REVIEW: Return to Hummingbird Way by Reese Ryan

In Return to Hummingbird Way by Reese Ryan, things have been hostile between Sinclair and Garrett since
high school. Then one night, years later, they ended up spending the night together. Five years later, Garrett is back in town to celebrate his cousin’s upcoming wedding. The only problem is that the bride and groom recruit him to help plan the wedding, along with the maid of honor, who happens to be Sinclair.

Sinclair would rather not have anything to do with Garrett; she wants to stay on Holly Grove Island while he’s always bouncing around from place to place, never settling in one place. She also still holds a grudge about how he treated her in high school, but needs to put it aside to work with him. When Garrett’s grandmother decides she wants to get her house ready to sell, Sinclair and Garrett also need to work together to get it ready. The more time they spend together, the more they realize that there’s more to the tension between them than hostility. But will Garrett decide to stick around or will he take off again?

I liked Garrett a lot more than Sinclair. Yes, he picked on her during high school, but he was a hurting teenager who didn’t know how to deal with what was going on in his life or with the attraction he felt towards Sinclair. It’s clear he’s learned and grown since he was a teenager, but Sinclair doesn’t seem to see it.

Sinclair comes off as highly judgmental, and I didn’t particularly like her for a while. When Garrett’s late for a party, she gets mad at him and doesn’t even let him explain he was trying to help his sick grandmother. She judges him for considering taking a job opportunity, while she herself is in the process of trying to move up in the company she’s working for. She judges him for having dated a lot of people, but she doesn’t want to give him a chance to prove he could settle down. She judges him for not fixing his strained relationship with his sister, yet she has a strained relationship with her mother that she hasn’t tried to fix. She gets better further into the book, but by that point I was wondering why Garrett would even want to try with Sinclair due to how she had acted towards him.

One of my favorite characters was Garrett’s grandmother, Mama Mae, who Garrett had lived with for a few years while he was a teen. It’s clear she not only wants Garrett to stick around, but she wants him to be with Sinclair. The closeness of Garrett and Mama Mae was heartwarming.

This is the second book in the Holy Grove Island series. The first book is the story of Dex and Dakota, who are the bride and groom in this one. Despite that, I feel this would work well as a standalone if readers new to the series jump into it here.

Return to Hummingbird Way is a book about family and second chances. I would recommend it for readers who enjoy small-town romances or enemies-to-lovers stories.

Book Info:

Publication: April 25, 2023 | Forever | Holly Grove Island #2

Ambitious real estate agent Sinclair Buchanan is ecstatic to be her best friend’s maid-of-honor—until she discovers the best man is Garrett Davenport. Sin and Rett’s mutual hate crush ignited when they were teens and hasn’t let up since . . . except for that one extremely hot (and extremely regrettable) night they shared five years ago.

Nothing gets Rett fired up like going toe-to-toe with Sinclair. She’s as infuriatingly stubborn, and as absolutely gorgeous, as when he fell for her back in high school. Working together to plan their best friends’ last-minute wedding is one thing, but when his matchmaking grandmother gets involved Rett knows he’s in deep. Attraction has always simmered between them, but this time, they’re both in danger of losing their hearts.