Love in Bloom by Lucy Eden

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I took a break from the Christmas Romances to read Love in Bloom which was my first read from Lucy Eden. I've been seeing her cute covers for years and small town farm set romance with a Black lead is something I'm interested in reading more of. 

Love in Bloom follows Emma, who seemingly has the perfect life with a job in public relations and a future senator boyfriend. And then the grandparents she barely remembers die and will their small town farm to her. When she ends up losing both her job and her man she sees the farm as her fresh start. But she soon finds out she may not be fully cut out for farm work and the small town is not what it seems. 

This starts off with a great meet-cute and some light-hearted moments during a heavy time for Emma. The romance quickly progresses between Emma and Danesh, a horticulturist working for her grandparent's farm. There's some humor with city girl Emma trying to tackle the hard work of farm life and get acquainted with life in the small town. 

The characters are fine but I would've liked a little bit more development of them. There was a lot more telling than showing when it came to their relationship and I didn't fully buy their connection. Emma has a lot of growing to do and a complicated relationship with her family. The book was already over the top but the 3rd act tried to do too much. Lucy Eden tries to tackle a multitude of topics and while more serious topics can be addressed in a book that is humor it just felt off here.  Throwing in the typical miscommunication felt out of place based on how Dan had been waxing poetic about Emma being his soulmate. It also just didn't feel like the biggest issue among all the other issues happening. I think had it been paced better and proper time been dedicate to tackling the various plot points while keeping out the minor ones that did not move things forward this would've been a stronger book.