It was so inspiring and such a pleasure to read about all these individuals supporting each other and jumping right in to help when problems arose. Gram was definitely a stand out character, and through her quilt shop, she helped root everyone not just to each other, but to the town's heritage as well: She had "woven herself into the fabric of their lives simply by caring." The stories behind a block within each quilt were so unique and reminded me of how much they have played a role in my own life. And just as Jillian comes to realize, I too began to remember and appreciate how much our "quilts tell a rich story." Crafted by heart piece by piece, each quilt is stitched together with memories.

The romance aspects of the story are subtle in tone with an enjoyable tension that builds as Jillian and Connor begin to acknowledge their feelings for each other. This was a thoughtful look at first love and I enjoyed that the story predominantly focused on family, friendships, and new beginnings. Ultimately, we're never too old to learn and grow nor to experience our very own happily ever after!

If you are a fan of any of the other light romance books I have featured here before from authors such as Robyn Carr, Sheila Roberts, or RaeAnne Thayne, then this should definitely be your next read! I thoroughly treasured my walk down Main Street and meeting this very special group of people.

I think there are people who really love the comfort of their small town, and there are people who feel stuck by it. - Melissa McCarthy

Jillian James is a drifter. She learned it from her father who raised her. He went from job to job, state to state, all the time she grew up. It's all she's known. She hasn't seen her father, her only family, for years and is trying to track him down. She ends up in the small town of Laurel Springs, Texas.

Connor Larady has always lived in Laurel Springs. His family has lived there for four generations. He's the mayor, runs the local newspaper, and owns most of the property in town. When Jillian comes into town, Connor hires her to help his grandmother (who has Alzheimer's) in her quilt shop. Jillian works at logging, photographing, and getting quilts ready to go to the county museum for display.

This is a heartwarming story of families, of small town life, of new and old romances. Author Thomas always creates characters that feel alive on the pages of her books and this story is no exception. Great character development, believable dialogue, homey setting - this is one of my favorite of Thomas's stories.

I received this book from Harlequin Books through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

Jillian James had been traveling the world since she was very young. It was her and her father in the world. The two pathfinders.
Until Jillian reached the age of going to college. Then it was her turn to be left behind. Her father left her without a clue.
The years passed and Jillian continued with this practice. Spending little time in some cities, just enough to get a job - and earn some money - and travel again.

That's how Jillian arrived in Laurel Springs, TX.
She volunteered for the job of cataloging pieces of quilts. The mayor, Connor Larady, has his grandmother as responsible for the collection, but she was already beginning to show signs of Alzheimer's.

Jillian was welcomed by Eugenia Larady and the other women. As time passed, she came to know the histories embroidered on those quilts, and deep down she wished she had something similar.
Meanwhile, Jillian and Connor's friendship grows for something more, but how could she vent this feeling if she had never stayed in the same place for more than 3 months?
5 stars

Mornings On Main is a story of generations of loving, living, and surviving. It is filled with an intriguing history of the people in town, reflecting the times they have lived, and bringing a warm, comforting gust of past into the current, contemporary world.
Jodi Thomas is a master of a storyteller. Her words are so well put together, the poetic-kind of strings of tales entwined between the covers of the book, binding the lives of generations together with a gentle yet in a real, and at times emotionally raw, strands. The vivid images pulled me into this small town Texas, where the people are kind, curious, and generous while trying to survive with the new challenges the times are throwing at them.
It was so easy to relate to the people of the town, especially the newcomer, Jillian James. Her search for her father and for her roots, trying to find a place where she belongs to, her wondering ways to live and exist, her realistic way to see life, and the deep hidden need to belong and to be loved, made her a truly likable character. In her many layers, she has something each and everyone can relate to, pull from their own life and mirror it against her emotions, experiences, and characteristics.
Jillian's sweetly romantic connection to the mayor Connor Larady was tangible. The chemistry was there and their minds seemed to come into the same wavelength from very different experiences in life. Connor has the patience of a saint, he is kind, he is a caretaker of everyone in town, he is smart, he is generous, and a bit of a visionary.
The Connor's teenage daughter, Sunnie, and her adventures in the age-related drama, her friend Reese, and Gram and Joe with their 80 years of life and memories together brought new patches to the tale like the pieces of a quilt, altogether making a beautiful and unique piece of art.
Personally, I found so many connections to the story with the quilting, loving a person with a memory illness, and living in several places and even in different continents. At times it was like reading my own story in some parallel universe with a bit different twists and turns in the plot, and I absolutely treasured every moment I got to spend in Laurel Springs, Texas.
Mornings On Main is not one of those books you inhale on one sitting. Oh, don't get me wrong, it is doable and a temptation because of the well-written, alluring story. But to me, it was a book to be enjoyed slowly, taken on bites, relishing the moments and each relationship in the tale. Each twist and turn in the plot, the new emotions arising, revelations, tidbits of history and lives from the past was something I wanted to savor and ponder as I was reading. It is a story that you want to come back to, re-read, and visit the friends of Laurel Springs. It is a keepsake book that you want to escape into again and again, and get lost in the enticing lives of the people in Laurel Springs. They make you smile and sigh, even laugh. They pull you into their lives and make you feel like one them like you were right there in the middle of Main, living and observing your friends lives to happen to them.
Absolutely a delight to read and experience!
~ Five Spoons

In Mornings on Main there is another delightful story by Jodi Thomas, set in a small town in Texas that has perhaps seen better days. But what counts are the warm hearted characters that populate the town and with the touches of humor that Jodi Thomas does so well, this book was all I had hoped for.

