Kristin's Bookshelf

📚 Birding with Benefits
✍️ Sarah T. Dubb
🎙️ Mia Hutchinson-Shaw & Evan Sibley

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Very few romance reads earn a 5-star rating from me, and this one earned it for very different reasons than most of the others. Typically, it’s all about the story, but in this case I really loved the story, but also found the characters so relatable.

John. What can I say about John? He’s introverted and quietly passionate. He understands who he is and understands his baggage. He’s the first man from a book that I would want to pull out and make things official with. Zero red flags from me.

Celeste? I loved her too. She’s rediscovering herself after her divorce and is committed to finding the joy in life. She is charismatic and finds excitement in the smallest of things all around her. She’s scared to lose herself again, but has an amazing support system to be there for her.

John and Celeste meet when she volunteers to be his “fake date” … when she was actually supposed to be his (non)romantic birding partner. It’s a definite meet-cute and I love their dynamic from the very beginning. It’s not without its challenges, but both Celeste and John are mature enough to navigate and communicate their way through it all.

There is just a dash of spice, nothing over-the-top.

This book helped me discover a new favorite sub-tropes:
✅ Sharing interests/passions (Like John sharing birding with Celeste)

Also, I think this may be my first fake-dating book, and I loved it. I’ll be on the lookout for more.

This is definitely near the top of Rom-Coms I will be recommending.

Did I mention I already reached out to a local birding group to learn more?? Yes, I did in fact do that.

I listened to this book on LibroFM.