Bananapants is out today! Thank you the author for the ARC.

Whew this book surprised me in the best way! It starts off very rom-commy, with lots of jokes and lightness, but eventually it hits you with all the emotion and you find yourself crying on a plane next to a stranger (that might just be me??) 

This features next-gen characters from the author’s Knitting In The City series, our FMC is Greg and Fiona’s daughter and the MMC is Janie and Quinn’s son, so our KITC favorites do show up here as supporting characters. 

Desmond, the MMC, has bipolar and ADHD, currently under control, but it has caused a lot of problems for him in the past. There’s exploration of how this affected his relationships, first with Ava, but also with his family and that’s what had my heart breaking. 

It was really interesting to read about, and I feel like I learned a lot. It did not shy away from the realities of living with mental illness so please check out the trigger warnings if needed. However, it also was a good message that everyone is deserving of love, regardless of what your brain tells you. 

Ava is a bit of a quirky girl, she’s a straight laced tax attorney but is quite naive about life. She never quite got over her childhood bestie leaving her and moving away at 15, and never managed to find that connection with someone else again. Though it’s never explicitly stated I think she’s demisexual and it was nice to read about that. 

I loved them together, they accidentally run into each other again after a decade apart and both immediately have big feelings again. Once Des realizes Ava might be into him too, the entire course of his life changes and I just love how all in he was. 

It was funny, it was tender, it was smart, it made me cry. I loved it!