A feel good read !

Laurel is back in Darling, after her divorce, and is the owner and manager of the ladybug garden center. When someone breaks into, and vandalizes her property, she calls the cops. The officer on duty to answer her call is non other that Aiden.
Laurel and Aiden share a history, he hurt her when they were kids and she has not forgiven him for it.
But this time Aiden will not give up so easily. He slowly with Charm and patience breaks down Laurels walls and become first friends and then something more. Aiden is just wow.
Somebody to love is a heartwarming romance that was equal parts sweet and spicy. The story around George really added a mystery angle and I hope it moves further in the series. And I just loved the ending, I think it's the most romantic ending I have ever read.

Somebody Like You is my very first book by Donna Alward. The minute I read the synopsis and saw the cover I just knew I had to read this book, so when I got the chance to read an arc I was thrilled and I dived into it as soon as I could .I thoroughly enjoyed this book was so good ! Somebody Like you is an excellent start to the Darling VT series .

This book focuses on Laurel and Aiden. Laurel has just gotten through a divorce and is back in her small town starting up a business, at this point she is not really entertaining thoughts or romance , however she and Aiden are asked to recreate a photograph that they too many years ago and she has not quite forgiven for what he did to her all those years back, however this does not stop the attraction building up between these two . Laurel and Aiden in my eyes where perfect for each other, there love story had a bit of a bumpy start and I could completely understand why because of what happened before, but once they passed that and got to know each other they where just so cute . If I had to describe there romance in three words they would sweet ,sexy and fun .There where so many things happens in this novel between the vandalism of the properties around the town , the romance and of course that photograph , there was never a dull moment in this story .

Somebody Like You was sweet , sexy , fun contemporary romance with a happy ever after ending that is bound to make you swoon . I am very excited to get my hands on Donna Alward next book . if you love all these things in your books you should definitely pick up a copy

A beautiful start to a new series in a new small town setting.
Immediately you are drawn into the characters lives and their families, with a cute beginning of a love storyline and a fitting ending, this book keeps your hopes up for good in the world.
I look forward to reading the next book with sweet anticipation.

Loved this!! This is the first book in a new series from Donna Alward and it was fantastic. A great second chance story as high school sweethearts are reunited many years later only to find that spark between them is still there and flaring to life. Laurel and Aiden are great together and it was fun to read how their relationship grew throughout the story. It's a nice slow build love story with little angst and lots of small town meddling. The very descriptive writing painted a beautiful picture of the idyllic little town of Darling making it a place you would really love to visit. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Donna Alward’s Somebody Like You is a fabulous second chance romance set in the small town of Darling, Vermont. After an emotionally draining, awkward divorce, Laurel Stone has returned home to Darling to heal. She has purchased a garden center, joined the Chamber of Commerce and has reconnected with several old friends. Although, Laurel has been avoiding one person in particular--Aiden Gallagher, the boy that broke her heart in high school. However, she meets Aiden, now a member of the Darling police force, when her business is vandalized. Aiden and Laurel slowly begin to bond after her business is vandalized a second time. He returns the garden center after work and he helps her paint over graffiti.
Donna Alward is a new-to-me author. I love her descriptive voice and how she carefully balanced Lauren’s fear of being hurt with Aiden’s need to be forgiven in the novel. The pacing of their story was perfect, the dialogue was both honest and witty and the author did a fabulous job weaving in the secondary character of George, a homeless veteran, into both Lauren and Aiden’s lives.

The secondary characters of George, Willow and Rory played important roles in the plot. Through George, the author provides an honest look at the emotional difficulties that veterans encounter when they return home. The friendship between Laurel and Willow and the back and forth banter between Aiden and his brother Rory added humor, balance and authenticity to the plot. I enjoyed the superbly written scenes when calm, serene Willow offers Laurel unconditional support and challenges Laurel to make peace with the past. The powerful connection between the main characters captivated me from the first chapter of the book and kept me reading past my bedtime!

