Double Booked w/ Neighbors to Lovers in a Small Town: Once Upon A Time in Dollywood by Ashley Jordan
A Haitian-American playwright experiencing writer’s block trades her New York City home for her late grandmother’s Tennessee cabin—where she finds more than she expected.
Introducing Double Booked - Double Booked is a collaboration between two Black romance reviewers, myself and Tropes and Kisses, to read and review books by and about BIPOC characters. We’re prioritizing our ARC TBRs to share our perspectives of every swoony line, every lust-fueled plot, and the scenes that literally stop you in your tracks.
Hi Librarygoer!
Sometimes when I read, I get this feeling in my chest. It’s like all my emotions are swelling in my throat. I turn the page, savoring everyone. Sometimes it takes longer to read these books because I’m afraid of seeing it end.
When I get this feeling, I know the book is going to be good. Great. Life-changing. I read this book a month ago and I’ve thought about it every day since.
Once Upon A Time in Dollywood by Ashley Jordan
HAPPY RELEASE DAY! I wish this debut author—who I met briefly standing in line at Regina Black’s Atlanta signing last night—a long and fruitful career. I hope that this book lands in the hands of everyone who needs it. It’s an affirming store of redefining a life that’s never felt like your own.
I’ve barely been able to hold in my love for this book so feel free to DM to wax poetically about every line!
Happy reading,
- Aleia
If You’re Into These Tropes, Keep Reading
Story Synopsis
A Haitian-American playwright experiencing writer’s block trades her New York City home for her late grandmother’s Tennessee cabin—where she finds more than she expected.
Eve is having the career of her dreams but nothing in her personal life is going right. So she does what anyone who leans heavier on the flight side of the fight-or-flight instinct does—she runs. Eve heads to her late grandmother’s cabin in the Tennessee mountains under the guise of a “writing retreat” to complete her next play. It’s really just an elaborate excuse to cut off her parents and her fiancé.
In the cabin, she meets a lot of unresolved issues from her last visit as a teenager as well as Jamie. Jamie is fresh off a custody battle with his longtime girlfriend and is trying to figure out what life looks like for him as a single dad. He finds his mountain cabin fits the bill, especially when he falls for the beautiful new girl next door.
What starts as a fling quickly becomes more serious, except for the part where Eve is terrified of risking another broken heart. Jamie is also terrified of giving his heart to someone who isn’t ready to fully commit. It’s up to them to decide if they’re going to choose a fairytale ending, or let their heads outweigh their hearts.
CW: Death of a loved one, infertility/loss of pregnancy, and parental abandonment. (All off-page, historical.)
Why Double Booked Loved It
Christine’s Take
Christine shares her love of Once Upon A Time in Dollywood SO well. She describes the storytelling as layered, tender, and raw in all the best ways.
Aleia’s Take
Every dozen or so pages I had to stop and google to make sure that Ashley Jordan was a debut author the way she had me all in my feels. This book is some kind of beautiful. It’s emotional, healing, introspective, sensual, and empowered.
We meet Eve in the aftermath of a pregnancy loss. While her fiancé wants to talk about it in detail, she’s more or less shut off. When we meet her parents, we understand exactly why she’s shut off. It seems like they never met a feeling they couldn’t run through a logic machine and destroy.
Eve is a writer who can’t write, and at the cabin she meets Jamie, a man unmoored by his new set of circumstances. They are both at the cabin to hide and find their new normals. While they are hiding, they end up wrapped in each other.
Their early friendship is tenuous because Eve is actively trying not to like him, but that doesn’t last very long. Pretty soon, they’re sharing meals, long conversations, and spicy time. Jamie is so gentle with her (except when he’s being deliciously filthy) because Eve is afraid to entirely open up. Their connection is palpable, especially when Eve goes against her homebody instincts to meet Jamie where he needs her to.
Jamie is a people pleaser at his core but after his failed relationship he’s recognizing that he’s too nice and bends over backwards to keep people in his life too often. Like he did with his recent ex, he starts to fall into the same pattern with Eve before he catches himself. As a single dad, he can’t bring someone in and out of his life, and demands Eve break down her walls and allow them both to settle into their happiness.
They do for a time. Eve, Jamie, and his son Jack. By the way, I LOVE Jack. He’s an adorable ball of love and I want all the happiness in the world for him.
Eventually though, their bubble bursts. Jamie can’t spend as much time at the cabin and Eve has to go back to New York for work. Eve tries to be who he needs, but with time away, she breaks and realizes she needs to truly deal with an unexplored wound of her past and a fear of success from her increasingly successful playwright career.
My sympathy for Eve is visceral and frustrating. I want her to want to be better for herself and to accept the love that is in front of her. I want Jamie to have joy after being exploited. Obviously, we do get there because there’s an HEA but throughout most of their forever feels so tentative.
They don’t just have to choose their love, they also have to confront issues with their parents, their careers, and the ideas of their futures that were already shattered. I think their stories are more complete, more endearing, because they actually confront these issues on the page.
If you’re looking for a romance that floods you with every emotion, this is the perfect next read.
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Next on Double Booked … Gabriela and His Grace by Liana De la Rosa.
This one was so emotional! Ah!
Bout to snag this one!