Reviewer: Tracy Love Blooms on Main Street by Olivia Miles
Series: Briar Creek #4
Also in this series: Mistletoe on Main Street, Christmas Comes to Main Street
Publisher: Forever
Publication Date: July 26th 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance
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Series Rating:
Florist Ivy Birch fantasizes about the day a man will surprise her with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Especially if that man happens to be Brett Hastings. One stolen kiss at her best friend's wedding and Ivy can't get the sexy ER doctor out of her head.
In the small town of Briar Creek, you can't avoid anyone for very long. Not that Brett has been trying to avoid Ivy. He just can't afford to let anything distract him from his work-not again. So when a hospital fundraiser throws them together, love is the last thing on his mind. But with her quick wit and sweet laugh, soon the one woman he's tried to keep at arm's length is capturing his heart...
Ivy kissed Brett at her best friend’s wedding and she’s not been able to get him out of her mind since. She fantasizes about how their meeting will go and practically has her wedding planned. The problem? It’s been seven months since that kiss and Brett hasn’t contacted her once!
When Ivy heads to the local hospital to have a check up for her diabetes who does she run into but Brett! She makes excuses for him not contacting her when he got into town but Brett’s attitude is not exactly open and friendly. He purposely veres the conversation away from even a hint of future meetings. Ivy is pissed and determined to get this man out of her mind but that doesn’t work out as well as she thought it would.
Brett left Briar Creek for college and never wanted to come back. He feels unlimited guilt that he wasn’t in town, nor did he return to town the two times his mother was sick with cancer. He tries to tell himself it was ok since his mother told him to stay put but he still feels the guilt. He has no plans on staying in Briar Creek this time either but after losing a patient in the ER in Boston he was asked to take leave and rest. He plans on leaving again but what he doesn’t plan on was Ivy. Yes, he thought of her multiple times since they kissed but he knows she’s the forever type of girl and he’s not looking for long-term. Despite that, once seeing her again, he can’t get her out of his head and finds himself seeking out her company more and more.
This was cute book and pretty fluffy all around. At first I was a bit disgusted with Ivy because she was still pining after Brett after that kiss. I mean, come on! It’s been seven months and the guy hasn’t called, texted, emailed. That’s a pretty big sign to me to move on. I was also disgusted with Brett and his attitude toward his small hometown. He was a bit of a snob when it came to the slower pace and it took me a while to warm up to him.
Eventually the pair came to terms with each other. Brett started working through his guilt and Ivy was coming to terms with her diabetes and the fact that not one of her friends knew she had it. It was strange but her diabetes brought her and Brett together and I thought it was a unique bonding experience.
There was also a side story of with a girl named Kara. She worked at her friends restaurant and was not happy. She had worked with Anna at a bakery and Anna had taught her so much – Kara loved it. When Anna and her husband Mark opened a restaurant in town she was excited about the prospect of working her baking magic on a larger scale but when Anna asked her to work for her – she made her a hostess and hired a whole other crew for the kitchens. Kara loved helping her friends but wasn’t happy. She’d planned to quit many times but when she finally got up the nerve Anna offered her another job – being the office manager. Kara wanted to say no but couldn’t let down her friend and accepted. She really wanted to bake and be free from the restaurant but she could never say no! It annoyed the heck out of me. I understand not wanting to upset your friends or leave them in a lurch with no hostess and no office manager but she was so sad! Every time her story came on the page it made my heart hurt because she just couldn’t stand up for herself. I liked that she got some recognition by the end of the book but quite frankly this portion of the story brought me down and I wish it hadn’t been a part of Ivy and Brett’s love story.
Overall the story was good and I had a good time reading it. I did have some issues with it but in the end the good outweighed the bad.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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