REBECCA'S REVIEW:
"Sometimes I wish I could go back to when all we did was play in the orchard and sit in our fort. Things were much simpler then."
Jake Hughes had always been her best friend growing up, so when he reaches out for her help, Emily Carmichael suspends her life in the city, and drives straight towards her childhood home in Splendid Lake. Local competition has not been kind to the Hughes family, leaving Jake with the burden of keeping their multi-generational apple orchard solvent. When Emily's creativity inspires new life for the property, Jake's parents reluctantly give their blessing and everything is going just fine until . . . Jake's on again, (mostly) off again girlfriend shows up to stake her claim.
Despite seeming to travel a rather typical pathway at first, this story gradually deepened its stride and gently probed into matters of grief, insecurities, and the sort of misconceptions that carve deep ruts into the lives of characters. In the end, "friends to more" doesn't get any better (or "sweeter") than this.
*I purchased a copy and was under no obligation to provide a positive review. 3.5 stars
BackCover Blurb:
This autumn, love is in the air.
Artist Emily Carmichael has always considered Splendid Lake her home, but she never imagined she would ever return. However, when she learns her childhood best friend, Jake Hughes, is struggling to save the beloved Hughes Family Orchard, she doesn't hesitate to pack her bags and head back to the North Carolina mountains--even if it means battling a corporate giant and resisting the temptation of too many candy apples.
For Jake, the orchard is more than just a business; it's a living legacy, a bond with his father and a promise to his family. As Jake and Emily work side-by-side to prepare for the orchard's centennial anniversary, long-held feelings, once hidden beneath years of friendship, begin to surface. For Jake, Emily's return illuminates what's been missing in his life, and for Emily, being with Jake stirs long-dormant emotions she's too scared to name. The air is crisp, the apples are sweet, and the sparks? They're flying higher than a bonfire.
But with Jake's ex-girlfriend's dramatic reappearance and the mounting pressure to keep the orchard from failing, their budding romance is put to the test. Can these two best friends turn a season of chaos into a lifetime of love, or will their romance fall flat before the first frost?
No comments:
Post a Comment