People Watching

People Watching by Hannah Bonam-Young (2025) is a romance novel about two young people who find love and relief from past trauma in a small Canadian town. The book received positive reactions from both readers and critical reviewers through Publishers’ Weekly and Library Journal. Bonam-Young is a USA Today best-selling author and TikTok sensation who writes romance novels featuring characters who are diverse, have disabilities, are marginalized, or are part of the LGBTQ+ community to show that everyone deserves love. In People Watching, she explores themes including The Effect of Past Trauma on Emotional Growth, The Importance of Establishing Boundaries in Relationships, and The Ripple Effect of Change.

This guide refers to the 2025 Penguin Random House paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, child abuse, sexual content, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

People Watching opens as Milo Kablukov returns to the town of Baysville in Ontario, Canada, for the first time in years. After leaving his abusive home at age 18, the only thing that could bring him back was an emergency summons from his brother, Nik Kablukov, who stayed in the area and started a family. Milo doesn’t know what his brother wants, but he plans to take care of it and then leave town again.

Meanwhile, Prudence “Prue” Welch has lived in Baysville all her life and is now the primary caregiver for her mother, Julia Welch, who has Alzheimer’s disease. When Milo arrives in town, he stops at Prue’s family’s gas station, meets Prue, and is instantly attracted to her. He can tell that she feels the same, though both try to hide it. Prue’s inexperience with dating and sex makes her too nervous to pursue someone as confident as Milo, and Milo refuses to engage in any type of meaningful relationship, both because he plans to leave town and because he only does casual sex and recognizes that Prue doesn’t seem like that kind of person.

However, when Milo discovers that Prue’s mother was his high school art teacher—the only adult who ever fought for him when he was a kid—he offers to help take care of Julia, both to get closer to Prue and to repay the woman for all her help. Prue is initially skeptical, but when her father, Tom Welch, tells her that they’ll have to put her mother in a nursing home if they don’t get help, Prue agrees to Milo’s offer.

Over the next few weeks, Milo gets more involved with Prue’s family, and Prue finds herself helping with the brewery that Milo’s brother, Nik, intends to open soon. On Prue’s birthday, she ducks out of the party that her father threw for her to sit alone and drink. When Milo calls, she invites him over so that she won’t be drinking alone. The two play Truth or Dare because Prue’s never played, which results in them getting physically close. Prue asks if Milo will show her how to have sex since she never has. That way, she reasons, she can learn while he gets no-strings-attached sex. Overcome by lust, Milo agrees.

As Milo and Prue experiment together physically, they also start to form a friendship, even though when they decided to get involved sexually, they both said they wouldn’t. Prue also gets more involved with Milo’s family, until Nik insists that Milo bring Prue over for dinner so that everyone can meet her.

Nik also tries to talk to Milo about the abuse they experienced growing up with their parents, but Milo refuses to discuss it. After storming away following one of Nik’s attempts, Milo bumps into Prue’s father, who confides that he has cancer and needs to start treatment soon. He asks Milo to help him convince Prue to leave town so that she can live her life without being a caregiver. Though it feels dishonest, Milo agrees.

By the day the brewery opens—Milo’s self-appointed deadline to leave town—he has grown so attached to Prue that he decides to stay. He also convinces Tom to tell Prue the truth about his cancer so that she can make her own decisions.

During the opening-day event, Prue gets a call from the woman watching her mother, who needs help finding medication. Prue goes to help, finding both the medication and information about her father’s diagnosis in his office. She calls Milo, needing someone to talk to, and she is furious when he slips up and reveals that he already knew about the cancer. Milo confesses to what Tom asked him to do. Prue orders him to leave.

Later, Prue confronts her father. He apologizes for lying to her and explains that he just wanted what was best. Prue convinces him that she wants to stay home and be with her family because she loves them. She also forgives Milo, understanding the difficult position he was in, and the two officially get together. In an Epilogue six months later, Tom has successfully gone through cancer treatment and is in recovery, Milo has moved in with Prue’s family, and they are all helping to take care of Julia.