SOMEONE TO LOVE by Donna Alward is a beautiful, emotional tale about love, loss, and allowing your heart to heal from the heartbreak of the past. Willow Dunaway has come a long way since her teenage years. Living away from Darling gave her the space she needed to deal with the devastating memories from her past, but since she has returned to her childhood home, she feels a peace and serenity like never before. With her business doing well and close friends who are always there for her, Willow no longer feels the echoing loneliness that haunted her for so many years. But when she comes into contact with a sexy firefighter, Ethan Gallagher, her relaxed world is turned upside down. The last thing that she needs is a handsome brooding man who disapproves of her.

Ethan Gallagher lost his love for life when his wife died almost two years ago, and while he does everything he needs to for his two precious little boys, he has accepted the fact that happiness is out of reach. But when Willow is around he cannot help but feel more positive about everything, and that annoys him beyond belief. Especially because she stirs feelings of passion within him that he thought were no longer possible, and she is just so damn giving and compassionate to everyone around her. But just as they begin to embark on something more than just friendship, an unexpected turn in the road will turn their lives upside down. As harsh words are said can Ethan and Willow let go of their fears and embrace the possibility of a future together? Or is taking a chance on loving somebody not worth the risk?

Yet again, Donna Alward takes us on a beautiful heartwarming journey to the close-knit community of Darling, Vermont. Willow and Ethan are complex characters who have very different approaches to life but yet share some heartbreaking similarities - loss, loneliness, grief for something that should have been. Willow has learned to deal with her past but has always maintained a safe distance from relationships, while Ethan never expects to find happiness again and fights it when he does. Together, with the help of some of Darling's loveable characters, SOMEONE TO LOVE by Donna Alward weaves a sincere tale that will bring tears to your eyes, and make you hot under the collar as their intense connection is off the charts! SOMEONE TO LOVE by Donna Alward is the perfect read for contemporary romance fans everywhere and I cannot wait for the next instalment.

I really enjoyed this book. Donna Alward has given us two broken characters that found each other & managed to lift each other up. Willow had a tragedy in her youth & had a terrible support system. Ethan had a perfect life - a loving wife, two happy boys, a job he loved, a supportive family. Then the bottom dropped out. We are given two diverging perspectives on dealing with grief & depression & trying to continue living your life. Ethan's boys are so adorable& sweet. I loved the way they gravitated to Willow! I really enjoyed this book & think it's a great addition to the series!

I LOVED this book. I mean beyond LOVED!! So much so I requested the net book in the series to review too and I want to read the first one too. This is my first book by this author but I loved the writing, the characters and even where the story line goes.

The main plot of the story is widowed dad (Ethan) with 2 young children, falls for the new woman in town (Willow). But this story went in a totally new area that to be honest I have never seen another book go. It really made this book and of course I cannot share what it is, because its a major spoiler, but I totally loved it.

From the books description it sounds like Willow and Ethan have a fling after the foodbank needs help and that is so not what happens in this story. At the start of this book Ethan is a grieving widower. His wife died the year before but she was very sick and ended up dying of that disease, probably Cancer, but that is never mentioned. So he has been knocked over the head by life in the worst way. He has two darling sons and well I fell hard for the kids.

Willow has also been knocked over by life but by eating healthy and using Yoga she has found peace. On the outside she looks different with a streak of pink hair and a nose ring but inside she is very centered and happy with who she has become.

The two face a strong attraction and they don't just fall into bed or say lets have a fling. They date, slowly and both take their time first becoming friends and then dating. However, while Ethan has no secrets, Willow has a big one and it impacts what happens later in the book and makes what they had seem like a fling, but it was more of relationship and dating that goes wrong because of Willows past, than a fling.

This book was wonderful. I loved the issues and I loved the characters and I loved how much Ethan really grew and changed in this story.

I have to say that I enjoyed Someone to Love almost more then Somebody Like You. I really enjoyed both Ethan and his sons. In fact, I like the whole Gallagher family. They really crack me up.

You met Ethan in Somebody Like You and right away you knew he had a wounded heart. But even with that he's shows you what a great father he is.

You learn in the first book that Ethan is a widowed father with two young boys. Right away you can tell he's feeling all the things mothers have felt forever. The feeling of never having enough time with your family, not really being there for them when you have to be at work.

