories of the beautiful place and her great-aunt, Maybell decides to leave her unassuming life behind and move into the mansion to get a fresh start. But there’s trouble waiting for her there as well: When she arrives at the place, it looks nothing like it used to; every room is filled to the brim with stuff Violet bought and horded. Not to mention that Maybell isn’t the only inheritor of the mansion… Wesley Koehler, her late great aunt’s groundskeeper, is noted down as co-inheritor. Sharing everything with Wesley doesn’t sound too bad, but as they realise that they have completely different visions of what the property should become, the two of them butt heads quite often. But as they work together to rid the mansion of all its clutter, Wesley and Maybell soon realise that there are some things (and feelings) worth holding onto.
Needless to say, I was hooked from the first page. Maybell was such a painfully relatable character for me, I found myself tearing up at her intricate thoughts. Maybell appears as an unassuming and lonely woman. She’s never been able to assert her opinion or her values, not with her flighty mother who cut off contact with most of their relatives, nor with her coworkers, one of them who even catfished her online to keep her from getting attention from the guy she herself was after. Maybell is lonely and gets pushed around, feels restless with where she is in life and doesn’t really know how to change that. She also has a tendency of disappearing into daydreams that give her the attention and affection she’s never experienced in real life. She’s also someone who’s been dealt pretty bad cards in life, and yet, she always gets up again whenever she gets knocked down and tries to make life work for her. Her tenacity and spirit were so admirable and especially with the initial antagonistic relationship with Wesley, you could tell that she values her self-worth even when others don’t. Being inside her head was both the most fun I’ve had and also the hardest struggle because I couldn’t give this character a hug because God knows she deserves one.
Wesley Koehler. Listen up, I share a last name with this man, so legally speaking, he is already MINE and I will not be sharing him. Nope. Wesley is a shy, charming giant, a man who struggles making meaningful connections because of his social anxiety, a man who wants to build an animal sanctuary, and above all, Wesley is an absolute dreamboat of a romantic hero. No wonder Maybell has vivid daydreams of coffeeshop AUs (alternate universes) with him thrown into the mix. The man is utterly heartwarming, especially when he engages with her in these alternate universes and daydreams right along with Maybell (yes, you can hear me sighing dreamily, I know).
And their romance, oh my. Rarely have I seen such two complex characters work this well in a romance novel. The way they grow closer together, and especially how Maybell reacts to and interacts with Wesley after learning he struggles with social anxiety made me want to buy a copy of this book for everyone in my life who’s ever felt discarded by partners because of their mental health. It’s such a natural yet tension-filled journey that brings Wesley and Maybell closer together, yet there are light moments (like a search through the mansion for hidden entrances and tunnels) that balance out the tough discussions regarding their emotional baggage. There are more than a few scenes where you will find yourself swooning over the romance but there’s one in particular (I’ll just say coffeeshop here) that is now one of my all-time favourite romantic gestures ever. If you manage to get through that scene without tearing up, I applaud you.
Though I loved everything about this novel, my favourite element might be the ending. Hogle pulls no punches when it comes to depicting social anxiety and the effect it has on Wesley, but instead of letting that divide the characters, it ends up strengthening their relationship. It’s such a beautiful twist to see this dynamic duo face their separate issues and lend each other a hand and communicate openly about them. If anything, it shows that there’s plenty of drama to be found in romance without going for the stereotypical endings.
With authentic social anxiety rep, a grumpy yet adorable hero and a headstrong heroine, Twice Shy is an unforgettable tour de force that puts a delightful spin on coffeeshop AUs, catfishing and the ‘oh no, there’s only one bed – eh, mansion’ trope.
Twice Shy is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of April 6th 2021.
Will you be picking up Twice Shy? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
Can you find real love when you’ve always got your head in the clouds?
Maybell Parish has always been a dreamer and a hopeless romantic. But living in her own world has long been preferable to dealing with the disappointments of real life. So when Maybell inherits a charming house in the Smokies from her Great-Aunt Violet, she seizes the opportunity to make a fresh start.
Yet when she arrives, it seems her troubles have only just begun. Not only is the house falling apart around her, but she isn’t the only inheritor: she has to share everything with Wesley Koehler, the groundskeeper who’s as grouchy as he is gorgeous–and it turns out he has a very different vision for the property’s future.
Convincing the taciturn Wesley to stop avoiding her and compromise is a task more formidable than the other dying wishes Great-Aunt Violet left behind. But when Maybell uncovers something unexpectedly sweet beneath Wesley’s scowls, and as the two slowly begin to let their guard down, they might learn that sometimes the smallest steps outside one’s comfort zone can lead to the greatest rewards.
