An Amazon Best Book of the Month Romance Pick
One of Fangirlish’s Best Romances of July 2025
“[A] warm-hearted, quietly compelling romance rooted in resilience, found family, and the transformative power of shared spaces. . . Sweeney beautifully captures the emotional weight of rebuilding — not just brick-and-mortar structures, but trust, connection, and purpose. Through Tansy and Jack’s reluctant partnership, she highlights how essential public spaces like libraries and gardens are to healing, belonging, and community. Where You’re Planted is a gentle, rewarding tale about weathering life’s storms — and finding something wonderful in the aftermath.” —Washington Independent Review of Books
“Melanie can do no wrong in my eyes and this stunning grumpy sunshine romance is pitch perfect!” —Ellie Palmer in The Nerd Daily
“[A] radiant gem from Melanie Sweeney, blending rivals-to-lovers romance with a heartfelt ode to community and resilience. Its lush Houston setting, vibrant characters, and slow-burn chemistry make it an unmissable summer read.” —That Love Podcast
“Where You’re Planted will have you swooning, fanning yourself, and rooting for Tansy [and] Jack . . And let’s just say the spice is spicy. . . . A testament to the power of recovery and rebuilding in far more ways than one.” —Texas Highways
“Where You’re Planted is a work of heart—raw and romantic, exploring every nuance of human frailty. Melanie Sweeney’s writing is crisp and surprising every time, and she has outdone herself here. Five gigantic stars.” —Annabel Monaghan, New York Times bestselling author of Summer Romance
“Jack and Tansy’s story is like spending a sticky summer day under a well-working fan, sipping on perfectly tart lemonade. Wrapped inside this perfectly pitched adversaries-to-lovers plotline is a love letter to community and its power to both shape and rebuild us. Everything is packed in here; poignance, humor, heat.” —People.com
“One of the best romance novels I’ve read in a while.” —NW Theatre
“This heartfelt tale from Sweeney (Take Me Home) kicks off with a meet-ugly in the middle of a hurricane in Houston, Texas. . . . [A] delightful rom-com about surviving disaster . . . Jack is the perfect gruff and grumpy hero for sunshiny librarian Tansy, and readers will adore watching them learn to connect and communicate beyond sniping at each other. . . . Fans of Lucy Score and Tessa Bailey will want to dig right into this story.” —Booklist
“[A] love letter to public librarianship, third spaces, and romance. Recommend to readers who also enjoy Kate Clayborn or Anita Kelly.” —Library Journal
“[A] heartfelt tale . . . with an authenticity that will resonate with readers. It’s a sweet treat.” —Publishers Weekly
“I’m convinced Melanie Sweeney could hand me her grocery list and I’d happily devour it. Instead, she’s given us the gift of Where You’re Planted, which delivers so much adversaries-to-lovers perfection that I couldn’t put it down until I’d inhaled every single delicious word. Tansy and Jack were the perfect blend of stubborn, hot, and vulnerable, and the secondary cast of characters was a beautiful testament to the importance of community. Plant me right next to this book so I can read it over and over again.” —Jessica Joyce, USA Today bestselling author of The Ex Vows
“Raw, comforting, and devastatingly tender, Where You’re Planted is a gorgeous beating heart of a book. Wrapped inside this perfectly pitched adversaries to lovers story is a love letter to community and its power to both shape and rebuild us. Melanie manages to pack everything in here; poignance, humor, heat—my favorite kind of romance. She is undoubtedly one of my new favorite authors.” —Tarah DeWitt, USA Today bestselling author of Savor It
“Where You’re Planted is an instant classic! This book is everything I love about the romance genre. Two imperfect people who work together, who learn to lean on one another, who grow together. A beautiful ode to Houston and community and gardens and libraries and found families. I loved every page of Melanie’s brilliant prose, and can’t wait for what she does next!” —Naina Kumar, bestselling author of Say You’ll Be Mine
“Plants have never been sexier than in Melanie Sweeney’s sophomore romance Where You’re Planted, when sparks fly between a single mom librarian and a grumpy but hot-as-heck gardening nerd forced to work together in the aftermath of a hurricane. The slow burn of stubbornly independent Tansy and Jack reveling in their need for each other both physically and emotionally is a romance reader’s dream! Sweeney is two for two in getting under my skin with romances that both bring on the swoons and pull on my heartstrings in equal measure. I cannot wait to see what deliciousness she brings us next.” —Meredith Schorr, author of RoomMating
“Melanie Sweeney can do no wrong! Joyous, hopeful, and perfectly swoony, Where You’re Planted is a pitch perfect love letter to romance, libraries, and finding community amidst unfathomable hardship. With its crackling chemistry and delicious angst, this grumpy-sunshine romance had me grinning from ear to ear, clutching my chest, and praying that this perfect book would never end!” —Ellie Palmer, author of Anywhere With You
“A masterclass in balancing heart with heat! Melanie Sweeney’s delicious characters and world made this book impossible to put down, but the lesson of her deeply personal story will stay with me forever: that love is the only material we truly need to rebuild, places and more importantly people.” —Jessie Rosen, USA Today bestselling author of All the Signs
“Hope, heart and heat—Melanie Sweeney delivers her signature trifecta and then some in Where You’re Planted. Both the Texan landscape and the love story between Tansy and Jack are lush, filled with the rich emotional terrain Sweeney explores with finesse. I sweated, I giggled, I cried. An unmissable, sparkling rivals-to-lovers romance about figuring out what we’re worth, and the love we deserve.” —Katie Naymon, author of You Between the Lines
Jamie Harrow!
“Where You’re Planted is a beautifully moving story of love and community. Tansy and Jack are vivid and fascinating characters on their own and absolutely sparkling together. Following them as they butted heads, fell in love, and rebuilt themselves and the places that mattered to them was an absolute delight. I didn’t want this warm, swoony book to end!” —Jamie Harrow, author of One on One
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