People Watching by Hannah Bonam-Young Review | A Fall Romance Book

I spent so much of my life watching other people live, believing I was meant to observe from the other side of the door. Milo is the first person who has made that door open for me. Who has made me feel as if I am worth seeing too. To him, I am a special, watchable, fascinating, beautiful thing worth creating art about. – People Watching by Hannah Bonam-Young.

Goodreads : 4.01 stars, 26,969 ratings, 4,161 reviews

Format : 496 pages, Paperback

Published : May 27, 2025

Genres : Dark Romance, Sports Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Sports, Hockey College, Contemporary

Tropes : Second chance romance, forced proximity, childhood friends to lovers, grumpy x sunshine.

*Important – I don’t own all the pictures used in this post or on my edits, so I always mention the source and credits as all the rights go to respective owners. But I only claim the editing so please contact me if you have any problem. Thank you.

*Disclosure : Some of the links in this post are affiliated, which means if you make any purchase through the link I gain a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a great way to support the blog so thank you!! <333

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I refuse to let my longest and literally the worst reading slump take over fall too. I was in the worst summer reading slump this year. I am not a summer person but I LOVE reading summer themed books. But this year has been different. I only reread books that too barely but watched tons of movies and series, a lot of them were book to screen adaptations. That’s a good thing, I guess?

Anyways, let’s talk about Hannah Bonam-Young’s new book!!!

About People Watching by Hannah Bonam-Young / Summary and Goodreads Blurb

Set in a real small town of Baysville, The book is about Prue and Milo. Prudence Welch who works part time in her fathers gas station and writes poems while taking care of her sick mother with her father. And Milo is an artist who returns to this town to help out his brother with his brewery.

As soon as he settles to his new life he meets prudence at the gas station. And later finds out how small the world is with them being neighbors and Prue’s mother being Milo’s childhood teacher. Slowly they keep bumping into each other and on Prue’s birthday they decide on a mutually beneficial agreement while being friends.

But the story not only focuses on them and their struggles but also focuses on Prue’s parents and everything they are going through while exploring Alzheimer’s, nostalgia, longing and more.

Here is the People Watching by Hannah Bonam-Young blurb from Goodreads :

In this sexy and emotional romance from the acclaimed author of Out of the Woods and Out on a Limb, a small-town woman’s journey to spread her wings intertwines with the arrival of an adventurous newcomer who brings out the best in her.

Prudence Welch has found solace in her introverted life in Baysville, a charming tourist town in Northern Ontario. Despite once dreaming of a life beyond its borders, she now finds contentment in her working at her father’s gas station, writing poetry, and caring for her mother, who was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s shortly after Prue’s nineteenth birthday. But as her mother’s condition worsens and her father’s concerns about her future intensify, Prue feels her world slipping further out of control.

Enter Milo Kablukov, an enigmatic wanderer whose beat-up van covered with ill-advised bumper stickers rolls into town just when Prue needs a change. It’s all too easy to let go with him, and Prue can’t help but strike up an unlikely friendship with Milo, which leads to a wild and sexy agreement between them.

Milo, a man of many adventures and countless stories, is not one to settle down. However, his brother’s urgent need for help has brought him to Baysville, and now the intriguing Prue has given him more reason to stay. Especially once they start spending more time together, their chemistry intensifying, and casual-sex lessons start at Prue’s request.

But as their temporary arrangement blossoms into something deeper, Prue and Milo discover that getting out of their comfort zones is one thing . . . taking that leap together is something else entirely.

My Review on People Watching by Hannah Bonam-Young + Favorite Quotes (Spoiler Free)

Well I am so happy to be finally reading another Hannah bonham young book. I love love loveddd Out on a limb.it’s one of my all time favorite books. It felt like Taylor Swift’s sweet nothing and fall season. Surprisingly this one is also very fall themed well fully because it’s not only set in fall but also the cover screams fall. Yes, the cover definitely convinced me to read this.

Anyways these are some of favorite quotes, scenes and parts of the book and thoughts :

“What, don’t believe me?”
“Are you always like this?”
“No, I’m not. I think I’m in love with you, Lucy.” Would going down on one knee be too much?
She almost laughs. Nearly smiles. “You’re ridiculous.”

– I love them and I also love this micro trope in books where the MCs are not yet in love but sarcastically say something like this. You are in love with me or you love me or you will fall in love with me and all types of stuff. And Milo and Prue make it 10x better.

“Sef and Nik have given their seventy-two children to, seemingly, destroy.
Okay; they have only five kids. But five is a lot of fucking kids for a thirty-year-old to have. Or anyone, for that matter.”

