It's Friday; I'm in Love

Birding with Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb

I was on a ranch in Arizona for vacation this year and I decided to really throw myself into the experience and sign up for everything that looked even remotely interesting. So, the rising sun found me on a birding walk through the saguaros. Now, the rising sun rarely finds me anywhere but tucked up in bed but I am very glad I made an exception that day, as I got an introduction to something I knew nothing about. Birding seemed to me like it would be something of an infuriating exercise. Birds are usually far away and high up and a lot of them look the same to an amateur. It seemed like something that required a lot of patience and the only reward you get is to say, “I’ve seen this thing once.” What I didn’t know about birding is how peaceful an activity it is. Your mind quiets and your senses sharpen. You start to notice the birds all around you, like when someone calls your attention to a background noise you’ve long since stopped hearing. If I had a blood pressure cuff on hand I am sure it would note the difference in me from beginning to end.

Sarah T. Dubb’s debut novel Birding with Benefits asks us to imagine what kind of man would decide to be an avid birdwatcher and how the qualities that led him there and that he cultivated in that hobby would make him a good romantic partner. As it turns out, those qualities include being a good listener, noticing the details, caring for the health and safety of the vulnerable, being a good teacher, and having a lot of patience. This novel features a hero that is all that and more; John is a shy but sweet outdoorsman who loves birdwatching and woodworking. He wears plaid, he has a beard. He has recently gotten out of a bad relationship with his former birdwatching partner/girlfriend and is thrown out of his usual quiet routine when he meets Celeste, a recently divorced woman who knows nothing about birds but is saying yes to new adventures. They hit it off pretty much immediately, but his shyness and her fear of new commitment keep them in the comfortable friends with benefits zone while they both work through their internal barriers to happiness.

I really love romance novels that come at an old story with a fresh perspective, setting, or type of character. I also love when the author speaks from her unique set of experiences to give us characters that feel true to their characterizations. This book has both of those elements and is written with a lot of heart and humor as well. It also features characters in their 40s, which is a nice change from the majority of novels in this genre these days, which often still feature characters in their 20s and early 30s. Celeste is written as a mother and a fully sexual woman with a developed personality. Her character reminds me somewhat of Anne Hathaway’s Selene in The Idea of You: a woman who comes to us with a history and who knows who she is. John is allowed to be sensitive and quiet, expressing his own version of masculinity with confidence without any alpha behavior (not that that isn’t sometimes fun). This is just a really sweet, positive, healthy romance novel. And you’ll learn a lot about birds.