Thoroughly enjoyed the story. Read it in two sittings. Liked the side plot about George. Look forward to hearing the stories of Ethan, Rory and Willow!

Someone Like You is a good, fluffy romance, but it didn’t bring out my emotions like most romance stories do.

Aiden Gallagher and Laurel Stone were young when they appeared in a photograph on the Kissing Bridge in the small town of Darling, Vermont. The town has used this image as part of its tourism campaign for years. Now, twenty years later, Aiden and Laurel are asked to recreate the moment. However, neither are thrilled with the idea. As teenagers, their romance was no fairy tale.

It’s really hard to like a book when you don’t feel a connection to or a chemistry between the main characters … and I didn’t. I liked Aiden but something about Laurel (and I can’t put in words what it was) bothered me. That tainted my feelings for the couple. It was secondary characters George, Ethan and Willow that I felt anything for. These three characters brought the enjoyment to this book and I wanted more of them. At the end of this book I realized I had a pleasant visit to Darling, VT. I think you’ll enjoy a visit too if you’re up for the ride 

Readers are not finished with the town of Darling, VT. Book 2, Someone to Love is scheduled to release next month (I’ll have a review of that book too) and is Ethan (Aiden’s brother that is mentioned briefly in this book) and Willow’s story. Since I liked the mysterious aura around Willow’s life and Ethan’s past mentioned in Someone Like You I’m excited to read their stories.

I have reviewed "Somebody Like You" by Donna Alward for ReaderToReader.com, where the review will remain on site indefinitely. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Vickie Denney at:
Vickie@ReaderToReader.com. The link to the review is below.
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Somebody Like You: A Darling, VT Novel
By Donna Alward
St. Martin's Press
February 2017

Darling, VT is famous for its kissing bridge, which is a big tourist attraction. At age 5, Laurel Stone was photographed kissing Aiden Gallagher at her aunt’s wedding, with their picture displayed in town since. Laurel always was sweet on for Aiden and as teenagers when on a date, he tried to go a bit too far after being egged on by a bet with his peers. Hurt terribly, Laurel retaliated by throwing a milkshake over his head in the school cafeteria.

Now, twenty years later, Laurel moves back to in town licking her wounds after her 3-year marriage comes to an end when her husband comes out of the closet, stating he is in love with another man. Laurel buys a long-closed nursery, giving up her accounting career in Burlington to start over doing something she loves.

Aiden is now working as a police officer and when they bump into each other, Laurel acts cool toward him. He recognizes he acted like a stupid kid and wants to make things right between them, but Laurel is stubborn and cannot get over her hurt and humiliation.

Living in a small town, their paths cross often, and though Laurel tries to deny it, she still feels strongly for the handsome Irishman. Aiden too is drawn to her and makes it his mission to win her back, if not with his love, then with friendship.

When the town plans a new campaign to highlight the kissing bridge, they ask Laurel and Aiden to renew their kiss. Laurel, aghast, refuses, not wanting to submit to the embarrassment. To make thing worse, her ex wants to hold his wedding at the bridge and asks for her help. Not one to say “no,” Laurel acquiesces yet is doubly mortified.

Somebody Like You gives ownership to second chances when trust and forgiveness seem lost.

SOMEBODY LIKE YOU the first book in a new series by Donna Alward takes place in Darling Vermont whose claim to fame – such as it is – is the kissing bridge. Darling is a typical small town – everyone knows everyone and their business – and is looking to boost the tourist business. So the idea of updating the famous kissing bridge photo was born.

Laurel has just returned home to Darling albeit slightly worse for wear with her marriage and job left behind. The job was good – the marriage not so. Seems her ex-husband Dan decided he should not have married Laurel or any woman for that matter. Ah – the closet door just recently opened for Dan you see but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be any collateral damage – in this case Laurel’s heart, hopes and dreams.

Now home Laurel is devoting all her energies establishing her garden nursery called The Ladybug. Lots of dirty hard work but in many ways sort of therapeutic until Laurel’s past catches up with her.

