Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
A grieving blueberry farmer. A homeless teenager. A phone number that connects them.
That’s the set-up for Grace Demyan’s debut novel, Such a Bad Influence, and if you’re trying to guess what kind of book this is from that description alone — good luck. I certainly couldn’t. I can’t tell you which genre it would fit into (except, of course, the all-encompassing “women’s fiction” which doesn’t narrow it down) and that’s fine. Trust me when I tell you, it contains a little bit of everything, which is why I think it’s a great autumnal read, despite having picked it out of my 2025 reads.
Felicity Lavigne is in her late twenties, even though she appears much older, running a blueberry farm she inherited from her late mum. The thing is, she still calls her mum’s old number just to hear it ring. Until, one day, someone answers. Alex, eighteen, freshly aged out of foster care and now the owner of Felicity’s mum’s phone line.
What starts as an odd, slightly desperate connection turns into something else entirely: Felicity takes Alex in, on the condition she helps scare off the kids vandalising the farm. It works a little too well, word gets round town, and before long the pair are running an unofficial “justice for hire” service for anyone in the neighbourhood with a grudge.
And here’s where I want to make a point about this book: it refuses to sit still in one genre. Is it a family drama? A small-town comedy? There is the small-town and colourful characters element. A slow-burn, second-chance romance (meet Wade: the apparently handsome neighbour who owns a sweet dog and happens to be super-helpful and have a history with Felicity)? It’s all of them, at different points, and none of them fully. I stopped trying to predict where it was headed about a third of the way in, and honestly, that not knowing became part of the fun. Some books work best when you stop reaching for the map and just trust the author to know where she’s taking you.
Demyan writes with a lot of warmth and a decent sense of humour, and the relationship between Felicity and Alex is really the heart of it. For once, the romance is more of a lovely sprinkle on top than the main event, but it earns its place.
There are a few turns I genuinely didn’t see coming, and it wraps up properly sweet — the kind of ending that leaves you a little lighter than when you started.
Such a Bad Influence by Grace Demyan, published 21st October 2025 by Lake Union Publishing. ISBN-13: 978-1662529061.
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