Today’s book review features
Where Love Grows by Heidi Chiavaroli.
Book Blurb
They have nothing in common except love for music and a donut-shop drive thru.
Shy Lizzie Martin lives a quiet life. She has a part-time job teaching music and helps her family run their bed and breakfast but longs to record the songs of her heart. Sometimes she dreams about meeting the handsome man who pays for her coffee in the donut-shop drive thru. Yet when a mischievous sister connects Lizzie with her drive-thru dreamboat over the airwaves, she learns he is nothing as she expected.
Former triathlon extraordinaire and owner of a multi million-dollar extreme sports company, Asher Hill is wheelchair bound after a freak accident that had nothing to do with the sports he loved. Now, his most enjoyable moments are spent in his truck, pretending he’s the man he used to be.
Lizzie has trouble reconciling drive-thru Asher with the man she meets in person. Asher is brusque and off-putting, certain that Lizzie feels more pity than attraction for him. But beneath his brooding nature, Lizzie senses a tenderness that calls her out of her shell. Surprised by his efforts to help her achieve a life-long dream, Lizzie must decide if she has the courage to show Asher that a life worth living can include love—with or without a wheelchair.
This is Book 3 in The Orchard House Bed and Breakfast Series, a contemporary twist on the well-loved classic, Little Women. Readers will fall in love with the Martin family—Maggie, Josie, Lizzie, Bronson, Amie, and their mother Hannah—each trying to find their own way in the world and each discovering that love, home, and hope are closer than they appear.
From Goodreads
Author Information
Heidi Chiavaroli (pronounced shev-uh-roli…sort of like Chevrolet and ravioli mushed together!) wrote her first story in third grade, titled I’d Cross the Desert for Milk. It wasn’t until years later that she revisited writing, using her two small boys’ nap times to pursue what she thought at the time was a foolish dream. Despite a long road to publication, she hasn’t stopped writing since!
Heidi writes women’s fiction, combining her love of history and literature to write split time stories. Her debut novel, Freedom’s Ring, was a Carol Award winner and a Christy Award finalist, a Romantic Times Top Pick and a Booklist Top Ten Romance Debut. Heidi loves exploring places that whisper of historical secrets, especially with her family. She loves running, hiking, baking, and dates with her husband. Her latest dual timeline novel, The Orchard House, is inspired by the lesser-known events in Louisa May Alcott’s life. Heidi makes her home in Massachusetts with her husband and two sons.
From Author Website
Danielle’s Review
Where Love Grows is the third book in Heidi Chiavaroli’s Orchard House Bed and Breakfast series, a modern retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. This is Lizzie’s story.
I have always loved Beth in Little Women and I loved Lizzie in the first few stories of Heidi Chiavaroli’s retelling, so I’ve been extra excited to read Where Love Grows. It didn’t disappoint! Lizzie is as sweet and forgiving as I expected. She has a deep strength, too, something that only the right person knew how to bring out. That person is Asher Hill.
Asher is an extreme sports adventurer who took his love of the outdoors and developed a highly successful retail chain. However, he moves from LA to Maine after suffering a devastating accident where he becomes paralyzed from the waist down. I am not in a wheelchair, so I cannot judge how well the author told his story from that perspective. However, in reading it, I could identify with him, as he could identify with Lizzie who had her thyroid removed after a bout of cancer as a teen or Meg’s son who was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in Book 2. He was real and one of my favorite characters in the series so far.
Where Love Grows is not only a wonderful story, but makes me anticipate the rest of the series and the romances they will tell. I love the characters in the Orchard House Bed and Breakfast series so I’m rooting for the whole Martin family! I hope you will love them, too.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC guidelines.
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