Title: Willow (The Pepper Lane Club #1)
Author: Grace Parks
Published on: 16th April 2019
Genre: Women’s Fiction/Chick-lit
Willow is a twenty-five-year-old, single, social media enthusiast. I am calling her a social media enthusiast because, throughout the book, there are instances where Willow persuades people (owners of cafes or other things) to mark their presence online.
The story starts with Willow being so bored that she calls her twin Riley at eleven pm for a chat. The girls end the phone call with an idea to start a club. They call it the Little Pepper Club as the club is to be held at Little Pepper Cafe.
With six girls in total, the club starts with full swing. The girls like the cafe and Willow asks the waiter for the cafe’s Facebook page so that she can tag some photos. Willow is shocked to hear that the cafe has no website not does it have a Facebook page. So Willow decides to speak to the owner and coerce him to mark the cafe’s presence online.
What happens next is a jumble of Willow’s silly doings and whatnot. Given that this is the first book in the series, there is not much of romance. In my opinion, what happens in the story cannot be called romance, although there is a bit of eyelash fluttering and all that.
Willow is not someone you might like at first. She’s over-confident… Yes! She gets what she wants, she’s an extrovert, she knows how to persuade people to get to do what she thinks is right… Willow never thinks before saying things and this gets her in trouble. And finally, things still go as she wants it to… I didn’t mind this side of Willow. Not everyone is perfect or whatever but I wish I could see some change in Willow as the story ended. Maybe an incident where Willow learns a lesson that she can’t always have it her way.
Since the whole story is about Willow, I felt her comments on how age 35 is old or Thomas’ dressing sense was a bit over the line. She also points out every now and then that she’s still 25 and when compared to Rachel(who is 35) she still has a long way to go and might find love before it’s too late. (35 is not ‘old’, Willow!)
The story was good. Though Willow turned out to be childish most of the times, I was interested to know more about her silly doings. There was a twist halfway through and Willow being Willow, says something that she shouldn’t have perhaps. But it ends in a good way for Willow. I guess Willow learned a lesson – don’t expect too much on how your future partner should be because you never know whom you might end up with. For you know, the guy might prefer loafers over sneakers. Right, Willow? 😛
Overall, it was an entertaining read. If you like to read books of this genre (chick-lit/romance/women’s fiction) then you might find Willow’s story interesting.
The Book Decoder 
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