As Love Blooms - A Review

Published - May 2015, Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group
Series - The Gregory Sisters Book 3
Author - Lorna Seilstad
Title - As Love Blooms
Format - ebook, paper
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Tessa Gregory is a very determined young lady. After years of going from one adventurous career dream (the stage) to another, she has finally found the field that she truly loves - being a horticulturalist. Yet when she is denied a position at the prestigious Como Park in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Tessa isn't afraid to put her skills as a former Pinkerton and an actress to use by infiltrating the world of the highly successful and wealthy society and garner donations that would help present her cause. But before she really gets started on that, she meets Reese King, a handsome gardener at Como Park. Reese longs for the position that Tessa wants. He's got to design and plant a garden that will catch the eye of the park's superintendent. There's one problem with that - he's able to cultivate just fine, he just can't envision the garden's designs. As he and Tessa get to know one another, they discover that perhaps they can help each other out. That is if they manage to do that while falling for each other.

I've read each of the other books in this series. The second one is my favorite. I've got to be honest, I was a bit bored with this one. That's probably because gardening holds zero interest to me. But still, it was fun to catch up with Tessa's sisters and their families.

I loved Tessa's spark about life. She literally glowed with excitement with whatever project she was working on. And to have watched her grow up from the pages of the first book, it was fun to see her story and what career she would finally settle in. I liked Reese, but he didn't wow me like some of the other heroes I've read. He was just a nice man.

Overall, I think that the reason I didn't care for this one as much as the other two is that I didn't care for all of the gardening details. Yeah, I get that they were there for a specific reason, but because of it, I found myself putting the book down frequently.

But fans of historical romance will enjoy this book.

I received this book for free from Revell Books for the purpose of reviewing. My thoughts and opinions are my own. I was not required to like the book, just give my honest opinion.

Recommended to fans of historical fiction, Jody Hedlund, Julie Klassen, Julie Lessman, Deeanne Gist

Rating - 3 stars

While Love Stirs - A Review

Published - May, 2014 Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group

Series - The Gregory Sisters book 2

Author - Lorna Seilstad

Title - While Love Stirs

Format - ebook, paper

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Charlotte Gregory dreams of running her own kitchen in a hotel or a restaurant. She is a culinary school graduate and understands food preparation and nutrition. When hotels and restaurants refuse to hire her because she's a woman, she ends up with a job at the gas company as a cooking demonstrator/lecturer. She travels across the state giving cooking demonstrations on the new gas stove. As part of her agreement, she is allowed to teach about the nutrition as well. The gas company has hired a young man, Lewis Mathis, to perform before her lectures. He would like to get to know Charlotte on a more personal level, but she's not looking for anything though her mind is constantly drawn to young physician Joel Brooks, a man who likes order. When Charlotte and Joel are talked into planning a hospital fundraiser, sparks fly. But will these two figure out what they want before something explodes?

This book was absolutely delightful! While I enjoyed the first in the series, I didn't giggle like I did with this one. The sparks flying around the room anytime that Charlotte and Joel are together are awesome. And some of their conversations are pretty funny. I have a feeling that this will be the one book of the series that I'll reread.

The interactions between Charlotte and her sisters builds on characters that were introduced in the first book, though this one stands alone. Watching Joel and his sister together was also delightful.

The one thing that keeps this from being a 5 star rating for me is the fact that Joel refused to let Charlotte explain her relationship with Lewis and that he (Joel) kept the fact that he'd been engaged from her. It seemed like he expected her to do and act a certain way but he didn't allow that for himself.

Overall, I found the book to be delightful and very enjoyable. Fans of historical fiction will enjoy this book.

I received this book for free from Revell Books for the purpose of reviewing. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

Recommended to fans of historical fiction, Julie Lessman, Karen Witemeyer

Rating - 4.5 stars, rounded to 4 stars