For a chance to win a signed print copy of "If You Love Me" plus a Sugar Maple T-shirt OR an ebook copy of "If You Love Me" plus a $50 Amazon Gift Card, click here! (Prizes courtesy of the author, Ciara Knight. Giveaway closes on July 16.)
About "If You Love Me"
Ex-Army sergeant Drew Lancaster demands order, but when he’s thrust into small-town politics involving crazy elders and a manipulative mayor he finds himself submerged in chaos. His only hope to navigate the strange rules of the town comes from a distractingly beautiful, mess of a woman - Carissa Donahue.
As a small town girl, Carissa lives her life on a whim and a prayer. Even in the kitchen she never uses a recipe, yet her sweets are known as the best throughout the South. She has no desire to be a part of Drew’s show, but she knows it’s the town’s best option to increase tourism during a troubling economic time. If there wasn’t an upturn, she’d have to close her bakery. She can’t lose it. Owning a bakery has been her lifelong dream, and her focus since her best friend ran away with her fiancé.
The icing on the project for Drew is that a colleague has promised him a spot working at a real film network if Drew can spend time with Carissa and not fall in love. Drew isn’t sure he can resist the one person he’d never date under different circumstances, nor is he sure he wants to.
Can Drew convince Carissa she can trust him enough to open her heart?
Read an Excerpt from "If You Love Me"
“Drew Lancaster? His name even sounds like a pompous jerk.” Stella grunted for extra emphasis. “If we can’t meet for five minutes, then how can we work together for five months?”
“Listen, I realize these corporate types need to be treated as if they’re everything in the world, so don’t worry about it. I’ll just send him to Tabitha,” Ms. Horton said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Like a toddler still on a pacifier,” Stella muttered under her breath.
She protested too much, which meant she needed this more than she would admit. They all knew her business was struggling the most in recent years. And even after all this time, as much as Carissa held so much resentment toward Jackie, she still couldn’t let the rest of her childhood friends lose to their arch enemies. No way would she allow them to win this program. Maybe if she spoke to this exec, she could convince him to start with one of the other girls first…another of the Fabulous Five. “Fine, I’ll meet with the glorified party planner.” Carissa realized that Jackie had a point. She did sound more like Stella than herself today. Good, maybe it was time for Carissa to give up her sweet-doormat title. It was time to take a walk and cool off before she met with this Drew character, so she turned on her heels and smacked into something hard and large. She rubbed her nose free of sting and blinked up at a perfect stranger. Perfect height, perfect hair, perfect lips.
“You okay there?” His deep voice closed in around her.
Space. That’s what she needed. She moved away and took a breath. A breath of Ode de Mysterious with an undertone of trouble. After a moment, she managed to turn her January gloom into a friendly welcome. “Yes, I am now. Thank you. Sorry. Who are you?”
He quirked an attitude-changing grin at her. “I’m the pompous, glorified party planner, toddler, stuck-on-a-pacifier Drew Lancaster.”
My Review
Ciara Knight's "If You Love Me," the first book of the Sugar Maple series, was a funny, cute, and sweet story featuring a number of likeable, amusingly quirky characters and an interesting plot. The central enemies-to-lovers romance between main characters Drew Lancaster and Carissa Donahue was completely clean (kissing only), but still had a nice slow burn feel to it.
Drew came across as somewhat grumpy and off-putting at first, but it soon became apparent that his grumpiness was mainly due to dissatisfaction with his job. Drew worked for his friend and fellow military veteran Knox Brevard, but seemed to spend more time cleaning up Knox's messes than doing real work. He was particularly unhappy about being sent to the small town of Sugar Maple because he didn't think it would help
him get any closer to landing a job with a "real" TV network. However, as he got to know the town and its people, Drew came to realize that
his priorities might have been out of order, and that he had been putting too much time and
energy into work rather than living his life.
Like Drew, Carissa had also put most of her energy into her career in recent years, concentrating on building her bakery from the ground up and leaving very little time for a social life since losing her fiance to her former best friend ten years earlier. I really liked Carissa and empathized with the loss of confidence she faced after her fiance's and best friend's betrayal, but thought she might have held on to the grudge a bit too long. It definitely wasn't doing her any favors to continue looking towards the past rather than the future, but fortunately, Carissa's outlook started to change when her mentor pushed her into participating into a reality show competition to benefit the town, leading to Drew's arrival.
Like Drew, Carissa had also put most of her energy into her career in recent years, concentrating on building her bakery from the ground up and leaving very little time for a social life since losing her fiance to her former best friend ten years earlier. I really liked Carissa and empathized with the loss of confidence she faced after her fiance's and best friend's betrayal, but thought she might have held on to the grudge a bit too long. It definitely wasn't doing her any favors to continue looking towards the past rather than the future, but fortunately, Carissa's outlook started to change when her mentor pushed her into participating into a reality show competition to benefit the town, leading to Drew's arrival.
I found the idea of a reality show that would somehow save the businesses in Sugar Maple to be very interesting, but I have to admit that I was a bit confused and felt like I missed the explanation of exactly how the show was supposed to work. Was it a competition show
where bakers or fashion designers were given challenges and then judged,
or were they just trying to highlight the best locally-owned businesses
of whatever town Knox and his team chose to feature? It seemed to have some elements
of both, but the idea was never fully explained. Also, who exactly was Knox Brevard and why was he famous? Did he have a show on a network like HGTV or the Travel Channel, or was he a YouTuber? Hopefully some of these details can be fleshed out in the next book of the series.
*ARC provided by the author via InkSlingerPR. All opinions expressed are my own.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments make my day! While I do not expect everyone to agree with my point of view, please note that I reserve the right to delete any nasty or uncharitable messages, as well as spam. Open discussion is welcome and appreciated, but personal attacks are not. Thanks for understanding and have a nice day. :-)