Another great book. I enjoyed reading about the kindness that Beth and Sunshine showed others. I appreciate that Debbie Macomber doesn't feel the need to lower her standards in order to write a book that her fans will enjoy.

Book three of a series and sadly, I haven’t read the first two. No problem! This book takes off and takes the reader with it. It is an easy read that doesn’t demand much of the brain other than the sit back and enjoy section. Boy meets girl is a given with Debbie Macomber books and this one is no different. Characters are interesting and easy to get to know. This is a fast paced and comfortable read that is just right for when you need a break. This would make a great beach bag addition.

When it is time to take charge of your life and step out on your own. As if dealing with a controlling mom isn’t enough, Beth gets set-up on a blind date with a guy named Sam by one of her friends. Imagine meeting someone and thinking what the hell your friend is on to set you both up. He is everything her mother never wanted. She leaves her date early and is involved a car crash and Sam comes to help her as he was driving the same direction and saw everything. Secrets will be revealed and relationships tested who know how it will turn out in the end.
As always Debbie Macomber writes another heart-warming story. When you just want to escape the day to day stresses and want to read something light I highly recommend.

A very unusual beginning to this book. It started out with a blind date that neither participant felt went well.

The date ended with Beth in the hospital and Sam by her side.

It is the classic girl breaks free from her overbearing mother to start a new life on her own. She finds a job and a place to live and is enjoying her new independence. Enter Mr. no committment guy and nothing will be the same again.

There are twists and turns along the way, some predictable, others not so much.

I loved the characters and felt like they were believable. I loved aunt Sunshine and Beth's dad. They were my favorites.

If you want a warm, feel good book that is a clean. This is the book for you. I liked the story and I think you will too.

Usually Debbie Macomber can be relied upon for a comfortable, if not especially deep, read. I was disappointed in this book. The characters were 2-dimensional and the entire story was cringe-worthy and melodramatic.

What started out as a blind date gone wrong turns into something that Beth and Sam do not see coming at all. Sam seems a bit gruff on the outside but could make any woman swoon with his gentle caring personality. Beth is trying to find her way on her own and is as surprised as anyone else to find love when she wasnt even looking. Never disappointed with Debbie Macomber!

I loved, loved, loved this! Debbie's books always make me feel happy.

This book was a fast read and I definitely got hooked. Some of the relationship was a little too sweet but I still liked the story!

You can always depend on Debbie Macomber to give you a good story to take your mind off everything else going on around you. That said, this was not my favorite story by her but it was a fun satisfying read. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

As the book begins, Beth meets Sam on a blind date. They are total opposites - Beth is a music teacher and very prim and proper. Sam is a mechanic with long hair and beard. The blind date doesn't go well and its apparent that they will never see each again. On their drives home, Sam is behind Beth's car when she is hit in an intersection and hurt very badly. He runs to the car and holds her hand and then starts to visit her in the hospital and a relationship between them develops very quickly. The big questions then becomes - will they be able to find true love despite their differences and the opposition of her controlling mother? It's a fun, quick satisfying read to find out the answer to this question.

Debbie Macomber has a huge fan following and it is understandable why. She writes about every day people and their lives and makes the reader feel they are there apart of it in the cozy small towns she creates. They are comforting books and this one is just like that. It's a good book by a good author and I recommend to anyone who appreciates women's fiction/romance.

Maybe I'm outgrowing Debbie Macomber. Either that or she's getting lazy in her success.

I found the writing in If Not for You sacchrine and the story both trite and unbelieveable. In some ways it is a typical white collar girl falls for blue collar guy story, which, while not original (but what about romance novels is?) was believeable, but then Macomber takes this girl who had to move across the country to get out from under her mother's thumb and puts her to meddling deeply in the most personal aspects of some other people's lives. Not only did I find her level of interference in the lives of others out-of-character, I found it intrusive and insulting. While Macomber gives everyone a happily ever after, in real life, I doubt things would have turned out that way.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley. Grade: C+ (a story I didn't care for but which you might).

Maybe I'm at the point where I've read too many Macomber novels, but this one just didn't quite sit right with me. I expect to be completely absorbed by her books, but instead I found myself rolling my eyes.

The conflicts between Sam and Beth felt really juvenile. I never had any doubt about whether they'd stay together. Sam acts like a grumpy bear and Beth takes it all in stride. And, spoiler alert, he has another woman's name tattooed across his chest. He is portrayed as kind of a playboy, but hadn't explained that to anyone until Beth. I don't buy it. He holds double standards to her and is passive aggressive when he has a problem. Sure, I'd buy their relationship longterm, but they needed to work on it and grow together.

I couldn't help agreeing with Beth's mother when she commented on how Beth's spreading her wings led her straight into the arms of another saviour. I wish we had seen more of Beth moving to start with, about her getting her own job and teaching. There was a pair of students mentioned twice that I would have loved to see more of that would have given Beth more of her own personality.

And maybe I'm not the romantic I was, but I found it terribly challenging to believe the Sunshine subplot, of two very smart and capable people holding flames for thirty years over a relationship that lasted less than a year.

I wasn't a big fan of Macomber in a city setting. Her writing thrives with small communities where everyone knows each other. Here, she writes about Portland and Chicago but it feels like it could be absolutely anywhere else. Though I appreciate her branching out, I wish she had done more research into the feel of the cities to really capture the environment.

The role of the female in this book was another issue I had. There was very much the sentiment of thinking that a woman cannot be fulfilled unless she has children or love, preferably both. And that just drives me up the wall. There's talk about the independence of having a job, but the general sentiment is that a woman must have a man to be happy, and that really bothers me.