You know they feelings.

I liked having the script switched and having the hero feeling overwhelmed and like he didn't measure up. Not to worry, Ethan was doing a great job so he had nothing to worry about.

Not only did I like Ethan, I loved Willow. She was such fun to read about. She really worked hard to take care of those around her. You loved how comfortable she is around Ethan's boys. Even when she's not sure what she's doing.

These two take a while to figure out what they both want but it does happen in the end.

To say that Ethan Gallagher has his hands full is an complete understatement, between being a single father to two rambunctious little boys and putting in long hours at the fire station he has little time for himself or much of anything else for that matter. Losing his wife unexpectedly has certainly taken it's toll on the three of them, but little by little they are finding a way to meander through life and adjust to their new situation with the help of his family. The loss of his wife has left Ethan a hardened man, one who has completely lost his faith in love, and he has no desire to ever travel down that path again... but fate has other plans for him, now he just has to find the courage to embrace the one thing that scares him the most...love!

After her world was turned upside down Williow Dunaway decided it was time to make a change, so she moved back home to Darling in hopes of having the life she has dreamed of for some time now, and to hopefully put a little peace back into her life. She had no intentions of looking for love, but it unexpectedly finds her, in the form of a brooding handsome man with demons of his own, and little by little these two rediscover themselves and find love in the process. Now they just have to find a way to keep their demons at bay, and let their love for one another prevail...

This touching love story stirred my emotions, warmed my heart and renewed my faith in happily ever afters. From the moment I started it I found myself being pulled right back into lives of the folks from Darling, it feltas if I had never left them, and I have to say it turned out to be quite an enjoyable reunion. With each page I turned the more I became completely enraptured with Willow and Ethan's story, their path to finding one another was certainly a bumpy one, but I think that is what made it have such a realistic quality, one that was easy to connect to and believe in. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this one, it's been a while since I have read something that gave me the feels the way this one did, it definitely had me feeling the words!! I highly recommend you give this one a try, Ms. Alward's endearing characters are sure to pull you into their world and make you feel right at home... and score a special place in your heart!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this title.

If you are looking for a sweet romance novel look no further than Someone To Love, the second book in Donna Alward’s Darling, VT, series. I’m seriously suffering from book hangover since finishing this second book in the series.
Willow has returned to her hometown of Darling (and isn’t that a precious name for a town in a romance novel?) to open and run a little coffee shop and bakery. When she left right after high school she was a wounded animal, suffering from a terribly broken heart, but not in the way you might think. Abandoned by her mother after suffering one of the worst catastrophies a teenager might endure alone, Willow has looked to yoga for internal peace to find her center and learn how to go forward without slipping into a dangerous state of mine. She carries a semicolon tattoo on her wrist, and most people know what that means. It isn’t something she’s willing to talk about with anyone. She is stronger than when she left but determined not to depend on anyone other than herself to make decisions that will guide her life. Then she meets Ethan. Brooding, gruff, widower Ethan.
Ethan lost his wife Lisa 18 months ago, leaving him to raise two boys under five alone. Oh, he’s got a hugs family willing and able to help him, and he does depend on them, but he is so bewildered in his own head how to proceed with his life outside of his job as a firefighter and his duties as a father, he comes across as closed off and unable to make a connection with another human being. What appears initially as grumpiness is just a lost soul who misses the love of his life. When his grief begins to fade that state of mind scares him as much as losing Lisa did.
Lisa permeates the story. She is and always will be part of Ethan’s life and as he and Willow grow closer she is smart enough to recognize that she will need to embrace Lisa as part of her own life, even though she never met her. Ethan’s sons Connor and Ronan adore Willow and when a mistake leads to heartbreak that interrupts Willow and Ethan’s close relationship the boys are also wounded. The question is, can their love be patched? Is there a place for Ethan in Willow’s life and a place for Willow in Ethan’s life? I’ll give you a hint: it’s a romance novel, but getting to that HEA or HFN is not an easy road.
This book can be read as a stand-alone but you are going to want to read the the first book in the series and coming soon (as I write this review) is the next book, and you will join me in eager anticipation for it.