– Milo is my new favorite comedian. I love his humor. In out on a limb I loved whins characters a lot because of her sarcastic sense of humor. And in this book we have Milo. He just says whatever comes to his mind and I am here for it.

“I remember that look,” Tom says, smiling warmly. “The I’m screwed look…” He gestures to my face with two fingers moving in a circle. “You wear it well.”

– I love Tom so much. I would say I like him better than Milo at this point. He seems like a perfect fictional character I read the books about. He had a good life, won the woman of his dreams, a beautiful daughter, who is as beautiful inside and out like him. It just breaks my heart with everything that is going on with his life.

“The night we met I realized that, no matter what happened, there was always going to be a before Julia and an after Julia. That my life, whether I liked it or not, was going to be forever split into two parts.”

– One of the main reasons I actually loved the book was because of Prue’s parents. I have seen this trope in movies where older couples are still so in love despite the Alzheimer’s curse. Slowly forgetting their loved ones precious memories yet holding the bond strong. Especially the things their significant other goes through.

Prue’s dads love for her mom was loud from the first chapter. The crumbs of them kept me going and I almost wished I got to read more about them. And finally in this chapter I got a bit of that. But at what cost? I don’t want to spoil it but it was so unexpecting that it felt like someone twisted the knife which was here the first time I read about their whole dynamic. But with this, the realization and the way he described how he knew Prue’s mom was the one felt painfully soothing.

“I don’t—I can’t—I don’t think I can talk about this anymore,” he says, his tone urgent.
– If I thought the last chapter was an emotional rolllercoster.it gets worse with Milo’s confession. I will just leave it here.

I know my nostalgia can cut deep, what it feels like to be reflecting on the past and wishing for what once was. I never considered how painful it would be for someone raised in a burning house to look back. To fill your lungs with smoke over and over, just to walk through it once more.

– The book portrays the feeling of nostalgia so well. From the memories of Pruez childhood on her birthday. The fragmented memories of her mother. And the opposite of how Milo feels. Yet the similarities the feeling of nostalgia holds.

“We both know that I have not had many friends. I’ve spent most of my life feeling like an alien, watching people from afar. But you, you are my friend. I am your friend. We agreed to that and I’m a woman of my word. You can’t shake me now. I’m not going anywhere.”

– You are in love. I know Hannah loves Taylor Swift because I can feel the hints of Taylor Swift songs in her writing and she also has a book titled “Out of The Woods”. So, scenes like this feel really good to read. It especially feels like reading a song with the full experience.

The trees around their house are just starting to turn for the season, the tips of each leaf dusted with golden yellows and browns, threatening to fall.

– My favorite part of any book, for real. Especially fall and spring books. I love reading details of seasons in books. It just feels like a breath of fresh air. Or in fall language, feeling an autumn breeze pass by. This also matches the book cover and the whole aesthetic of the book.

“It means I love you, Prudence Welch. It means that you are my biggest adventure yet. It means not running anymore, in order to become the man you deserve. It means that you are my home—the one I want forever”.

– Another favorite part of reading romance books, the love confessions and it gets wayyyy better if the main characters add that their other half are their safe space and home. This was a perfect way to end the book too.

Overall, I really liked the book and enjoyed it even though it took a while to finish reading it. There were some parts about prue I could really connect to and felt seen.Her story, the journey and development throughout the book was great but can’t say the same about Milo. Because something was off about him. But I really liked him with prue and his humor. I was more invested in Prue’s parents’ story, even though it was painful for the situation they were in.

The side characters were really great too. Milo’s brother and Sister in law were equally lovely, we get to see another couple living their happy ending with their dozens of kids in a beautiful small town. Also, the setting and the aesthetic of the whole book was beautiful. I really hope Hannah writes more books in this Bayville world. Maybe Nadia’s? I really hope she gets her own book and a nice ending after everything she had to go through.

But now I am going back to my beloved, Win and Bo. Because its been a while I haven’t done a reread and I am really missing them. Also, I am planning to read out of the woods too, because I LOVED Sarah and Caleb. I will post the review once I am done reading on my blog and on Goodreads too.

Also, here are some books like People Watching by Hannah Bonam-Young :

• The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)
• Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam Young
• Soul Searching by Lyla Sage
• Wild Card by Elsie Silver
• Falling Like Leaves (Bramble Falls, #1)
• Regretting you by Colleen Hoover
• Tourist Season (The Seasons of Carnage Trilogy, #1) by Brynne Weaver*