But wait... there's more! I hadn't realised that one of the shops on Main is a quilting shop and that Gram, the darling old lady is a wealth of knowledge and has such a love for the many quilts that have found their way into her shop. I just loved finding out about the various quilts - their history and the way in which they told the stories of people from the town.

Wandering into this small town is Jillian - a wanderer since birth really. She now has nobody - totally alone, her father ditched her when she started college, and she has kept up the wandering ways she learned as a child with him. Right from the beginning she has made it clear, she isn't stopping, just spending a few months and then moving on.

Connor is the mayor, and owner of a lot of property in the town. But that doesn't make him rich as a lot of it is now land with old disused factories that knew better times. He is a part time unpublished writer, father of teen Sunnie and carer of his ageing Gram. It sure keeps a man busy. When he meets Jillian though, his heart begins to pine for something he has been assured he can't have.

So the mix of the quilting, the interaction of the characters, the small mysteries, the humor and warmth of the story kept me happily reading along. Yes and some romance too of course, sweet and gentle - perfect. For more than one set of characters too!

And of course it all ended too soon, I so hate leaving these small towns where I feel like I could just fit in so well.

Thomas tells a really beautiful story, eloquently told, exceptionally well written, about a young woman, a drifter, just like her father was. Jillian James is following her father's records in an attempt to find him. She grew up a drifter right along with him, until she was legally an adult, and then was left on her own, presumably after being taught exactly how to take care of herself.

Jillian ends up in Laurel Springs for a few months and takes up residence in a little B&B. She finds a job at quilt shop, cataloguing the inventory ahead of a museum display, and somehow ends up taking care of the shop owner. Said shop owner is also the mother of Connor Larady, the town's mayor, a quiet man, a widower raising his teenage daughter.

Jillian quickly becomes a part of the community, depended upon in a way, and is without intending, ends up falling in love with each of the quirky characters. Especially Connor.

Connor and Jillian know they only have a few months together but knowingly fall in love with each other.

The story is very sweet and innocently written. I read it and felt a sense of quiet, a sense of real peace, that I never felt before reading a romance. This is something I very much liked in the book.

I also felt like something major is missing. It was all almost too laid back, too quiet, to really suck me in and make me fall in love with the characters. Surprisingly (or not) the two characters I really loved were Sunnie and Reese, and only in their interactions with each other.

Jodi Thomas is one of my very favorite writers. Her books stand out among all romance writers. Her characters are just different. They’re usually solitary people with their own little quirks, but deep down they’re just good folks. They might be lonely, but they usually also fit into the small-town Southwestern setting she puts them in. They’re people I just like spending a few hours with and who stay with me when I’m done reading.

This novel is no different. Jillian is someone who has never really been loved. She and her father traveled around all their lives until he just abandoned her. Her mother abandoned her the day after she was born. She just travels around from place to place searching for clues about the parents who basically tossed her aside. She doesn’t stay anywhere and doesn’t build relationships.

Except now she’s ended up in a little Oklahoma town for a few months. She hires on to help Connor’s grandmother record the memories associated with the quilts that she and the town have made over the years. Connor is a single father who also runs the town’s blog and is the mayor and major landowner in the town. While Jillian’s life blows hither and yon, Connor is deeply rooted in this tiny town. But they’re drawn to each other. Somehow, these two solitary, good people form a bond. The memories from the quilts and Connor’s Gram form a lovely way of uniting the stories of this town together. The whole novel is like a quilt.

I will drop whatever I’m in the middle of reading if a new Jodi Thomas book comes out. There is something so downright lovely about spending time in the little universes she describes and with the quirky, yet interesting and kind characters she creates. I always emerge from reading her books happier and thirsty for more.

I was thrilled to be given a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

It’s always refreshing to read a Jodie Thomas story. It’s like a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed this great story that had me reading non stop

I think this book might have fallen victim to my book slump. It seems like a book I should love. It's got all the elements of a charming, cozy small town romance. There were parts I really enjoyed - particularly learning the stories behind the quilts, and watching the sweet chemistry between Jillian and Connor reach a gentle simmer.

However, I felt like there was a lot of telling and not enough showing, and perhaps too many things going on at once which kept me from attaching myself to any one thing. I was less invested in Jillian's back-story and found myself growing impatient as I found myself bounced around multiple storylines, in which I was invested in only a couple.