Someone to Love by Donna Alward
Darling VT #2

Grieving widower meets Zen yogini – or – the tale of opposites.

Willow Dunaway and Ethan Gallagher strike sparks from the get-go. He finds her too different, too happy and too much when he meets her. She finds him a grouchy, mean, rude individual – even though his sons are charming. They meet a few times, talk a few times, spent a bit of time together and eventually the sparks of dislike turn a different kind of conflagration. A mistake was made and consequences occurred that the two had to face, find a solution to and then move forward from. The ending was a HFN and not a HEA but I have a feeling there could be a HEA for the two before the end of the series.

Ethan was curmudgeonly and unkind in the beginning but did improve over time. His lot as a single parent was not easy but his family was there to help out when needed. I had the feeling that he was a good man changed by grief and that if allowed his true nature would eventually surface. He had loved deeply, he was a great father, he was a great brother and son SO the potential for him with a future partner is possible.

Willow was, on the surface, always calm and in control with nothing phasing her. In reality that is not quite true. She has a past that pushed her into choosing a way to cope and yoga, meditation and going with the flow (to the best of her ability) was her coping mechanism. She is caring, empathetic and wonderful MOST of the time but when the sh*t hits the fan she loses her Zen abilities and ducks back into herself in a way that I understood but wished could have been avoided – but in reality we all have times in our lives when we lose it, don’t we?

I felt much in this book. I found family to be central to the story – good and bad families, both. Friendship, communication and trust were also important. I did enjoy this book and look forward to reading more in this series. I am now wondering which Gallagher will have his or her story told next ;)

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. This is my honest review.

5 Stars

Someone to Love is book 2 of Ms Alward’s series titled Darling, VT. I loved it. It is the story of widower Ethan Gallagher, a firefighter,and father of two young boys , who has still not recovered from the death of the love of his life. The other main character is Willow Dunaway, a seemingly free spirit, owner of the local bakery and some would say totally opposite of Ethan. But was she really?
It’s a story about heartaches, heart wrenching moments, about what has happened in our youth and our past DOES mold us, and that sometimes the fears of what ifs might keep us from finding love.
Truly a wonderful book and one that will touch your heart. Displaying how talented Ms Alward is.
I was gifted this book by Netgalley. The opinions expressed are solely my own.

Ethan and Willow are two very different people, both damaged. He had kids and she is a free spirit. Ethan is not in the market for a wife, and she wasn't looking to step into a readymade family, despite finding his kids adorable.
But there is a connection between them, that try as they might can't be ignored. Where will this attraction lead to ?
Someone to love was an emotional read ! It was thoughtful, emotive, and heartwarming. The Darling, VT series has a strong family and friends ties and I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

I enjoy this series that is set in small town Vermont and centers on the Gallager Family. This is book 2 and features Ethan and bakery owner Willow. Ethan is still mourning the death of his wife while raising his two young sons with the help of his family. Willow is best friends with his sister and turns his life upside down. We also get to catch up with Aiden and Laurel. Basically a wholesome romance series with well written characters. They all seem like the family next door. Don't have to read in order, it's a fine stand alone romance in it's own right but even better keeping up with the family.

Loved the opposites attraction in this story. Both have struggles they try to overcome in order to get their life in order. Family means a lot to the Gallagher's so they are there when someone needs help regardless if they want it or not. A stand alone read and the second in this series.

I loved this one!! It has everything I love in a romance. Small town, close friends and family, lots of emotion, interesting H/h with a slow build romance between the two. Ethan and Willow seem to be the most unlikely people to find love in each other but they turn out to be just what the other needs. Ethan is grumpy and gruff, dealing with the loss of his wife and struggling with raising his two young sons he feels he has little to be happy about. Willow has dealt with her own sorrows in life but has chosen to find a way to bring peace, serenity and happiness to her life. Their story is full of bumps and twists and turns but in the end the road to their HEA seems clear. Definitely a recommended read.

Someone to Love by Donna Alward is the 2nd book in her Darling, VT series. Willow Dunaway is our heroine, and we had met her in the first book of this series. Willow, who runs a successful bakery café that leans on the healthy organic side, is also very likeable, independent, a hard worker and very different than your local business woman. She has a blue or purple streak in her hair, and has a nose ring.

