Hand Picked

Sunday Brothers, Book 2

By: May Archer

Narrated by: Michael Dean

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Once upon a time, I moved to Vermont...and wound up accidentally sort of married.

Webb Sunday is the straight single dad next door. He’s lumberjack-gorgeous, strong and steady as the trees in his family orchard, a grumpy fairy-tale prince...and entirely off-limits.

Or so I thought. Until the drunken night the two of us walked into a bar...and landed ourselves in the middle of small-town history.

Who knew hand-fasting was still a thing? The town of Little Pippin Hollow did. And once this bunch of meddling Vermonters gets wind of our accidental betrothal, they are determined to see us seal the deal.

But while the chemistry between us is hot enough to melt the winter cold, Webb isn’t interested in a relationship.... And I’m not sure how long I can keep pretending I don’t want our hand-fasting to be real. Because while the man might not be the happily ever after I came to Vermont for...he’s looking more and more like the one who’s been hand-picked for me.

©2022 May Archer (P)2022 May Archer

Once again totally enjoyed this story.

How May Archer keeps coming up with these great stories is amazing. I have enjoyed all the series tied to this one immensely. This one is just as good. So glad it came out in Audible right away. Love listening to Michael Dean. Webb is all business all the time. The weight of the world on his shoulders. Family, his son, ex-wife it all comes down to it being no time for his own life. New teacher come to town and does the unmistakable. Let’s his son go off with his ex wife without notifying anyone. Anger and misguided animosity over ice cream. Set the stage of a drunkin night and blowing a sacred horn to start their life’s new road. Great story. Adorable son. Wonderful nosy town’s people all being these two together and fall in love.

Love these men!!!

Webb and Luke are super cute. I really love how invested the town becomes in getting these two their HEA. I also really love the entire Sunday family. All of the characters in this series are great! I'm anxious to get the next book started as well.

Cute

Cute fluffy funny story with an excellent performance. Very licking thicket type story. Funny and over the top

Ok if free.

Just so much blah, blah blah had to jump some parts to get to the finish.

Delightful

May Archer is a one-click author for me. Her books always make me warm and happy.

Hand Picked is a delightful story between a romantic optimist and a man who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Mixed with some hilarious small-town drama.

Luke is a recent transplant to Little Pippin Hollow when he won a dilapidated house next to the Sunday family orchard. A primary school teacher, who got off to a bad start with the grumpy Webb when he inadvertently lost his son.

That all changes with a drunken apology and a unity bugle that’s tied to a historic town ordinance. What it starts is a hilarious turn of events that gets the entire town involved. The small-town community may be meddlesome, but they do it with love.

No matter how times they say they aren’t together, it seems they are only lying to themselves! Even Webb’s seven-year-old son knows what’s what!

Narrator Michael Dean does a fantastic job at bringing this hilarious and delightful story to life. I may have had an unproductive day listening to this at work!

A Perfect Rom-Com Story

This was such a sweet story. At first I didn’t like Webb, he just seemed to be so mean to Luke for no reason and I loved Luke from the first page so I thought it would take me a long time to warm up to Webb but it happened faster than I expected. Once the characters worked things out in their hilarious, drunken way I was completely on board with them as friends and a couple. I really loved how kooky the twin was, it was very reminiscent of Stars Hallow from Gilmore Girls but with its own quirks. And The Sunday Family as a whole was great. This story was filled with humor, romance and heat, and Michael Dean did a fantastic job in narrating everything. This may be my favorite May Archer book. I really enjoyed listening to it, and look forward to checking out the rest of the series as it unfolds.

Great story

I really enjoyed this story. It was funny, sweet and hot. I could listen to Michael Dean talk in every book. He does such a great job. I often pick books out just because he narrates!

Hello Webb!

I didn't know how I was going to warm up to Webb, but I did once I saw how sweet he could actually be to Luke. Poor Luke was just trying to make friends and survive in a new town with his house falling down around him. I loved the Sunday family antics and how close they were. Another amazing story in this series. I also really enjoyed the narration and bringing these characters to life.

5*****

Absolutely loved this book! Sunday Family are lovable characters with honorable family values. I love that the theme of this book focuses on time honored traditions and enemies to lovers tale. Excellently narrated. Highly recommend!

