Book 872: The Lights on Knockbridge Lane (Garnet Run #3) – Roan Parrish

I originally requested a copy of this from the publisher but was denied 🙁 Thankfully, my local library got digital copies so I didn’t have to wait too long! I’m still a little disgruntled they only had an “e-book” and not a kindle version, but I’ll get over it at least I got to read it!

After reading the first two books in Parrish’s Garnet Run series, Better Than People and Best Laid Plans, I had such high expectations for this one. In some ways it met them, Parrish is a wonderful author, but in other ways it fell short for me.

The Lights on Knockbridge Lane is the story of Adam and his adopted daughter (actual niece) Gus who have moved back to Garnet Run after Adam and his ex broke up. They meet Wes, their reclusive scientist neighbor, after Gus breaks into his house to see the animals and the story goes from there.

‘Daddy will be home in a minute. We should wait for him because of politeness.’
Wes high-fived her as the front door opened and Adam arrived.” (Chapter 21)

I adored Gus (August is her full name). She had most of the best lines of the book and her speech to Wes after he had to apologize for breaking their hearts, because it’s a romance novel, was wonderful and quirky and I could 100% see her standing there with her hands on her hips staring him down.

Wes and Adam were both okay as characters, but I never felt like we got much more than the surface of them. Parrish’s characters and the intensity of their emotions are the main reason I’ve truly adored her books in the past. Sure some of them had real trauma to process, but they processed it together with their new love interest/partner and they grew within the story and became better characters. Adam and Wes both had trauma, but it only ever felt surface deep to me. I’m not sure if this was a result of this book being published with Harlequin which is more mainstream than Carina Adores, but either way it just left me wanting.

There were definitely moments of humor, mostly involving Gus, and Parrish really knew how to write great scenes. She did this especially well after an awkward or intense conversation which is always great to break things up.

Adam hadn’t known that it was possible for someone to look simultaneously hot, adorable, and ridiculous, but it turned out that it was. Wes had chosen some blue pajama pants with gold stars on them and an old, paint-spattered yellow sweatshirt that Adam had bought from a fundraiser at Gus’ preschool. It said Proud Parent of Little Tyke on it in red.
The pajamas fit Wes almost like leggings. They were clearly too short, so he’d borrowed some of Adam’s wool socks  and pulled them up to his calves. The sweatshirt was tight on him and too short in the arms. The whole effect was of a child that had chosen their own outfit.
Only, you know. Hot. Because Wes.
“Adam didn’t mention the outfit because he didn’t want to make Wes uncomfortable—especially knowing his feelings about being looked at. Gus had no such compunction.
‘You look so funny!’ she said. ‘Those are Daddy’s clothes.’
‘Pajama Christmas. I was told it’s a thing,’ Wes said.
Gus high-fived him. (Chapter 28)

I was so happy we spent some time with Charlie and Rye from Best Laid Plans because Adam worked at Charlie’s hardware store. And there was even a super quick reference to Simon and Jack from Better Than People when they were all sledding together. AND if I had to put my money on who the next book might feature it’d be the “lumber jack” guy from the Christmas tree lot and Wes’ only friend Zachary.

The other thing that really irked me, not about the story but about the formatting, was that the last 30-40 pages of the book were actually samples of other books! I was mentally preparing myself for there to be 30-40 pages more of Adam and Wes or at the very least an epilogue with finding out what Gus decides to call Wes or them getting engaged or SOMETHING, but nope just a preview of some other authors heteromances. BLECH EEWWW GROSS.

Recommendation: This one was a little underwhelming for me. I tend to find Parrish’s books to be emotionally exhausting but rewarding and this one was just sort of the run-of-the-mill MM Holiday Romance. None of the inner turmoil and angst or a couple coming together to overcome something was here. I mean it was, but it just felt like the lightest of touches compared to the other books in this series and Parrish’s other books I’ve read. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t quite what I was expecting from Parrish.

Opening Line: “Everyone on Knockbridge Lane had a different theory about Westley Mobray.”

Closing Line: “By next year, the residents of Knockbridge Lane would tell a very different story. The loves tory of Wes Mobray and Adam Mills.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from The Lights on Knockbridge Lane
“They stood in awkward silence for a moment. We was gorgeous and kind and smart and incredibly weird, but in great ways. Once, Adam would have kissed him. He would’ve said, Thanks for cleaning up. I want to kiss you. Whattaya say?
But Adam’s days of risking his heart were behind him. These days, he didn’t go around falling for gorgeous, kind, smart, weird-in-great-ways men—especially ones who lived right across the street.” (Chapter 9)

“. . . on the public side of things, there are huge discrepancies in where lighting is used. There are neighborhoods in LA where you could read a book in the middle of the night—rich, heavily surveilled neighborhoods. Then there are ones where the streetlights got smashed or burned out years ago and were never replaced. Or where the city just stopped routing electricity to lights altogether. It’s the same in every city in the country. Poor neighborhoods, neighborhoods the city government considers dangerous or unimportant, they don’t get the same budget for lighting, which makes them more dangerous, less desirable. And on and on.” (Chapter 18)

“Yeah, I get it. My kid made your life harder by being a kid. But Gus isn’t who your problem is with. It’s with the parents who are bothering you. It is up to all of them what they tell their kids and when. But it’s not up to Gus—an eight-year-old—to manage that for them. Part of living in the world is that people are different and believe different things. It’s not bad for those kids to learn that lesson, even if their parents apparently haven’t.” (Chapter 19)