Review: "Sweat Equity" by Aurora Rey

Sweat Equity by Aurora Rey
Published October 2023 via Bold Strokes Books
★★★

I don't want to renovate a house, but I love reading about house restoration—and I don't want to make cheese, but I'm very happy to eat it. So when we get a romance between a contractor and a cheesemaker who needs her house redone, I can get behind that.

This is sweet—good communication between the two heroines, a decent amount of house detail, and nice give-and-take with supportive family members. As a bonus, I'm thrilled that there's no homophobia anywhere in the book, as it's something that is (or until very recently was) far too often used as the primary conflict in lesbian romance novels, and, like...I don't want homophobia anywhere near my lesbian romance novels. Even better, Rey avoids a lot of the things that gave me pause in the last reno romance of hers that I read, and I think, if I remember correctly, that there's also more falling-down house in this one.

It's worth noting, though, that there's precious little conflict here, either between the heroines or in the rest of their lives. Part of me really appreciates that (and they are almost always responsible, communicative adults about conflict when it does arise! wild concept! very underrated!), because it makes for a soothing read. (I also appreciate that Maddie's family conflict isn't resolved the way the book sets it up to—I was already pre-cringing, but the book cheerfully subverted that particular trope.) Part of me would have liked, well, some more conflict, though, because there ends up being very little tension (and what feels like very low stakes) throughout the book. Still, a fun read.