May Archer at her best

Hand Picked is hands down my favorite May Archer solo title. She gets everything right in this hysterical, sweet, sexy romance between Thomas Webb Sunday, aka Webb, and his neighbor and beloved local elementary school teacher, Luke Williams.

Luke is new to Little Pippen Hollow, Vermont, having won the home and property neighboring the Sunday family’s farm and orchard. Webb’s seven-year-old son Aiden has Luke as his teacher and adores him, but Webb knows nothing about Luke. He presumes that Luke’s living it up on his new property that he got for free. He’s also moderately annoyed by Aiden’s idolatry of Luke and constant parroting of everything “Mr. Williams” said or did. Then Webb’s opinion of Luke sours further when Luke unwittingly releases Aiden from school into the custody of Webb’s estranged, soon-to-be-ex-wife, after which Aiden disappeared for several harrowing hours. (These events are told in book one, Pick Me.)

The Sunday family are fixtures in Little Pippen Hollow, so after Luke’s mistake, he seems to get the cold shoulder from the townsfolk and the Sunday family, so he feels ostracized and lonely. Suffice it to say that not all is as it may appear regarding Luke and his circumstances, which Webb slowly discovers as the story unfolds.

Hand Picked is a delightful story of misunderstandings, miscommunication, and presumptions, and features the endearing Webb and Luke learning about each other and their feelings for each other. It contains UST for days, Webb and Luke’s delicious, witty banter and bemusement, and off-the-charts chemistry.

This lovely romance sits squarely within Archer’s wheelhouse. She delivers what she does best - a sweet, heartwarming romance with a small town, found family vibe, rounded out by a bevy of colorful, quirky characters. The town history and “hand-fasting” premise is genius. It creates a fake relationship for Webb and Luke with an investive, unexpected twist. Webb and Luke’s accidental, unintentional “engagement” results from a hilarious drunken encounter in the local bar. They acknowledge it’s fake yet pretend that it’s real even though neither intends to consummate it, either physically or through marriage. Archer then spins out a terrific storyline full of twists and turns while fluidly connecting the dots on a laundry list of unlikely circumstances that bring Webb and Luke to their well-deserved HEA.

Hand Picked showcases Archer’s writing at its best, with a well-executed balance of humor, poignant moments, heat, steamy times, and plenty of swoon. All built around expertly drawn characters that I look forward to meeting again and again.

The only thing that could make Hand Picked better is having it told by a talented narrator through an immersive, impactful, surround-sound type experience. And voilà. Archer delivers again, tapping her go-to narrator, Michael Dean, to continue his audio work on this Sunday Brothers series.
Dean provides a nuanced, emotionally connected, exceptionally executed vocal performance that alternatively had me in tears of laughter, tears of sadness from heartstring-pulling, and tears of joy from the beautiful HEA. His vocal choices, pacing, and consistent distinction reflect his vocal chops and his thoughtful inflections and intonations capture the complexities and details of the events and emotions in the scenes. Listening to this audiobook is auditory bliss. I loved every minute of listening time and could have easily listened to hours more.

If I had to pick, I’d hand pick Hand Picked as my recommendation for an engrossing, flirty, fun, book hangover-inducing, unputdownable romance. I’m eagerly awaiting Cherry Picked to see what Hawk, Jack, the Sunday family, and the quaint, quirky, meddlesome people of Little Pippen Hollow get up to next.

The Sunday series gets better

I’m often wary of a series like this, you get so invested in the first set of characters that book 2 can be an anticlimax. NOT SO with the Sundays. This book was just as good as book 1, funny, romantic, some heart stopping moments and the narrator, Michael Dean is just perfect

On to book 3 now ……

Loved it

This story is fitting follow up to Pick Me. The enemies to lovers trope was perfect for this story. Webb is the perfect grumpy lumberjack and Luke is as sweet as you can be.

Laugh out loud funny romance

May Archer is a master of combining oblivious men and romance with so funny mixups and outrageous situations that you can't help but love the men and laugh out loud repeatedly 😆

Luke's journey out of his shell, realizing it's okay to ask for help and learning that everyone really does like him was beautiful. Webb's realization that he might not be as straight as he thought, was well done and so much fun.

May writes the best kids and Aiden is such a sweet boy and so loveable ❤️