Review: Stay by Willow Aster (Landmark Mountain #5)

April 12, 2024

Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author.

It seems that Willow Aster saved the best for last because Sutton Landmark and Felicity Shaw's story is my absolute favorite in the Landmark Mountain series. Stay is the fifth and final novel, and it's got some of my favorite romance tropes: single parent, age gap, forbidden, and small town. Sutton Landmark is thirty-five, making him the eldest among his siblings, a well-respected judge, and father to eight-year-old Owen. With life getting busier, Sutton knows it's time for him to hire a nanny, especially because he doesn't want to keep imposing on his grandmother and siblings and his siblings' respective partners. Felicity is only twenty-two and a recent pre-law graduate who's still figuring out what it is she wants to do with the rest of her life--and it doesn't involve going to law school--but she's the best candidate to be Owen's nanny, even if it means Sutton is going to have to rein in any of the feelings and urges that have been taunting him ever since Felicity crossed the threshold of his home. Giving in would be wrong, especially when he has his son and his reputation at stake. Even if Felicity is unlike any woman he's ever met, can Sutton overlook the thirteen-year age difference and stop worrying about what others will think?

I knew that Sutton was going to need a woman who not only wanted him, but wanted Owen as well, and he definitely found that in Felicity. I understood why he had his misgivings, but then, Felicity went from a temptation to true love the more time they were together. I loved how she always put Owen first. She had her own special bond with that boy. I also adored how she held true to her convictions and stood up for what she felt was best for her, regardless of how anyone else would see her. She knew her own mind and heart, and that's such a refreshing change. Sutton was a man who knew what responsibility was like, and he stepped up when he and his four siblings lost their parents, becoming an extra pillar of support for them alongside their grandparents stepping in as guardians. He was this man who tried to keep everything in his life on an even keel, but then came along the woman who would become his son's nanny, and his world tilted on its axis in the best way possible. It was great having the rest of the Landmarks as well, and Grinny and Pappy definitely put a smile on my face. I'm going to miss these visits to Landmark Mountain, but I'm looking forward to what Willow Aster has up next. Stay receives five stars.

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Read my reviews for the Landmark Mountain series: