*****5 Sweet Small Town Stars*****

Have you ever read a book that just felt right from the very first words? You know, one of those books that sweeps you up right from the start with its ease, its goodness, and its personality. Have you ever experienced a story that flowed so naturally, so fluidly, and so vibrantly that you were just about smitten with everything that story was giving you? Have you ever fallen heart first in love with two unique and so easy to love characters in the midst of experiencing that story that just felt right and so good?

Well I certainly have because I just read Roots and Wings by M. Mabie, and it encapsulated all of those things and more into its oh so wonderful pages.

This book was sweet, it was meaningful and beyond easy to fall right into, and it gave me a story that took hold of me right from that very first page. Roots and Wings just felt right. Mutt and Vaughn’s story felt right, and I can’t tell you that enough. Experiencing this book felt so right, it felt so real, and it felt so perfect for the story, characters, and world I was experiencing within its pages. The more I read, the more I experienced all that Mutt and Vaughn were, the more I fell for those two as they fell for each other, and the more I fell love with everything this beautiful book gave me.

Now it’s no secret that M. Mabie is one of my favorite author’s around. I’ve loved each and every one of her books, and they always give me an extraordinary reading experience to say the least. She’s one of my go to author’s without a doubt, and she never fails to deliver a story with characters you will feel in your bones and your heart, a story that allows you to feel and think and experience every lick of, and a story with so many moments that you will never forget.

Roots and Wings was no different, yet at the same time this book has a bit of a different feel than her other books. That difference in the feel fit Mutt and Vaughn’s story to a T and was perfect for them and what they were sharing, and it showed that while Roots and Wings felt different, it still had that trademark M. Mabie writing that blew me away. The thoughtful weaving of romance, connection, authenticity, personality, and that oh so wonderful humor highlighted the true talent of M. Mabie and the exceptional stories and characters she weaves together.

Roots and Wings throws you smack dab in the middle of Wynne. Population 3,401. This town is what small towns are made of, with the characters and fantastic nuances to boot, and you definitely feel right at home when you enter the world of Wynne. From the very first page of Roots and Wings you meet Mutt O’Fallon, a wonderful, easy to love, rough around the edges kind of girl who tells it like it is in the best possible way. She’s lived in Wynne all her life, and has the nickname to prove it. She’s good with her life and the people in it, and she has no real desire to change anything…that is until the new dentist in town shows her what it might be like to use those wings of hers and fly.

Vaughn Renfro is new in town, and he’s looking for roots. The kind that stick. Vaughn is a charismatic, sweet, endearing, and oh so easy to fall for man who is just looking for that something special. He’s searching for that more, that family, and the feel and connection he’s always longed for, and that brings him to the wonderfulness that is Wynne. What Vaughn doesn’t expect is that on that very first day in Wynne, when everything seems to be going wrong, is to meet a woman that will change everything, a woman that might just show him what those roots are all about.

From the moment he meets Mutt, he can’t stop thinking about her or wanting to know more about her. He’s entranced, and she’s just as hooked into him from that very first meeting, and what ensues is a story bursting with real life romance that allows you to fall right along with these two. Roots and Wings follows Mutt and Vaughn as they try to figure out what exactly they’re sharing, and where in the world it’s leading them, as they both try to discover what it is they truly want, and how discovering that want might bring them the exact thing that they need.  

In the synopsis for this book there’s a line that says “Low on drama. High on love.” and I don’t think there’s a more accurate description on the planet for Roots and Wings than that one. This book is all about the love and the feels. It’s all about what it’s like to fall in love, what it’s like to experience those unforgettable sparks when you meet the right person, and what it’s like to have that right person push you in the exact way you never knew you needed to be pushed. It’s full of connection, intense and exceptionally building heat, and a love that will melt your heart into a puddle of the best kind of emotion.

This story is certainly high on love and low on the drama, which felt amazing to experience. That’s not to say that Mutt and Vaughn don’t face their share of issues, because they do, but those issues fit into the story and what they were sharing so well. I completely understood why things went the way they did in Roots and Wings for Mutt and Vaughn, and I was there through the ups and downs that sometimes happened with them. I understood why they happened, and why Mutt and Vaughn’s characters needed to go through them because of what M. Mabie so phenomenally created in this story with them.

I understood their fears and worries and even their doubts as they tried to find those wings and establish those roots, and I loved being there every step of the way as they pushed and tried to find exactly what they both wanted and so desperately needed together.

What I loved about Roots and Wings was that Vaughn and Mutt’s love story just felt right. It felt right for them, it felt right for what they were going through and experiencing together, and it felt right that they shared what they did. It was never too fast or too slow, it was them and it was right. M. Mabie’s extraordinary writing let me experience every bit of these two falling for one another, and she melted me again and again with the two of them. She let me have butterflies with them, she made me audibly sigh and swoon with what they experienced together, and she even made me blush. A few times.

Mabie made Mutt and Vaughn and their love story real. She made every aspect of this book so authentic, so easy to love, and so easy to be mesmerized by, and it truly doesn’t get better than that when you read and experience a book.

Roots and Wings not only gave me the love story of Mutt and Vaughn, it gave me a whole cast of characters to fall in love with. The town of Wynne is almost like another character in this story, and M. Mabie creates that character in a way that made everything that I was reading come to life. Throw in a slew of characters I can’t wait to know more about, and I am telling you that you will be knee deep in your love for all things Wynne and the people who live there. M. Mabie truly shows what it’s like to live in a small town, the connections and relationships that all of these characters have, and the way she brought that into the story was nothing short of wonderful. I felt the connection of these characters, I loved their relationships and how they started to change a bit, and I loved having the chance to experience life, love, family and friendship with all of them.

Roots and Wings is a story about love. Real life love. Consuming, heartfelt, make you stop and think, melt your heart along with a few other things, love. It’s about what it’s like to meet that one person who changes everything, that person who makes you think and feel and wonder in the best possible way, and that person who gives you everything you never even knew you needed. It’s about what happens when you start to fall, start to feel, and start to realize that you just might have found the one things that’s been missing for so long.

This book is about what happens when a girl who’s always had those roots, starts to see what it might be like to use her wings and fly into something so extraordinary. It’s also about what happens when a man who’s always used those wings, starts to see the benefits of establishing those longed for roots that just might take root into something he never expected.

Roots and Wings gives you Mutt and Vaughn’s unforgettable, sweet, and heart melting story together as they look for those roots, push for those wings, and truly discover what love is all about.

Mabie once again blew me away with this book. She connected me to this story and these characters so authentically right from the start, and she let me experience what love is all about in Roots and Wings. This story was so beautiful, so sweet, and it just felt good to read through every single page. It melted me, it made me hope and think and feel, and in the end I could not get enough of its literal amazingness.

I already know this will be one of my top reads of the year, so I am begging you, run yourself, don’t walk yourself, to this book this very instant. Mutt and Vaughn are waiting for you, and they’re kind of the best, so it’s a Wynne Wynne all around. (See what I did there?!) But seriously….Read. This. Book. It would be wrong not to.

I am telling y’all, you NEED to read this book. I LOVED every single word of it, and you will love it too!!