Leticia (jerseygirlsbookshelf)'s Reviews > Rootbound

"Honey, they’ve all been dates to me. I’ve just been waiting for you to catch up."
I’ve been curious about Tarah Dewitt’s books for a while, so I decided to go back to her debut. Let me start by saying this is really slow burn, and I really wanted some more tension, but it was cute, and I will definitely read more books by her.

"The man is big, probably six and a half feet tall, I note—purely for the sake of being able to describe him to the police—and handsome, to be sure. Hemsworth-esque. But, as with many of his kind, he ruins it with speaking."
I loved Henry. It took me a bit to like him, but once I realized what was beneath, I was done for. I mean, who doesn’t love a man who’s willing to let his loved one go if that means she can be happy? A man who has all the patience in the world and who is genuinely good right down to his bones?

"Tait’s smile reminds me of that. It’s a bit like cracking the top of a crème brûlée—the top is great, but that’s good shit underneath."
When it comes to Tait, I could relate right off the bat. She’s been cheated on, and the whole thing was way too familiar. A lot of her monologues could have been written by me. The fact that she creates random playlists with songs that don’t match sealed the deal—we could definitely be friends!

"When someone betrays you, you don’t have a chance to lose feelings. You’re left with all that leftover love, plus anger right alongside it, with nowhere for it to go and no one to give it to. It’s like a phantom limb or something, I guess,"
When she gets a divorce after her husband cheats on her, Tait is not OK. She hasn’t been OK for a while because when something like that happens, it changes you. And then she gets a photography assignment that could bring her out of her funk—except that assignment just happens to be at her estranged dad’s ranch, where he lives with the family she hasn’t spoken to in years.
She may be setting herself up to get hurt, but she goes.

"I’m—the warm-blooded female in me, that is—just a sucker for a good contradiction. And those stupid dimples on his otherwise rugged face are what make my body react."
It’s Henry who picks her up in all his grumpy glory, and while he annoys her, she’s also drawn to him in a very weird way. She shouldn’t be, right? And he knows she’s his boss’s daughter, so he has no idea what to make of her either.
But then they’re forced to interact. And they’re even living in neighboring cabins by the lake.

"Tait," he whispers.
"Yes?"
"Can I—shit I’m going to kiss you now,"
Like I said, there isn’t as much tension as I would like, but it’s good. The way they slowly gravitate toward each other, even though she knows she’s only going to be at the ranch for 6 weeks. Even though she wants nothing to do with her dad, who, as far as she knows, abandoned her—or with his new family. So nothing can happen between them for multiple reasons.
And then there’s this moment at the lake.

"Hey, you dismissed me last night, remember? So, don’t go acknowledging it and making me remember it, and definitely don’t flirt with me unless you want me to do something about it."
Not gonna lie, I wanted to slap Henry for being an ass, but I didn’t have to. Because, while Tait is still not herself after what happened, she’s strong enough to give him a piece of her mind, and I loved it. But… agreeing to stay friends with the first guy who sets her on fire in a very long time may not be the best decision.
Or even possible.

"I want to be a good friend to the woman, really. I’d love to get extremely friendly, in fact. I want to get so fucking friendly that I lose track of where I stop and she begins."
So yeah, they get to being friendly. They’re around each other all the time—but with other people. The temptation would be a bit too much if they were alone.
At the same time, Tait starts seeing her dad and everyone else at the ranch in a different light, and the family she never wanted starts making its way into her heart.

"You smell better than dinner, and I’d rather have you, Tait. So if you want to eat, I think it’s best if I stay over here."
It had to happen between them, and although there isn’t a lot of steam, they’re good! When they get together, the lines are already blurry, and there’s no way this is only physical, especially for Henry. We don’t understand why he’s so tortured over wanting her… But when we finally do, damn it, I loved him even more.

My other criticism has to do with pacing, which was a bit off for me. It’s slow and it drags out, but in one chapter a lot of stuff happens—one of the characters even mentions it being like a Jerry Springer show. And that’s more or less what it felt like for me.

"You’ve turned my thoughts into an endless stream of cheesy romcom lines that are somehow applicable and understandable now. You had me at hello."
Tait got to me in the sense that all she wanted was to be someone’s person for real, after realizing a lot of her past life had been a lie. She needed to heal, but so did Henry. And the way he’s willing to wait for her for however long it takes and how he wants to do whatever makes her happy—perfect.
She may have never been the main character in anyone else’s life, but she’s in his.

"I want him to know I love him for simply existing."
By coming to the ranch, Tait found more than the family she thought she had lost—she found herself and the love of someone who can only help her grow while standing by her side through it all.
And that, let me tell you, is a rare find.