This is a very emotional story that I would categorize as womens fiction with a blend of romance. The journey and growth of the female MC is central to the story development. Get ready for an angst filled roller coaster 😉

Thank you for the opportunity to review.

Lucy runaway on her wedding day to Rondezvous Falls with her friend’s Nikki help. She find herself doubting the marriage and Owen. Owen has been different since he is back from his deployment. Lucy tried to get him to open up but Owen could not open up with his feeling. The plan after the wedding is for Owen to take over his parent’s business. This mean Lucy with be tied down and it is not something that Lucy want. She want to be a florist. Combined with Owen’ mum who hi-jack the wedding into something that is totally opposite of what she want, all she want is to leave. Owen came to realisation then and with the help of his Army friend, he came up with a plan to win back Lucy again.


As the story continues, I can feel Lucy’s internal struggles as she learn how to put herself first instead of other people as she is a people pleaser. This book is about personal growth, second chance in love and a heartwarming story about finding what truly makes you happy and strive for it.

I love Jo McNally and this whole series just feels like a warm hug when I need it most. Love Blooms was another great installment in this series!

Do you believe in serendipity? I’m going to make a case for it existing. First and foremost, Jo McNally is a wonderful author, despite the fact that I’ve only read her twice. The first book I read by Jo was Stealing Kissing in the Snow, book two of her Rendezvous Falls series. Oil rig worker Logan Taggart and single mom Piper Mongomery burrowed themselves in my heart. Fast forward to book four. There was just something about Love Blooms that kept calling to me. It could have been the amazing cover or the fact that it’s a second chance romance or it could have been that it features a runaway bride. Regardless, I was drawn to the book. Turns out, Logan’s younger sister, Nikki plays a pivotal role in this story. Really, how is it that the two books that just happen to call to me featured the Taggart siblings?

Love Blooms reminds me of Julia Robert’s Runaway Bride. Not that heroine Lucy leaves a trail of broken-hearted men at the altar like Julia’s Maggie did. But each woman lost sight of who they were by pleasing others and agreeing to everything whether they wanted it, liked it, or not. Lucy Higgins should be having the time of her life. It’s the night before her wedding to the love of her life, Owen Cooper, but everything is falling apart. Lucy’s wedding has been hijacked by her future mother-in-law and her simple dream wedding has turned into a large wedding of the year event. Owen isn’t really speaking to her and he’s been distant since returning from Afghanistan and leaving the Army. It’s like he’s a different person. The cherry on top is her parents’ marriage, the one Lucy has always looked to and relied upon as being perfect isn’t. By accident, she finds out her parents have been unhappy for years and are planning on divorcing after her wedding.

Since he was around ten, Owen has known what his parents expected his future to be. The plan has always been that Owen would take over the family business, Cooper Landscaping, after graduating from college and marry a suitable girl, preferably from the country club scene. Instead of following the plan to the tee, Owen decided to drop out of college and join the military. Owen has spent the last eight years of his life serving his country. Five of those years included meeting and falling madly in love with Lucy, who is definitely not part of the country club scene. Lucy has thrown Owen’s world upside down in the best possible way. They are polar opposites. Lucy’s a free spirit and a spur-of-the-moment kind of person. Owen is a rules follower and a planner through and through.

When Lucy blots from Greensboro, North Carolina to Rendevous Falls, New York, Owen realizes where she is and follows her. Armed with his Dr. FindLove app, Owen plans to win Lucy back and return to Greensboro to continue their life together. Owen isn’t prepared for Lucy to keep him at arm’s length and not fall for all the app advice that he believes will help him. It’s a good thing the Rendezvous Falls book club, made up of septuagenarians is around to truly help and guide him.