Overall, I found the writing charming and parts of the story incredibly heartwarming. I am certain that my frustration stems at least in part from a book slump I'm having trouble pulling myself out of so - I may circle back to this one at a later time and give it another shot.

MORNINGS ON MAIN is about connecting with people and the symbolism of the story is awe inspiring. My granddaughter taught me that awesome means big. So I am going to use awesome as the best descriptive word I can think of for MORNINGS ON MAIN by Jodi Thomas.

People are important. Having people that care and show it are necessary to having a good life. No one knows that better than Jillian but she does not know that from the point of experience. No, Jillian’s life has been about having no one who cared about or for her.

Left with her vagabond father since birth Jillian truly lived a lonely nomadic life. Her father taught her odd survival skills but never taught her how to connect or have feelings with people. Jillian herself became nomadic, moving from one place to another, a stranger and visitor to many places but belonging nowhere.

Then Jillian winds up in Laurel Springs where she is exposed to an entirely different set of norms. Small town ones. Everyone knows everyone and is surprisingly accepting of Jillian, a stranger. Who would ever think that Jillian would begin to really like this place. So very different than any other she has visited or traveled through. In Laurel Springs Jillian was not anonymous or alone. She was included even though she kept her carefully constructed boundaries intact.

Jillian wasn’t the only one whose world was somewhat tilting on its axis. Life in Laurel Springs was going through an aging and engaging change. Relationships were blossoming and maturing. Folks were adjusting to their new normal. And Connor Larady’s world was less dark and demanding with Jillian filling a void he hadn’t really acknowledged.

MORNINGS ON MAIN is a lovely tale that touches your heart at every moment. Jodi Thomas writes from her heart as any of her fans would attest to. MORNINGS ON MAIN has everything you could want in a story and then some.

MORNINGS ON MAIN is about life’s journey. Some travel through life content and settled in one place – other roam seemingly searching for what no one really knows. Jillian is traveling through her life looking for something – some place – someone. In MORNINGS ON MAIN we aren’t really certain just what her travel accomplish but certain that they mean something to her. She is following in her father’s footsteps in many ways but in this story by Jodi Thomas we can only hope her travels end with happiness and love and discovery of what has been missing in her life.
MORNINGS ON MAIN by Jodi Thomas is a gorgeous heartwarming story that brings these folk to life.

Jillian has lived all over the world, it seems. She traveled with her father, an oil worker who went from job to job. Growing up this way made her a wanderer of sorts. After college she’d work in a town and move on when she wanted to another. In her search for information about her father and mother Jillian arrives in Laurel Springs. She’s hoping to find a job and a place to live but isn’t looking for a relationship. Her new boss, Connor Larady, has deep roots in the town. He also can offer a job to Jillian running his grandmother’s quilt shop. She can’t turn down the offer and she soon can’t ignore her attraction to Connor.

Mornings on Main is a story about two people who are very different yet similar in small ways. I enjoyed Jodi Thomas’ novel about creating family and appreciating people for who they are. It was a total comfort read for me at a time when I needed it. Fans of small town stories and Jodi Thomas are sure to enjoy it.

Jillian James has been a drifter all her life, it’s all she knows. Her Father taught her how to live without leaving a footprint. Never stay in one place too long. Never give out too much information about yourself and always keep extra copies of important papers in a safe place. When Jillian goes to college her Father drops her at her college dorm and disappears. Now Jillian is following in her Father’s footsteps based on zip codes he wrote in journals from his travels. She hopes to find him or find out anything about her Mother. In her journeys she never stays ianyplace long enough to grow attached to anyone. She has come to the little town of Laurel Springs following these zip codes. She is hired by the towns mayor, Connor Larady to help his Grandmother catalog her quilts at her quilt shop. Before she realizes it this little town and the people in it have slipped into her heart and for the first time in her life she has a reason to stay.

This is a heartwarming story about love, friendship and what family means. Family doesn’t have to be blood. I would give this book 4 1/2 stars. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy of this book.

Wonderful book. I especially enjoyed the stories the quilts told. I was hoping that Jillian would keep the shop open. Who knows, there could be a sequel and that very thing happens. Very good read.

Nice story but I found it hard to get into. Just seemed depressing. i couldn;t finish it. But I will buy it for the library

I enjoy Jodi Thomas' books!!

Jillie is looking for an anchor - a harbor - a home to belong to.
Remembering Papa's rules

Invisible threads, invisible bonds.
3 viewpoints of this family/friend unit.
made me a member of it. I was living in Laurel Springs with them.

I also have an UFO Bag - (UnFinished Objects)

I highly recommend- truly enjoyed reading this book.

Another great book from Jodi Thomas. She's one of my go-to contemporary romance authors. Always heartfelt and emotional writing.

Jodi Thomas is one of my favorite authors and always writes a good story.

Jodi Thomas has a special connection to her stories and characters. She grabs you from page one and you hate to see the book end. I love her ongoing series and she is always one of my most requested authors in my bookstore