If you generally like Macomber, you'll probably enjoy this. I absolutely adored her last book and was really excited for this one, but I found it falling into the typical tropes of her older books.

Beth has moved away from all the family she knows in Chicago to move to Portland to be near her aunt and away from her controlling mother. Beth is an only child and has been controlled and under her mother's radar all her life. In order to get a break from her she takes a teacher's position in a high school as a music teacher.She meet Nichole(the main character from last year's moving on) and they both become great friends. One day Nichole decides to set up Beth with her husband's Rocco best friend Sam. As with moving on both of this charcters are total opposites Beth is from an upscale family and is a trained Pianist and Sam is mechanic. As the dinner becomes real both individual are uncomfortable and are aware the other person is too. As they leave Nichole and Rocco's home confirming to their host they were not a good match they head for their cars and as they are driving along a car runs straight into Beth's car. As faith would have it Sam is near the intersection and sees what happens and runs to her side. So start this relationship where a friendship is started while Beth is in the hospital. As with Debbie's previous guide to moving on, there are other sub-stories going on. Beth's aunt Sunshine who is a famous artist who never found love again after losing her first love over thirty years ago. Beth's mom Ellie who had something to do with her sister Sunshine past love and Sam who has a secret that could tear him and Beth apart. Great story as usual Ms. Macomber cannot do any wrong. My only gripe is I would have loved an epilogue.

Beth & Sam's relationship started with a bang - literally. Although the story as fairly predictable, it included all of the warm fuzzy feelings that you would expect from a Macomber novel. I loved losing myself in the story, in the what-if's, and the butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling that comes along with new relationships and letting someone into your life in the most intimate way. A happy story for me to read on a cold winter day.

Great story for a chill winter day. Typical Macomber. It allows escape into an almost fairy tale world which isn't too bad!

As always Debbie Macomber has given us another beautiful story. It was a quick and easy read.

I was provided with a copy of this book by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I liked Sam and Beth, they're two very different characters with completely different paths that get set up on a blind date by very good friends. While the blind date doesn't go well, after the date Beth is in a car accident, which Sam witnesses, and the two build a very close relationship while she rehabs.
There are some predictable ups and downs, but I almost enjoy the secondary stories better - Beth's family dynamics, Sunshine and Peter, Ellie and everyone else. I also enjoyed how, while it appeared Sam was so together, he had significant issues that threaten their relationship in the end.

This was only my second book by Debbie Macomber but I've found that I really do enjoy her stories and characters. I loved how sweet Sam was even though just looking at him it might not have been expected. And while it was probably quite disrespectful I really did like how Beth stood up for herself numerous times in this book. My favorite part of this book was how good Sam was with kids! Another part of his character that was unexpected. I like reading books where characters don't feed into the status quo.

This book had great romance! I loved watching the love between Beth and Sam. But I also loved that the book was pretty clean. I like when a book can have a great story line, good romance, real-life characters but not be full of trash.

However, I wasn't thrilled with how fast everything concluded. A lot of it seemed to happen a little too easily but I guess that is fiction.

NetGalley and the publisher provided me with an advanced copy of this book. This is my completely honest review.

I like these kind of books for the simple fact that sometimes you just want something to pass the time and allow your brain to 'turn off'. It's prototypical stuff for this genre: boy meets girl, they date, fall in love, happy ever after, lots of drama in between.

Thankfully the book started with a bang, quite literally as it began with the car accident that would lead to the dating otherwise the 2 main characters would have no reason to date. I felt their relationship and became serious awfully quickly but then it wouldn't be the first time a relationship was created out of trauma - reminded me a bit of the movie Speed starring Keanu Reeves.

One of the things I most enjoyed was the author wrote the chapters from various perspectives of her characters so you get to learn more details than you probably otherwise would have as well as the emotional impact of decisions made by themselves and those around them. Definitely provided a more balanced view.

I did have a little trouble with the credibility in how some of the characters were portrayed such as Beth and her car accident. The accident totaled her car, put her in a hospital, she nearly dies, ends up needing life altering rehab yet somehow she can forgive the teen who was texting while driving and ran the red light which nearly destroyed her life? No further mention is ever made of how that turns out because the focus becomes all on her relationship with the guy from that point on. Beth's mom is portrayed as being seriously angry with her sister (beth's aunt) to the point they haven't spoken in years and she wants nothing to do with her. You would think this is because her sister must've done something seriously heinous but later you find out it was Beth's mom, not her aunt, who was the witch and should've been begging her sister for forgiveness instead of being the witchy one - it didn't make a whole lot of sense especially as Beth's aunt was portrayed as being the forgiving one.

Overall if you are a Macomber fan you'll like this book because let's face it, people don't read her romance novels for accurate plot lines, to find life changing stories or quotes they'll put on their social media accounts. You read the books because reality can suck and you need the break.

Beth and Sam meet at a friend's house, as a "blind date." The only thing they seem to have in common is the desire to end the evening and get out the front door! Like Keystone cops, they collide at the door. Once in their vehicles, they reach an intersection together as well. Beth goes to make a turn, and sees a vehicle bearing down on her, too quickly. A nasty collision leaves Beth hanging to life -- and the face of Sam as he rushes to her aid. She almost chooses to give up, but as Sam makes eye contact, she decides to fight for her life. A bond with Sam is formed as she recovers, but will they be able to trust in each other enough to make things work?