I read When Love Blossoms by Elaine Stock last week and loved it! Here’s the back cover copy, then read on for my take.
The journeys in life take you to unexpected destinations. The love of a good person brings you home.
Kierra Madden, proprietor of the Kindred Lake Inn, struggles for stability after her engagement ends, family strife continues, and business slows. When her mom, sister and teenage niece move in with her, life becomes a lot more complicated. There’s certainly spare room…until one guest arrives…on his bicycle.
Ryan Delaney is fit and trim…quite the eye candy.Ryan, a TV news anchor on a leave of absence following a horrific incident, enjoys the peace long-distance biking offers. Only in town to mend his strained relationship with his teen daughter, he never expects to fall for Kierra fast and hard. Despite her policy of separating business and pleasure, mutual attraction pulls them closer until unforeseen consequences threaten to wedge between them.
Surrounded by springtime beauty, will the temptation of desire bloom into a more powerful and lasting love?
My take:
The very last thing Kierra Madden needed was to fall in love with Ryan Delaney. She’d been practically dumped at the altar and still struggled with trusting men when Ryan rode into her life on his bicycle. He was struggling with who he was after failing to save a child in a fire and wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the rest of his life.
Throw in her dysfunctional family who have come to live with her and his angry teenaged daughter and you have a disaster in the making. Elaine Stock creates such wonderfully dysfunctional characters who will remind you of people you know. And I loved the way she wove the story around the families as they all changed.
You can pre-order When Love Blossoms on Amazon for the a-maz-ing low price of $.99. Once it releases, the price will go up!
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Comments 24
What a lovely surprise to first see your blog delivered into my inbox then to read your sweet comments on When Love Blossoms. Thank you so much, Pat.
Author
I loved the story, Elaine! Thanks for stopping by.
Good choice and nice review. This sounds like another winner & I’m glad for Elaine.
Thanks, Delores!! I hope you’ll get a chance to check out Kierra and Ryan’s story. Hope your days are bright!
Author
Thanks, Delores. It is a winner! So glad you dropped in.
Sounds like an interesting story, but I keep wondering why every story involves a broken past for one or both leading characters, such as a divorce, a death, abandonment, and so on. Is no one interested in stories about young people meeting, falling in love, making stupid blunders along the way, and yet continue to love and draw closer together? Over the past ten years or more, I cannot remember reading a work of fiction that did not include a tragic death of a parent or parents, a spouse, or a boyfriend/girlfriend. One of the leading characters almost always has been somehow hurt in love at some point and has trust issues. There seems to be a definite pattern to many of them. It doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy reading them. I do but I would also enjoy some new variations along the way. I’m not trying to take anything away from this book because it sounds like one I would read. Someone said spice is the variety of life. Or is it the other way around? 🙂
Author
Good points, Edward. The things you mention are wounds the hero/heroine carry and create conflict and are something to be overcome. It’s an ingredient every romance and mainstream book has. Our characters, like our readers, go into a relationship with baggage. If you come up with some variations, I’d be ecstatic to use them! 😉 And yes, I think you would enjoy this one!
Pat, I’ll let you know if I do. But if I shared my idea with you, that might “kill” the only opportunity I ever had to write a novel. As if that’s going to happen. LOL! I think I better share my ideas with people who already know how to write books and use the talents I have in other areas.
Author
It is so hard to come up with backstories that aren’t cliched, Edward…if it’s even possible. You know there are only what, 7 plots? But I’ll keep your words in mind as I create the next Natchez book.
No problem. Remember, I’m speaking from a man’s perspective.
This sounds great!
Author
Hi Regina. It is great!
This sounds like an interesting book. Thanks for the review
Author
You’re welcome, Gloria. Elaine Stock creates really neat characters that you root for. 🙂
Sounds like my kinda book…..thanks for the review and the info re price!
Author
I think you would like it, Jackie! Thanks for commenting.
Once again, Pat, thanks for sharing your enthusiasm over When Love Blossoms with your viewers. I’ve been unable to add additional comments until now, but would like to thank each of your guests for visiting and for expressing their interest in Kierra and Ryan’s story. I hope they will have a chance to read this novel and that it may bless them all with hope of better tomorrows.
Author
So glad for the opportunity to read When Love Blossoms, Elaine!
This book sounds like a real page turner! I really love the cover. 🙂
Author
Alicia, I really enjoyed it! Thanks for stopping by. And I loved the cover, too.
great review! sounds like a great book!
Author
Thanks, Shelia. I think you would enjoy it.
My want-to-read list keeps growing because of recommendations like this…lol!
Author
I’m glad, Trixi! Thanks for stopping by!!