Sheriff Aiden Gallagher has the auspicious honor of being the targeted victim of a milk shake attack courtesy of a very angry Laurel. They were both in high school at the time – Aiden pretty full of himself and Laurel candidly surprised by his attention. Needless to say Aiden proved himself unworthy of Laurel’s affection and it’s been the talk of the town ever since.

But here’s the thing – reality is always more complicated than fiction and the reality of Laurel and Aiden’s relationship would confound most of the inhabitants of Darling. Where Laurel readily showed her feeling with being played for a fool by dumping that milk shake on Aiden’s head – most folk would be surprised to learn that Aiden was the one who walked away with a crushed heart.

Aiden had attitude and that carried him pretty far except there are people you just can’t fool and the Gallagher’s were a large close knit family with eyes on the situation. They were probably the only ones in the town of Darling that even suspected that Aiden truly cared for Laurel. It was all just a case of teenage crushes gone amok.

Now Laurel’s back in town barely sparing a look in Aiden’s way. But Aiden’s up for the challenge – well at least he thinks he is. Two wonderful people who just don’t trust their respective hearts. It’s going to take a lot of hard work to get beyond their past to see if there is any future. Let’s see if the magic of the kissing bridge can help these two learn to love and trust again.

Donna Alward has once again treated us to some truly awesome people in this new series that takes place in the small town of Darling. There are evidently many stories to tell about these folk and in SOMEBODY LIKE YOU we are kind of introduced to many of them. Laurel and Aiden are pretty complex characters that have to face their pasts before moving forward. Donna Alward is always very fair but honest in dealing with the challenges her characters face. That’s how she keeps them real. And that’s why I am such a fan.

Aiden and Laurel kissed on the Darling, VT “Kissing Bridge” when they were five years old. The picture of this kiss became the town’s well-known poster for tourism. Now, years later, Laurel has returned to Darling after a difficult divorce. During this same time period, Aiden became a Darling policeman. Both meet up again when vandalism strikes Laurel’s garden store, and Aiden arrives to investigate. At first, they are leery of each other, not ready to move beyond the past. In high school, an incident where Aiden asks Laurel out on a bet by his buddies, has soured what might have been a good relationship between the two. Can they let the past go? Aiden seems more ready to than Laurel, though both have some definite obstacles from their pasts to overcome before that can happen. This book is the story of this couple and how each works to overcome the past and the “scars” it has left, while working toward a new beginning for themselves.

This is a sweet romantic story. The two main characters, Laurel and Aiden are well done and fit into the story quite naturally, as do the other town and family supporting characters. The setting is pure small town, where everyone knows everyone else’s business but where neighbors and friends stand together, united, to face any adversary that may crop up. I loved the sheer romance of the story of Aiden and Laurel, and whipped through this easy-to-read book quickly. The author has definitely begun a great series with this book, and I look forward to reading others in the series. I recommend a reader looking for a good romance to start with this one. I do not think it will disappoint. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

Though a relatively simple, this was a sweet enough romance set with a small town background.

Laurel was by far my favourite character. She's feisty, and I appreciated how she was setting up her own business and taking a leap of faith. I also related a lot to her as she found it challenging to say no to people and I know how hard it can be not to put others first.

A subplot revolved around a minor character, George, which I found to be an intriguing way of both building up the main plot and their romance. He was homeless but Aiden had always showed him some kindness, which intrigued Laurel, leading to some development that was probably the most unique aspect of this book.

My main issue with this book was probably how Aiden seemed to lack a dating history and a personality. While it's made quite clear that he had one kind of serious relationship, it wasn't really clear if after that he was a total player or if he was very solitary.

I'm not enamoured with this book--though there was nothing bad about it, it was fairly predictable and had nothing outstanding.