Ethan Gallagher, our hero, is a widower, who lost his wife a few years ago. He has two wonderfully adorable sons, but he remains cold and embittered by the loss of his beloved wife. Ethan relies on his big family to help him, when he is off to work on his fire fighter duties; but when he is home, his whole life are his sons. Ethan had met Willow at Laurel and Aiden’s wedding, as she is Laurel’s best friend. But when he runs into her with his sons by her café, Ethan is unfriendly and rude, even if his sons take a liking to Willow. Early on, though I understood his pain, I really didn’t like Ethan too much. That did change as the story progressed, though he did continue to act like a jerk at times, which would have turned me off of him. Poor Willow had her own issues to get past from her teenage years. Despite this, she was so great with the boys, and that was a lot of fun.

What follows is a slow build romance between two unlikely people. Both Ethan and Willow have to face the pain of their past, in order to trust their hearts to each other. Ethan is afraid to get hurt again, but his wonderful family pushes him to move on. Willow has told no one about her past, but she also has her best friend Laurel and Ethan’s sister to help her. The key is for both them to open up to each and once they do, their love will bloom in a beautiful heartwarming romance. But there are a few obstacles that will come up that can break up their relationship. Will Ethan and Willow be able open up and help each other to get past their issues?

The best part of this sweet story, are Ethan’s sons Connor and Ronan. I loved them both and loved how Willow was with them. I really loved Willow throughout the whole book. Ethan took some time, but did get better closer to the end. I love the Gallagher family, too, and look forward to more stories from the rest of the siblings. If you love small town romances, family, friendship and adorable children, I suggest you read this series.

When I finished book one of this series, I walked away eager to know more about Ethan and Willow. Someone to Love gave me what I wanted.

Ethan Gallagher is a firefighter and a widower with two boys. He’s not quite ready to venture back into love, but Willow Dunaway fills him with an attraction he cannot deny. Willow has come back to Darling, Vermont after years away. Overcoming her past and owning her own business has made her into a strong, independent woman. Ethan appeals to her in a way she didn’t expect, even though settling down is the last thing on her mind.

I enjoyed this book more than the first in the series because I liked and connected with Ethan and Willow. I found their story more emotionally charged than I did the relationship between Aiden and Laurel in the first book. I had one issue with this book and that was that I found the passage of time a little off. Weeks would pass but I never got the feeling that that much time had actually gone by. This made the story feel too rushed and bunched together. But that didn’t cause me to lose the connection I felt to Ethan and Willow. I still found their story believable and heartfelt. I simply wanted a better sense that they had actually spent more quality time together.

There is more to come from Darling, VT and I’m ready for another trip. Book three in the series, Somebody’s Baby, is scheduled for an April 4th release. Although I’ve had issues with the first two books, I’m excited to read and bring you a review of book three in early April. You can guess from the title that there will be a baby. But who’s baby? I can’t tell you that because that would spoil part of Someone to Love’s storyline. You can read each of these books as a stand-alone, but do grab Somebody Like You and Someone to Love, and begin your journey to Darling, VT.

A sweet, strong heroine whose story with the big, broody Irish fireman will warm your heart and make you go weak in the knees. I felt like having a bone melting kiss after drinking a strong cup of delicious coffee.

4 - "Have you wondered if we're both just too damaged to do this?" Stars!

The second book in Donna Alwards Darling, VT series gives us widower Ethan Gallagher’s story. Oh and I forgot to mention, he’s a single Daddy too!

GIF.

This is definitely an opposites attract sort of romance, Grant is pretty uptight and staid, especially at the beginning of the book, and I wasn’t sure whether I was going to warm to him initially as he came across as a bit of a judgey ass in the first couple of interactions with Willow. On the opposite side we have a woman who is all about calm, Zen and staying firmly in her happy bubble. Its difficult to see where they are going to find any common ground that will kick-start a potential relationship between them.

"You’re the first person to treat me like I am nothing special in months."

Grants little boys Ronan and Connor were a huge part of the catalyst and I loved their inclusion into the story, but you also see as the story builds, that this is a couple that have more in common than you would initially assume, it also highlights that grief comes in many shapes and forms and it is something that we all deal with in different ways.

