Charity Puck has had it rough. Neglected and abandoned by her parents, she went to juvie for the three square meals and an education. Now a white-hat hacker, she travels the country picking up cyber-security jobs and crossing items off her bucket list. Gulliver Winsome has been dealt a bad hand of his own, starting with poverty, illness, and now someone is threatening his work of saving his beloved butterflies. He hires Charity to fix their ailing computer security, though when she rolls into Plentiful on the banks of Lake Superior, neither of them expect the connection that spring up between them. But Charity's life is on the road and when the threat moves from digital to physical, she must decide if Gulliver is reason enough to stay.
This book has great disabled rep. Both Charity and Gulliver are disabled, but neither of them lets it define themselves or their relationship. Instead, we get some beautiful conversations with real vulnerability and the intimacy of sharing a part of yourself that you don't often let others see. I also loved how this communication continued when the relationship turned physical.
I wasn't a fan of the sometimes purple prose, however. Lush descriptions of Lake Superior are poetic, but a similar level of description becomes overblown when describing people. Gulliver's titular 'hazel eyes' are also described as 'caramel orbs' and 'gingerbread', and I'm going to be honest, the mood is broken when Charity refers to her breasts as 'perky white globes'. Breast should not be globes, people. At best, they're hemispheres, but that reminds me of geography class and that's not sexy either.
I did enjoy how the romance has a backdrop of industrial espionage and the passion with which Gulliver talks about butterflies is infection, so there's a lot to like here, but some of the writing put me off so I'll give this four stars.
Butterflies and Hazel Eyes is available now (Paperback link)
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley; all opinions are my own
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