Love Blooms is a good if not great story. I loved the characters of Lucy and Owen. Every step of the story shows just how much they truly love each other. I loved watching them look within themselves and see what they did to contribute to where they currently find themselves in life. Lucy is a special character, and it’s her attitude and perseverance that allowed her to get through to grumpy Rendezvous Blooms Flower Shop owner, Connie Phelps. I enjoyed getting to know Connie better. Owen is a lovable doofus who means well. He’s even referred to as a cinnamon roll, a little crusty on the outside, but all sweet and soft on the inside. That truly sums him up. The title truly encompasses their relationship. Rendezvous Falls is filled with people who believe in love and want to help out when they can. You know Owen and Lucy are going to have a happy ending to their story. Some things are a little predictable. Some things not so much. People often say the journey is what’s important. For this couple, that statement is beyond true. Their journey to the altar is filled with bumps and sinkholes, but it shows that their love can withstand anything.

~ Favorite Quotes ~

“Close your eyes and let your heart feel what’s right or wrong.”

“Try to see things clearly before you do something you’ll regret.”

“Sometimes the people who seem to have it the most together are the ones falling apart inside. Be careful about envying or resenting those people, some are just really good actors.”

“The more you try to shape the future, the more elusive it becomes.”

“What’s the saying? Man plans and God laughs.”

Lucy is feeling like she is a spectator in her own life and that everyone else is making decisions for her. Between finding out about the demise of her parent’s marriage, her career uncertainty, the wedding and the emotional distance between her and her fiancé she can’t handle anymore so she decides she needs some time and distance to decide the future she wants.

Owen loves Lucy and isn’t about to just let her walk away without a fight. He is determined to show her that despite the uncertainty of the future the one thing he is certain of is that they belong together and with some help from unlikely sources they will discover a lot about each other and themselves as well.

This is a heartwarming and romantic story about really truly makes you happy and what and who you need in your life for that to happen.

Lucy panics and runs away the morning of her wedding leaving her family and fiancé Owen to pick up the pieces.  As Lucy introspects on what's important to her she begins to build a life in far away Rendezvous Falls making new friends. Owen in the meantime after a short stint of feeling sorry for himself follows her to figure out how to win her back.  It's not that easy and straight forward even with the help of a super duper app on his phone.
Owen has made his choices regardless of what his fiancée Lucy might want leading to a fairly long engagement lived apart. Having served two tours of duty he is finally ready to settle down, marry Lucy and imagine a perfect life lived together. The fact that his wedding is taking on a look and feel that is very different from what he once knew Lucy wanted doesn't really intrude into the distant world that he has built himself. Really he has no one to blame but himself when he receives the Dear John letter at the church. 
Lucy has been the good girl who always has to give up her hopes and dreams for other people's happiness. Swept along into a wedding that is completely opposite of what she has always wanted by Owen's dominating mother, she finally panics and runs away to just get away from it all. Can Lucy and Owen recapture what had once brought them together?
This time around Lucy's done living for everyone else and Owen will need to bring the big guns to bear and he does with the help of an app until it all falls apart. Can Owen demonstrate that he knows how to listen and give Lucy what she needs? 
This is a sweet romance with an interesting cast of characters.

Good escapism and a sweet romance. I had fan and rooted for the characters, the plot was a bit predictable but I liked it.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

It's the night before the wedding, it should be the happiest time of her life, but seeing her parents talk about divorce, pushed Lucy Higgins over the edge. The stress of planning the wedding the way her future mother in law wants, switching job to the family business, and then finally getting her fiance back, who is nothing like before, it was just too much.

The next morning she ran in her best friend's car to a small town in New York. She finds a job, friends, and home. Running is something she does very well. But Owen her former fiance is not ready to give up so easily. He moves to the town, her town for a month, determined to win her back, to convince her to go back.

The problem with running is that you never calm down and while it makes the romance hot, it does do well with friendship, companionship. The more Owen and Lucy talk, the more they realize that they don't even know each other. But the time has come to make a choice, follow your own heart or do what you are supposed to do.

It's a lovely story, about the second chance, about the importance of listening to yourself first. It's romantic and cute, set in a beautiful little town, I would love to live in. :)

received from NetGalley

Fairly predictable romance . But sometimes you just need a book to read in which you can escape and turn out the the rest of the world for a bit.

I love this book. The two main characters are Lucy and Owen. On the day they were to marry Lucy ran away and Owen followed her. They each had problems but together they worked them out and had a wedding.