despite having an illness that makes eating fraught, i am a very suggestible reader when it comes to food. a character’s meal sounds like something i’d like? i want it now. someone in the book mentions something tasty in passing? gimme.

what i learned while reading Pot Shot by Laura Piper Lee over the last few days is that this sort of suggestibility extends even beyond food. because when i began reading about nomi’s quest to open up a medical-focused dispensary in her small jersey town, as well as how she partook to help manage symptoms related to her crohn’s disease, i thought: wait, maybe cannabis could help with my chronic pain.

and thus a rabbit hole was formed—and i dug the shit out of it. said rabbit hole led me to a local medical-focused dispensary just last night, where i had the best dispensary experience i’ve ever had and came home with a few things to try to help relieve inflammation, and joint and nerve pain.

but i digress. because this post isn’t about my cannabis experimentation. it’s about the book Pot Shot and how much fucking fun it was. because it was so much fucking fun.

from the opening scene—which i will not repeat here because even though it happens in the first few pages of the book it was so funny i simply cannot spoil it for you, though i will say “folds town” had me laughing so hard and i will be borrowing the moniker—to the happily ever after (not a spoiler; it is genre romance), i was locked in and having a great time. the pacing was solid, the events were believable, and i kind of wanted to pick up and move to sparrow nook with all its rich and real characters.

and can i just say that i loved the chronic illness and disability rep in this one? early on in the book, nomi tells julian she survives on “creature comforts” and as a fellow chronically ill ghoulie: fucking same. while i don’t have crohn’s, i felt seen in nomi, especially as a former perfectionist over-achiever whose world has been made so small by illness it sometimes feels suffocating.

not to mention that Laura Piper Lee performed a miracle with julian. because i hated dr. d’asshole in the beginning. i’ve had doctors like him: short, egotistical, unwilling to listen. even with his backstory reasons to distrust cannabis use, i hated him so much i wasn’t sure how the author would be able to turn it around. but she did!! once he started to “loosen his butthole” (from the book), he became so much more appealing and i was able to spend the second half of the novel happily rooting for him.

all in all: what a delightful rom com. and one that led me to explore options for my own pain, so a deeply appreciated one. i can’t wait to read more by this author. 🌿