Rating: 3.5
Steam: 2
PoV: dual, 1st person
Series: Mackenzie Country #4
Genre: contemporary romance, MM
Tropes / tags: single dad, age gap, found family
“Well, damn,” I breathed the words against his lips. “Aren’t you just the best kind of surprise?”
The Geography of Happiness was a highly anticipated read for me, but sadly it didn’t quite hit me in the same way as the other books in this series did.
It took a bit for me to get into this one, the story was very focused on Terry and his daughter Hannah, and it was clear that Terry had struggled for a long time, being a single parent to a daughter living with a disability. He was very protective of her and while it was easy to understand why, he also came across as very set in his ways and some parts felt too repetitive. I loved Hannah’s character and the way she would stand up for herself and her independency, she was fierce and strong, something that Terry needed to be reminded of at times.
Spencer and Terry instantly found something in each other, and it was easy to get intrigued by how things would work out between them. I felt like Terry could relax a little more than he usually did when he was with Spencer, and their humour and banter had me smiling a lot. I also loved that Spencer could push Terry a bit out of his comfort zone and it was great to see how comfortable Terry was with him.
Their romance was a slow burn, for most of the story they were about to head in completely different directions and I honestly wasn’t sure if they would fight for a future together. Terry kept pushing Spencer away, and while Spencer was very careful and patient with him, it quickly got tiresome. These two for sure had a lot of hurdles to overcome in order to find their happily ever after.
While I loved being back at Mackenzie Country and getting some glimpses of the other Mackenzie couples, The Geography of Happiness left me with some conflicting feelings. I overall enjoyed the romance between Spencer and Terry, but there were also some things that I sadly struggled with while reading.
Book links:
Amazon | Goodreads | BookBub | StoryGraph
The Secret Librarian 