When a person stepped out of the dark and into the sun, it took a while for the eyes to adjust.

I think Somebody to Love has the potential to be a book that readers will either love or hate, the second half of the story errs into an area that I think will resonate strongly with some people and probably not in a good way, it resonated with me, but I was kind of expecting it to happen very early on after a few things were revealed by Grant and Willow, so it wasn’t as much of a shock for me as it possibly could have been. That said I can see both sides of the coin, and therefore understand the different reactions that different readers will have to it.

"Are we becoming friends do you think?"

"I guess we probably are. Kind of an odd combo, but there’s nothing wrong with that."

I would call the authors choice of story direction a bit of a grey area, especially when you take into account both Grant and Willow’s pasts, but it wasn’t dragged out too long, and the resolution was quick and pretty sweet in general.

I am really enjoying this series, the final Gallagher brother is up next in Somebody’s Baby and I just know it’s going to be another winner (probably because I have already read it!).

ARC generously provided via Netgalley, and it was my absolute pleasure to provide the above honest review.

In this second entry of the Darling, VT series, Ms Alward takes us back to this idyllic community to spend time with Ethan and Willow. We met both in Somebody Like You where they were secondary characters (best friend and brother), but here we really get to know them and all of the baggage they bring to the table.
I have to admit that one of the things I really enjoy about this series is that both main characters get to experience an emotional evolution. Ethan is a widower with two young sons and Willow has her own issues that she hadn’t dealt with as well as she thought. These two are a slow build until something unexpected forces the issue, but I really liked them together. I also appreciated the fact that Ms. Alward made Ethan’s sons key characters in the story and that their relationship with Willow was almost as important as hers with Ethan.
This is a sweet story with a touch of sexy and a great secondary cast. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next for the Gallagher siblings.

Thank you Netgalley. I enjoyed this book but found my attention wandered a lot halfway through and ended up skipping quite a bit.

I don't think this was in any way a bad book, it just isn't my sort of book.

This is the second in a series, I haven't read the first book but this was easy to read as a stand-alone.

Willow Dunaway has returned to her childhood town of Darling. "Things" happened in her past and she never intended to return to the place which caused her so much pain but for some reason she felt the tug of her roots and so she returned and opened the Purple Pig Cafe based on the philosophy of organic, local and fair-trade. She also wears vegan clothing and does yoga. She irritated the cr&p out of me.

Ethan Gallagher is the brother of one of Willow's two friends in Darling, and his brother is married to Willow's other friend. He is a fire-fighter, and a widower with two small children. Ethan is a beer and a burger kind of guy, Willow is a veggie wrap kind of woman. They get off on the wrong foot when Willow meets his two boys on the green when Ethan is in a bad mood. They meet again at a Gallagher family dinner where Willow brings some bean salad which the Gallagher's generally avoid like the plague. She and Ethan are very antagonistic towards each other and yet they both feel an undeniable attraction.

It felt clear to me that the reader was supposed to relate to Willow and to think that she was a sympathetic character. As I said, she irritated me, she was narcissistic, she replaced one form of self-absorption with another and thought only of her own feelings. She lied to Ethan and then turned around and blamed him. She told him not to call her and then blamed him because she felt alone. She professed to love Ethan's children but made no contact with them when she and Ethan were at odds. Her food and drinks fads were (frankly) depressing and the non-stop yoga got boring really quickly. I also felt that she was economical with the truth when telling Ethan's sister what had happened between them which laid the blame squarely on Ethan.

I felt more sympathy for Ethan. He works long unsocial hours and relies heavily on family and babysitters to look after his boys. Luckily that is all irrelevant as he injures his arm in a fire early in the novel so he is conveniently off work for most of the story. After nursing his wife through terminal cancer he is desperately lonely and afraid of loving again, he also quite naturally feels that his attraction to Willow is disrespectful to his wife's memory.

I think this would work better for a reader who is interested in things like vegetarian food and yoga and would therefore find Willow more sympathetic. I also found some of the interactions between Ethan and Willow to be too flowery and new age (there I finally said it), too navel-gazing.

Now, the quandary, is this indicative of the series or was it just Willow? Should I read the next one?