Lovelight Farms, B.K. Borison, 2021
So this is the life I’d like to live. I’m 42 pages in, and I’ve smiled no less than 42 times.
Stella owns a Christmas Tree Farm (which later is referred to as a mix between the North Pole and Narnia—my dream!) which she runs with a known hottie named Beckett and another business-partner-turned-friend Layla. At the start, Stella’s pretty down on her luck since the trees this year are growing in twisted with browning pines, the supply guys keep missing shipments, and she’s in major debt but obstinately refuses to cut her employees salaries. As a last resort to save her business, she’d submitted Lovelight Farms in a social media contest which would televise it on a famous influencer’s blog. Evelyn has millions of subscribers and would easily bring in enough business to keep the farm on its feet. Plus, the first place winner wins 100k cash, which would guarantee the farm’s success.
Stella finds out in the first few chapters that she is in fact a top four finalist in Evelyn’s social media contest. The only issue is that she lied on her application about owning her business with her boyfriend to appeal to Evelyn’s known romantic side. An easy solution, however, since she has a long-term best friend Luka who would help her fool Evelyn in a heartbeat.
Stella and Luka met 10 years ago (at 21) when they bumped into each other leaving a hardware store. They know everything about each other, talk every day, cuddle on the couch. He even has a key to her home—you know, platonic things—but on those late and lonely nights, she can’t help but think about his familiar, gentle touch. The thoughts are very there, but Stella doesn’t ever let them get far enough to protrude into the platonic nature of the relationship since she’s deathly afraid of losing him as a friend.
Luka’s superrrr quick to agree to the fake dating scenario and even suggests they go out to town to feed the hot gossip about them. They’re greeted with many “finally’s” and “knew it!’s,” which doesn’t make them feel uncomfortable since even they know it’s to be expected. The only issue for Stella is the afterward—when Evelyn leaves, how will they break the news about their break up without creating drama? Luka treats this as a non-question; he says they’ll just not say anything, there’s no need to—they’ll continue to be their normal selves and if people ask if they’re still together they’ll just say they’re better as friends.
This is funny in a novel because it’s so anticlimactic and totally realistic, which isn’t usually what makes for a great novel, but it works because it adds to the authenticity of the relationship. They’re fake dating but they really don’t need to pretend because, truthfully, they’re as much a couple as any other to begin with. They just don’t sleep together because they have yet to admit they want to.
In other news, Stella’s father left her and her mother when Stella was born, and has only recently begun to pay in on his fatherly duty 10 years earlier when she sought him out about her mother’s passing. Her father, however, is a total ass. He invites her annually to a family Thanksgiving 3 weeks before the occasion so as not to be bothered with her on the actual holiday. Luka, her “boyfriend,” attends the farce and it’s hard for her to ignore the pure comfort he brings her when it’s literally right in her face.
Without adding here all the naughty details, the fake lovers start acting like real lovers pretty soon after. They have one mistaken aroused sleepover that’s interrupted before the deed is done. This allows, nicely, time for a discussion about it, in which they both agree what happened between them was weirdly not weird. Luka suggests while they’re fake dating anyway, they may as well try it out for real—a fun, dating trial run. If it doesn’t work out, they can just go back to being friends.
Well, we’ll get to it, but the trial run turns out to be a major success (no surprises here).
When social media influencer Evelyn arrives, she is down to earth and wonderful, and she’s super impressed with Lovelight Farms. Stella, Luka, Beckett, and Layla have been putting in overtime making sure everything is nostalgic and beautiful as intended. They even caught their interloper—a bitter neighbor who was also looking to purchase the farm when Stella did—messing with the tree soil, cancelling shipment appointments, and sabotaging their property. Although it’s relevance isn’t so necessary for plot, it made for some fun and suspenseful scenes with the characters.
Now as the week is ending, Stella feels the time dwindling. She loves the unusual attention she’s been getting from Luka, but she knows they can’t stay this way forever. So when he makes a joke about doing the dirty on some swingset next week, she’s like woahh buddy next week is after our deal. Luka is confused—he’s like yeah but we literally had sex and we wouldn’t have done that if we were still just playing. To which Stella’s like oh, yikes, I want you to stay my best friend. Luka then says I love you, and she DOESN’T say it back. This is something I’ve seen criticism on—why wouldn’t she just say it back?—but I think it’s actually a pretty realistic response to be so afraid of change you’d rather sabotage it than go with it, even if all the signs are saying go with it.
Feeling like a hopeless, immoral fraud, she decides to come clean to Evelyn about the lie. Evelyn, however, says yeah I knew all along. She says Stella has to be disqualified from the contest for being accepted on false pretenses, but she’ll still be featured on her social media because truly Lovelight Farms is magical. The 100k prize isn’t necessary anyway since Lovelight Farms has gained triple the amount of followers since being featured on Evelyn’s blog. Before parting, Evelyn shows Stella the video feature of their farm, and Stella sees from the outside perspective the way Luka loves her.
The novel ends sweetly—Luka says he’ll stick around even if she doesn’t love him back, which is an ending I favor because it keeps their friendship in the limelight which I think is exactly the charm of the romance. Of course Stella admits she’s in love with him too, and we get our happy ending, but I think what makes their story stronger than other rom-coms is that their relationship doesn’t actually change at all.
And now let me tell you something about the epilogue. I HATE an epilogue, especially one with a time jump, but the 2-years-later epilogue was actually one of my favorite parts of the novel. The scene is so mundane and silly, the perfect way to end such a fun holiday romance. Luka is getting ready to propose but Stella sorta ruins it by catching on too quick and saying wait are u proposing? before he actually gets to it, but it’s so Luka and Stella that it wasn’t actually ruined at all.
You can skip the bonus chapter for sure though. It’s Luka’s POV of them having sex for the first time—the same scene you and I have both read 7,000 times in all these booktok rom-coms.
I gave this novel a full 5/5! It was super witty and at points poetic without sounding mushy or out-of-place. A great balance of rom and com. There are three more books in the series with the love stories of Beckett with Evelyn, Layla with a minor character Caleb (both of which are alluded to in this first book) and her brother Charlie with a girl we haven’t yet met. I watched a review video on these where most agreed that only the fourth one is as good as this first (Charlie’s installment), so I may skip the middle two to get to that.
Quotes:
The thought aches like an old bruise, one I press my thumb in from time to time just to feel the dull hurt of it.
How could flowers still bloom when my mom was dead?
Luka tastes like red wine and cinnamon
He’s beautiful like this. Another secret discovered.
I’ve loved Luka for so long it feels like it’s a part of me, but I’m also used to hiding it – suppressing it – and that feels like a part of me too.
