Review: Take This Heart by Willow Aster (Windy Harbor #1)

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

On the heels of her most recent addictive series, Willow Aster is welcoming fans and readers to a new location with a family whose bond appears to know no bounds. Take This Heart opens the doors to the Windy Harbor series and to the eponymous small town in Minnesota where the Whitmans are from. If you've read Crazy Love, the fifth and final book in Aster's The Single Dad Playbook series, then you may recall a couple of the Whitman siblings who were supporting characters, Camden and Goldie. Well, this new series starter is all about the latter, more formally known as Marigold Whitman, the only girl in the brood of six. She's paired with Milo Lombardi, and these two made my enemies-to-lovers-loving self very proud!

When twenty-six-year-old interior designer Marigold Whitman makes the move from California to her home state of Minnesota, she didn't expect to head on back to Windy Harbor to be with her dad. Certain revelations come to light, one of which is his dream to update and build upon an existing lodge on acres of prime land has Goldie and her four brothers doing whatever is necessary to be there for him. Unfortunately, it also means Goldie needing to work side by side with Milo Lombardi, the thirty-year-old architect from Minneapolis whose first interaction with her left him hot and bothered. Goldie makes it clear she isn't a fan, but for her dad, she's willing to try and get along, but is the secret that Milo is keeping going to spoil it all?

While I don't think of a series starter as being a make-or-break thing for me, it does set expectations for whatever else may follow. With regards to this opening salvo in the Windy Harbor series, Willow Aster has done what she's wont to do; she has me wanting to visit this fictional place she's created and to get to know this cast of characters that have me curious and invested. The push and pull between Goldie and Milo from their initial meeting onwards was romance catnip, all that delicious tension leaving me to count the pages until they would finally give in. Aside from the romance, I loved the family dynamics within the Whitman family, and I'm certainly eager to see the rest of the siblings get their happily-ever-afters. Five stars go to Take This Heart.

Release Date: 09 October 2025

Date Read: 26 September 2025

Learn more about Willow Aster.

Pre-order Take This Heart on Amazon.