A review by swooningandstepbacks
Bend Toward the Sun by Jen Devon

5.0

Please give me a moment to collect my thoughts because this book is PHENOMENAL. Can I just throw stars at it? And it’s a debut? Phbbt! I was not even 20% into the audiobook and I was already searching stores online to buy a copy for my bookshelf (now purchased from my local indie). A book has the power to make me keel over from swooning when it has an excellently written hero. Better still, give me a heroine unlike any I have read before (introverted botanist, capable in every way except for accepting love). Harry is the type of hero that makes love stories great. He is flawed, and hurting, but so strong in the way that he knows how to show love. Harry UNLEASHES his love upon Rowan. He makes it known, but attempts to be as respectful to her wishes and skittishness as possible. Any woman fortunate enough to be loved the way Harry loves, is unbelievably fortunate.
I adored Harry’s family too. Ma, Dad, Arden, the other siblings, and can we please get a sequel for Duncan and Temperance (please Jen Devon?!). The winery was so vivid in my mind and the writing was so lush that I could feel the sun, hear the insects in the meadow, smell the daisies. Bend Toward the Sun gave me a sense of place like no other. And the greenhouse? Well let’s say I will never again enter a greenhouse without thinking of this book. IYKYK