I Will Always Love You (Maybe): An utterly captivating forced proximity LGBTQ+ romance (Meet Cute in Minnesota)

BABES!!!! I just finished I Will Always Love You (Maybe) by Dana Hawkins (Book 3 in the Meet Cute in Minnesota), and I am genuinely sitting here with the softest heart and the biggest smile. Like… the kind of soft where you just want to hug a golden retriever and bake cookies about it. Colby absolutely wrecked me in the best way. Grief stories can be so tender and complicated, and Hawkins handles Colby’s widowhood with so much care. She’s not “fixed” by love. She’s not magically healed. She’s just a woman who built herself a quiet, controlled life in a snowy cabin with her dog Kona (who, yes, stole my entire heart, thank you very much). Watching her get thrown off balance by one chaotic, pink-haired vet tech? STELLAR, babes. It’s stellar. And Josie. Oh, my sweet, sweet Josie. My serial hobby queen. The way she keeps herself busy to avoid rejection is so relatable that it almost hurts. Pilates instead of processing feelings? Painting instead of vulnerability? I SEE YOU, GIRL. Being snowed in with a woman who clearly thinks their one-night stand was a mistake? Literal nightmare fuel for someone afraid of being unwanted. I loved how spunky and sweet she is, but also how layered. She’s sunshine with anxiety underneath, and that combination just works. The forced proximity in this one is chef’s kiss. Blizzard. One cabin. Lingering eye contact. The slow shift from awkward tension to late-night conversations that peel back old wounds and old fears. It’s soft and angsty and…

“I am more than just a person with a [x} wife. I am a survivor” (page. 225). I Will Always Love You (maybe), a close proximity trope, (my first), unfolds like a confusing and unclear roadmap for two sapphic women (Colby and Josie) before reaching its final destination - love. When trauma, grief, and self-discovery are the main forces at play (for both characters) there are no promises indicating the quickest or fastest route. It’s never a straight line when you are rebuilding yourself. Where someone missed the turn, perhaps more than once but circles back, adjusts, and persists, the other must decide whether the destination is worth all the bumps and detours. When trauma and grief sit in the driver’s seat, the ride often refuses certainty. What is demanded of us isn’t always easy. “You’ve made me feel so worthless You did not value me, or us, enough to be honest. You had a million opportunities…” (p.202). I am a passenger and, in the end, Hawkins reminds us that the transition from past to present, what to let go of and what to learn from, is restless and messy. Humans have messy pasts that are very much part of their present. It is learning how grief and loss can be carried and not handed over. Can compassion and grace be given when past and present collide? “Now, I’m ready. I am so, so ready, ‘This feels different,’ Last time was a means to forget. This time, it’s to connect” (page. 166). When love begins to present itself between these two, navigating the ride lands…

This romance follows Colby, a widow, her dog Kona, and Josie, a vet tech, who are forced together during a week long snowstorm. Their friends to lovers journey is a slow burn fueled by yearning and a secret that complicates their growing bond. Katie Beudert, the single voice dual POV narrator, does a fantastic job with the characterizations. This story balances emotional healing with a dramatic third act, and the almost closed door spice level make it an ideal pick for fans of character driven stories about finding love after loss. This is a review of the audiobook.

Thanks a bunch to NetGalley, Storm Publishing and Dana Hawkins for a fantastic ARC opportunity! Happy to leave my honest review. I love love love forced proximity sapphic romance and so when I read the summary blurb for this book I couldn't move my fingers fast enough to accept the download and start reading! I Will Always Love You is extra special to me because it involves being trapped by a blizzard in a cozy cabin. I don't know why but the snowed in aspect adds a certain air of both danger and magic to the story. I have become a dedicated fan of Dana Hawkins and she delivers another winner that has actually become my favorite of her work thus far! All in all this book really captured my heart and I was happily engaged from beginning to end. We meet two incredible women in this book and I honestly fell a little in love with them both. Colby snuck her way into my heart immediately. She lost her wife a few years back and the grief has settled into her bones. WIthout realizing it she has allowed the pain of losing her wife to literally change how she lives her life. Grief is so powerful that it takes hold of us in every way and molds us into new beings. Colby lives a quiet life of seclusion and solitude because it is the only way she knows how to cope. I get it. This resonated with me on a personal level and made me feel so connected to her. I loved how spunky and full of life Josie sneaks in under her defences and through her barbed wire laced grief. Josie is a ray of…

This was an enjoyable, quick read but for whatever reason I didn’t really believe the love story part. Things happened too quickly, the connections didn’t seem believable to me, I just felt there should be more to bring these two people together than proximity and happenstance.