42 pages • 1 hour read
B. K. BorisonLovelight Farms
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Self-Sufficiency Versus Relying on Others
One of Stella’s primary character traits is her self-sufficiency—something she learned from watching her single mother take everything on by herself while raising her. Once an adult, Stella quickly became strong and independent, saving up enough to buy the Christmas tree farm and open up her business on her own. However, more often than not in the novel, Stella’s self-sufficiency often leads to her downfall, as she is too afraid to rely on anyone else for help. Ultimately, Stella learns the importance of leaning on others and sharing one’s burdens instead of attempting to accomplish everything alone.
When the farm falls into financial ruin, Stella keeps this from her business partners and personally takes on the financial burden by not accepting pay when money comes up short. When Beckett and Layla discover this, they are angry, less because she kept the secret and more because of how Stella’s refusal of a paycheck has diminished her well-being despite all her work to help the farm. Stella’s stubborn independence often causes problems within her relationships, particularly because her friends want to help her with her problems. After he finds out about the farm’s finances and how Stella has been coping with it, Luka tells her that “[l]eaning on other people doesn’t make [her] achievements any less [hers]” (203), highlighting Stella’s fears about her work on the farm being for nothing.
Throughout the novel, one of the most important lessons that Stella learns is how to trust others enough to rely on them for help. Though she has her fears about their relationship, Stella trusts in Luka the most, mentioning how he’s been “holding [her] steady” since they met (233). She takes small steps toward letting others help her throughout the novel, but usually only after they discover that she is in trouble through someone else. For instance, Stella doesn’t mention the vandalism of her farm to her close friend Dane, the town sheriff, yet he goes out of his way to monitor the farm once he learns from Luka about what happened at the pumpkin patch.
Stella is somewhat possessive of her farm, having such a close connection to it during her childhood. As such, she thought that the farm was her burden and could not ask others for help. She begins to see that this is not the case as volunteers from the town pour in to help her and her friends brainstorm ways to save the farm while prioritizing her well-being. She is finally able to accept help from Beckett and Layla when they offer to buy parts of the farm to alleviate some of her financial burden—an idea that she knows must have come from Luka. By the end of the novel, Stella learns how she does not lose pieces of herself or her achievements just by letting others help her. Instead, she sees how relying on others can make her life better.
Fear of Abandonment and Change
One of Stella’s defining characteristics throughout the course of the novel is her fear of abandonment and change. Early in the novel, during a discussion about Stella’s feelings for Luka, Layla tells her, “Just because you let yourself love someone, doesn't mean they’re going to leave” (39), highlighting Stella’s deepest fears. Her fears not only apply to her relationships but also affect her business as well. Luka sees this and tells Stella, “[T]hat’s why you kept Beckett and Layla out of the loop on farm business. Because you were afraid they’d leave if they found out you were having some trouble” (266). Stella keeps her true feelings locked away as a form of protection so that no one can hurt her, but as the novel progresses, she gains the ability to embrace change, believing it to be positive and not a signifier of loss.
Much like her stubborn self-sufficiency and inability to rely on others, Stella’s major fears are grounded in her childhood. When she was young, her father abandoned her and her mother to return to his wealthy family, leaving them to move from place to place while her mother worked hard to keep them out of poverty. Stella never set down roots until after her mother’s death when she purchased Lovelight Farms. This is part of the reason why she is so attached to it and is so afraid of changing anything about it. Further, Stella’s greatest fear throughout the novel is the thought of Luka leaving her. She thinks, “The relationship I have with him is the closest thing I have to family. I can’t—I wouldn’t—risk that for a chance to see what we could be” (21). Stella’s fear of losing Luka due to their shifting relationship is one of the primary conflicts of the novel and highlights just how much her past affects her present choices and relationships. Luka knows this well, which is why he apologizes in Chapter 22 for leaving after their fight and promises to continue being her friend despite being hurt by her.
Only toward the end of the novel does Stella recognize how much her fears have impacted her relationships, particularly her relationship with Luka. Again following in the footsteps of her mother, Stella thinks, “My mom loved me fiercely, but she also never opened her heart to anyone else. Not after what my dad did. So I think I’ve—I think that’s how I learned not to wish for too much. To play it safe and easy” (267). She eventually learns that love is important enough to take risks on, and though her fears don’t completely disappear, they are lessened by her relationship with Luka.
Biological Versus Found Families
Stella’s past influences many of her actions throughout the novel as well as her views on family. At the beginning of the novel, she sees her own broken family as an antithesis to all happy ones. Shortly after the death of her mother, when trying to reconnect with the father who had abandoned them years ago, Stella discovered that Brian was already married when he was with her mother and had a son just a few months after Stella. Despite her close relationship with Charlie and Elle’s attempts to make her feel welcome, she doesn’t feel like she belongs with the Milfords. Yet Stella continues to return to these dinners year after year because she thinks that “[i]t’s nice to have somewhere to be […] It’s nice to have a family to visit” (60). Stella is often so focused on her biological family and traditional family structures that she fails to see the support she gets from her friends in Inglewild, who often act more like her family than the Milfords. Stella eventually realizes the impact that her found family has had on her life, and she discovers that her biological family falling short of filling this role does not define her.
Stella calls Luka “the closest thing [she has] to family” (21), which is partially why Luka is so mad that she goes to Thanksgiving at the Milfords’ but not to his family’s Thanksgiving, to which she is invited every year. Yet, year after year, Stella refuses, thinking that a holiday with the Peters would feel “too much like all the things [she’s] missing out on” (61). When she finally does take up Luka’s invitation, his relatives make her feel like she is part of the family, and Stella is happy to feel like part of any family that is not her own.
Stella has a found family at Lovelight Farms as well, with Beckett and Layla wanting to take care of her like any biological family would. Though Stella tries to take on everything on her own, she and the farm are only able to thrive with Layla and Beckett’s support. Additionally, the tight-knit small town of Inglewild also functions as a broader family for Stella. She even compares the town to a family, saying, “Everyone is in everyone else’s business and you can’t leave your house without running into at least four people you know. […] We’re a family. A strange one that you sometimes want an extended vacation from, but a family nonetheless” (191). Though Stella feels as if she belongs to no family at the beginning of the novel, she gradually begins to see that the people around her are there to support her like any family would.
