Synopsis

He’s afraid a second time at love wouldn’t live up to his first. She’s afraid a second round would be exactly like her first.

Pastor Jake McAlister and businesswoman Riley Winters are in their forties and widowed. Neither is interested in a relationship. They both love Fallen Soldier, the small Pennsylvania town where they met, even though Rye plans to move to Chicago, and Jake sees a change in pastorates not too far down the road. Enjoying a few-weeks friendship is something they both look forward to.

However, there is an indisputable attraction between the green-eyed pastor and the woman with a shining sweep of chestnut hair. Then there’s the Culp, an old downtown building that calls unrelentingly to Rye’s entrepreneurial soul. And when a young man named Griff visits Jake, life changes in the blink of a dark green eye.

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Review

This second chance romance is a sweet story, but the characters are not without some challenges. Riley, or Rye, lost her husband and, after a break-in at her party planning business, decides to leave her small town and move back to Chicago. Before moving there, she takes a trip to Pennsylvania for her best friend’s wedding to serve as her “widow of honor.” What she doesn’t expect is to fall in love with this small town and a certain pastor. Jake lost his wife to a tragic accident 20 years ago and has lived life on his own and ministering to this small town. Riley turns his world upside down, and he realizes that maybe life doesn’t have to be spent mourning the loss of his wife.

I enjoy reading stories where the characters are not in their 20s and still trying to figure out their lives. Not that someone who is in their 40s has it all figured out either. I was immediately drawn to Riley and Jake and enjoyed watching their story unfold. They both had hard lives before meeting one another, but that doesn’t mean that life can’t be better together. It was nice to see them start off as friends and really get to know one another before trying the dating thing.

Jake does get a surprise from his past, and this sets into motion other situations tied to his job at the church and more. Even in today’s world, there are still small-minded people that think that a pastor should be held above all others and be “perfect.” I was appalled at how some of these people in the church judged Jake for things that happened long before he came to the church or even became a pastor.

I chuckled at the family that Jake has and how well they interacted with one another despite how blended the family had become. It was nice to see people that cared about one another and supported each other no matter what.

This story covers all of the emotions, including the death of a longtime church member, Sophie. This woman was a spitfire, and I loved her interactions with Jake and Riley during her last days.

While you don’t have to read the first book to understand this one, it might give you a little more insight into a few characters.

We give this book 5 paws up!

Excerpt

Rye had loved it when Granny cleaned the bookstore just two bus stops from where they lived. She couldn’t remember the name of the store, only that she’d always called it the reading room. Her grandmother had fretted because no matter how laboriously she cleaned, the shop always smelled like dust to her. Rye, sitting on the rug in the corner that held the children’s books, thought that meant heaven must smell like dust.

She wondered if the owner of Have A Cup would be interested in a satellite location. Or maybe he’d prefer the competition of another coffee shop. It was funny how coffee shops and bookstores belonged together.

And music.

She didn’t know of any venues in town. No one had mentioned any, although musicians had played at the Dockside at the rehearsal dinner.

Every town needed music, didn’t it?

She texted Jake. Is there anywhere in town to listen to music?

His answer made her laugh. My house, but it’s dusty here.

Dust. Like a bookstore, or a stage, or the underside of coffee shop chairs where people sat and read or worked on laptops or wrote in coil-bound notebooks. Bookstores felt like hope. So did live music and fragrant, rich coffee.

The Reading Room.

Oh, good heavens, she could even envision the sign above the entrance that would lead straight upstairs. Actually, there wasn’t an entrance now. That would require some design changes unless she wanted to put the door in the back on the alley. Not a good idea.

What was she thinking?

“Where do you buy books?” she asked Lucy when her neighbor tapped on the kitchen’s French door and walked in carrying a steaming tea kettle.

“Ricky hates tea and I had the water hot before I realized I didn’t want to drink alone,” she explained. “Earl Grey all right for you?”

“Perfect.”

Lucy poured water into the blue-and-white teapot Rye set on the table and snugged a crocheted cozy over it. “Online, usually. Or from the library. Usually I buy them and then donate them to the library.”

“No electronic reader for you?”

“Only when I travel. I like to smell the ink, I guess.”

“What would you think of a bookstore in Fallen Soldier?”

“New or used?”

Oh. She hadn’t thought that far. So much for business acumen. “Yes. Plus an area for live music or readings or other artistic demonstrations. And some kind of coffee and tea shop. Called the Reading Room. Upstairs at the Culp.”

Lucy didn’t hesitate. “Sounds great to me.”

“It might fail.”

“Might.”

“But it might not.”

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Liz Flaherty started writing in the fourth grade when her Aunt Gladys allowed her to use her portable Royal typewriter. The truth was that her aunt would have let her do anything to get her out of her hair, but the typewriter and the stories it could produce caught on, and Liz never again had a day without a what if… in it.

She and Duane, her husband of at least forever, live in a farmhouse in central Indiana, sharing grown children, spoiled cats, and their grandkids, the Magnificent Seven. (Don’t get her started on them—you’ll be here all day.)

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