Another day, another TBR Challenge catch up post, this one has the theme of Freedom for the month of July. This one bothered me because it was a five-star love-it read yet I only had a handful of notes from when I read it. I had to borrow it again just to write this review. The usual warnings that there are many spoilers ahead.

Ava Wilder’s Some Kind of Famous

Blurb: It’s been a decade since Merritt Valentine’s peak as a celebrated singer-songwriter… and her subsequent career-ending mental breakdown. Since then, she’s abandoned the glitz of Los Angeles to move in with her sister, Olivia, in the sleepy Colorado ski town of Crested Peak, hoping to heal her lingering emotional wounds of the spotlight.

Life in Crested Peak would be uncomplicated if not for Merritt’s inconvenient crush on the local contractor and handyman, Nikolaos Petrakis. Niko is disarmingly handsome and too kind-hearted to ever be right for the complex and prickly Merritt. Though tempting, a fling with Niko would only bring the kind of drama Merritt has vowed to leave behind.

After his last heartbreak, Niko is done dating his fellow townies. Still, he can’t shake his fascination with the brilliant Merritt, even as he heeds their mutual friends’ warnings to steer clear of her chaos. But when Merritt needs help fixing up a house of her own, Niko is glad to be the only man for the job.

As the two spend more time together, their mutual attraction sparking a deeper connection than either one expects, they’re forced to confront the idea that they may have underestimated each other– and themselves.

This book opens to a scene where hot mess, super famous musician Merritt Valentine who has been sheltering with her twin sister in a mountain town for the last two years, trying to valiantly recover from a trail of destructive behaviour, self-sabotages when her sister hints at her moving out to Merritt’s own home in the coming year (for good baby reasons). Merritt needs to find a contractor to take on her home higher up in the mountains. Queue local jack-of-all-trades Nikolaos Petrakis who “was so beautiful he was almost boring, rescued only by a handful of jolie laid imperfections”. Through a series of house consultations, trips to trade shops, and dinners at their local bar, Merritt and Niko talk, laugh, belt out ABBA songs (also adoring the movie Mamma Mia!), indulge in rhythmless dancing (a delightful scene) and develop a rapport while trying very hard to keep from hooking up. But this is a romance, and of course they cross that line. Sex between the two of the brings about an even deeper understanding of how they are in their local community together, especially as this relationship has a deadline with Niko planning on permanently moving away to another part of the country. But their connection is too strong, their approaches to life problems so similar, and their tolerance for differences bring them close together.

This was not an easy coming together. Merritt had many mental health issues. And through a lot of therapy and help, she had come to a stage of coping with life. Merritt seems to think that she isn’t worthy of a good life and good relationships due to her past responses:

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