Aiden Gallagher and Laurel Stone had grown up in the same small town in Vermont. When they were five years old, someone had taken a picture of them kissing on the "Kissing Bridge" in the middle of town and the town had used that as their marketing tool for all these years. Now the town wanted to update the image and wanted Aiden and Laurel to take a "grown-up" version of the picture with Laurel in a wedding dress and Aiden in a tux. The only problem was that Laurel hated Aiden for humiliating her when she was seventeen. She didn't think she could ever forgive how he broke her heart and humiliated her in front of all her classmates at the high school. Of course, she had dumped an entire milkshake on his head in front of everyone, too.

Laurel had been married and her ex had cheated on her, with another man. He has now getting married to this new lover and Laurel was once again humiliated and disappointed and angry. She didn't want another relationship with anyone, but most especially with Aiden Gallagher. He was the last man she would ever consider a relationship with . . . but he was very handsome. Her store was vandalized and he was the cop that was assigned to her case, which meant she had to spend at least a little time with him. The more she saw him and found out about him after he had grown up, she realized he was a very good man. He had apologized to her but she didn't know if she would ever be able to trust him again.

Aiden liked Laurel. He had liked her for years and he had hurt her in high school and had regretted that boneheaded move for all those years. He wanted to spend more time with her and he wanted more with her. She was his perfect woman. She was kind, beautiful, and fiery. She always took care of others and rarely took care of her needs. He wanted to changed that. But, he wasn't sure she would ever forgive him but maybe if she could see how he felt and he didn't feel comfortable talking about his feelings. What could he do to show her how he felt?

This was a wonderful story of sweet love and romance galore. Aiden was a perfect man. He was protective without being too alpha. Even though he wasn't comfortable with expressing his feelings in words, he wanted to show Laurel how he felt and opened up his heart with the possibility of heartbreak. My only criticism of the book was the one f-bomb earlier in the book which I believe will narrow the readership.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Somebody Like You by Donna Alward is the first book in her new Darling, VT series. This was my first book by Donna Alward, and after finishing this story, it will not be my last. I really enjoyed Somebody Like You. This was a sweet pure romance, with a great couple, wonderful characters, within a nice small town atmosphere.
Laurel Stone returns home to Darling, VT after her divorce. She is starting life anew by purchasing the local gardening store, and has sworn off men. When her store is vandalized, she comes face to face with her high school crush, Aiden Gallagher, who is now a cop. Aiden broke Laurel’s heart in high school, and she has never forgotten or forgiven him. Aiden tries to apologize, saying he regrets what he did when he was 17. But Laurel coming off of her divorce is very cold and wants nothing to do with Aiden.

There is also the famous photograph promoting Darling’s Kissing Bridge of 5 year old Aiden and Laurel kissing. That picture has been there for 20 years, and now the town has approved changing the picture. They want a grown up Aiden and Laurel to do another one. Aiden is willing, but Laurel wants nothing to do with it.
Despite her misgivings, Laurel keeps running into Aiden, when he comes to her rescue a few times, and together they become involved in helping, George, a homeless man. The mystery behind the vandalism in town, and George is a nice side story.

What follows is a heartwarming story, with Laurel slowly rekindling her feelings for Aiden. After having been hurt during her divorce, Laurel had given up on her dreams, closing her heart to being hurt again. At first she was angry, bitter and cold towards Aiden, but he was such a wonderful hero. He understood where Laurel was coming from, and took his time to win her over. It was so much fun to see her begin to change and open herself up to love. But even to near the end, Laurel would pull back, but family and friends, as well as Aiden would work to help show her the way to happiness.

Donna Alward has written a beautiful romance, and the sweet emotional ending was simply wonderful. If you enjoy a pure romance, with a little bit of mystery, wonderful characters, then I suggest you read Somebody Like You.

Another wonderful story by a great author. I really liked this story of Aiden and Laurel's romance. Both have baggage to overcome, and both have ways of coming to terms with their past, present and future. I liked the side story of George too, and overall really liked this small Cermont town. A sweet and warm romance, and I highly recommend this book and author. Aiden has plenty of siblings, so hope there will be more books to come in this series.