This story has a great start and continues to build. Packed with action, emotion and some very loving community involvement. The way this group of people come together for a shared purpose and become a family is beautiful. Emma had a seemingly good life in the city, but she learned what life was really all about when she arrives at the farm and begins small town life. Dan & Emma’s relationship was so naturally organic, a refreshing pace. They built up with time, not overwhelmingly but with sincerity. I enjoyed this story a great deal.
The audio was such a pleasure to listen to. Voices with distinction and variety.

First and foremost, the narration really brought this story to life, so if you like romance and audiobooks I’d add this one to your list!

I’d recommend if you like:
🏡 Forced Proximity
🗣️ Men with English Accents
🖤 Black Love
🔀 Opposites Attract
🏘️ Small Town Romances
🌃 City Girls
💪🏾 Strong FMC’s
🌱 Plant Daddies

This one hits so many boxes for me! I love the humor, especially the opening with the wrong bathroom and sadly, I had a moment like that recently where I bulldozed into a men’s restroom thinking it was the women’s to be caught and questioned and omg it was so embarrassing so that moment instantly made me love this book because it was so relatable to my recent similar embarrassment…

Beyond that, the small town, will she or won’t she keep her family’s property that is the cornerstone to the small town was so well done, and truly loved the narrative behind the depth of why the family farm was so important to the town beyond the economics.

I also really loved the forced proximity of the farm manager living in the attic apartment in the FMC’s now home and the tension as it built between them and then exploded, quite literally 😘

All in all, I could keep going on, but just know I loved it and if you feel like the vibes match what you are looking for in your next romance I’d highly recommend! Thanks so much to the publisher for my ALC and ARC in exchange for my review! I can’t wait to read more from this author!

Thank you to Forever & Hachette Audio for the review copies!

Love in Bloom
By Lucy Eden
🎧 Narrated by: Wesleigh Siobhan
Book 164 of 2024

🎧I really enjoyed this by audiobook! Siobhan’s narration was really engaging, and I never wanted to turn this one off! After a string of audiobooks I didn’t love, this was much needed.

Pick this one up if you love a city girl who finds a home. Now more than ever am I looking for books with close-knit communities who take care of each other, and Love in Bloom is exactly that.

Emma & Dan’s relationship was also so fun to watch - Dan is swoony and supportive, but will push back when he disagrees with Emma. I loved these two together!

I recommend this one for when you are in the mood for a low angst, fairly steamy romcom!

CW: childhood illness/death

In one huge plot twist to her life, Emma gets fired from her job, breaks up with her boyfriend, and inherits a farm from her estranged grandparents, all in 24 hours. When she gets to the farm she finds the farm manager, Dan, is also living there and is getting in her way. It doesn’t take long to understand why the locals are acting strangely toward Emma. It turns out, her grandparents were doing some illegal activity and keeping huge secrets on their farm.
This small-town romance with a twist was exactly what I needed during a stressful week. This book had me laughing out loud with all of the mishaps and busybodies, the romance had me swooning, and the side characters were chef’s kiss. This book was cozy and so much fun - if you like Hallmark vibes but with steam and a little illegal activity, this is for you!
I loved the audiobook narrated by Wesleigh Siobhan. She did a great job with the multiple characters and accents!
Thank you to Forever Publishing, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the advance copies.

This book was so fun and different and I loved it. The idea that an entire town is in on a secret about medical marijuana is insane, but amazing. Lucy Eden made this book so enjoyable. The love story was great, the banter was great, everything. I also loved how deep the book got, into grief and how it can affect a family for years. This was a great story and I hope there's more books in this world. Wesleigh Siobhan makes this book sing! She's one of my fav narrators for this kind of story and I could listen to her read books forever.

3.5 ⭐️

❤️ Small Town
❤️ Interracial (Two POCs)

What do you do when your city life is in shambles? Run away to the family farm in countryside, of course. This story story was cute and had a plot twist that I hadn't read in any other book before. I would totally recommend!

I listened to the audiobook and Wesleigh is my favorite but that British/English accent was a no for me lol. Congratulations to Lucy Eden on her debut. Thank you Eden, Forever, and NetGalley for the audio ARC.

This is romantic dramedy perfection!

Very much heart of dixie meets some sort of vivacious Black female lead, and a yummy Indian male lead.
I do adore the pace of this book. I truly fell in love with the characters and found myself rooting for them during the story.
I appreciate even the third act break up and the way the female main character sits and wallows in some of her fails. As well as community and family coming in to help to lift her spirits.

The steam is a great addition to the couples chemistry!

This narrator is one of my favorites and she excelled once more.

What to expect:
🌾city girl inherits farm
🌾secret family business
🌾long standing chess game
🌾fall festival
🌾Hallmarky farming fails

I was invested in the storyline at the start and loved how Emma stood up for herself, and was determined to carve out a life she was happy with. The romance was sweet, but also moved quickly. I thought the pacing was a little off with things moving fast between them and then little happening but spice once the farm secret was revealed. I'm glad I had forgotten the summary by the time I read this, so the weed farm secret was a surprise for me. I was also surprised to see afterwards that this was actually revealed in the book summary. I think it was more enjoyable not knowing that up front personally. Overall, it was just an okay read for me, though it did have cute aspects

Audio Review
Wesley Siobhan was amazing! The emotion during the break up scene at the beginning *chef's kiss*
It was Wesley's performance that kept me engaged. She is phenomenal

Thank you to hachette audio for this ALC
I loved the premise of this story it's so original and led to both comedy and tender emotional moments.
The FMC was so well rounded funny,smart confident yet vulnerable and not without faults. The romance was a great added extra and the MMC was down sooooo bad. I honestly just loved the plot and the small town aspect -especially a black small town. The supporting characters were excellent and added so much warmth to the story.
Wesleigh Siobhan is my favourite female narrator so I was hooked from the start. She voiced the story so well with multiple characters and accents.

First, I would listen to Wesleigh Siobhan read a phonebook, so I was happy when I was granted the opportunity to listen to this early. As always, her narration was emotional, entertaining, and extraordinary.

However, I found myself straddling between finding this really sweet and enjoying the small town banter and feeling like not much was going on/not quite buying the love story. Not because Emma and Dan weren't appealing characters, but because they moved quite quickly for me and it felt instalove-y despite technically not being such. The spice was a little odd sometimes due to some of my least favorite words being used in those scenes, but that's very much a *me* thing, but I did love how much emphasis was placed on using protection. Emma having friends but being too I'm-a-strong-woman-y to lean on them was exasperating at times—if anything this book highlights how absolutely essential community is because individualism was going to take my sis out the game early!

I felt like the stakes in this novel rested on nothing. I know this takes place in a rural small town, but I don't know many people who would have been scandalized by what was happening on the farm. At least not someone under the age of 35—so Emma's reaction and condemnation walking more on the extreme line her parents walked was…antiquated. And strange for a millennial or gen zer to feel lol. So this subplot—while the fear of the illegality surrounding it is legitimate and real—was simply difficult for me to find scandal in. I also felt the tension between Emma and Dan toward the end was contrived. It didn't make sense to me that someone who always thought far in advance and considered every outcome due to her work made such a rash decision surrounding Dan's past and didn't foresee his reaction. I also felt like his reaction was so…big because they simply didn't know each other well enough to be moving as fast as they were romantically so it fell apart easily.

However, I think Eden is a great author! She did a great job juggling a lot of characters and bringing a resolution to the end. I also thought the small-town, found family aspect was my favorite because while the neighbors did meddle, they weren't overbearing like they can be in similar small-town romance books. I'm very much looking forward to reading more from her!

3.5 ⭐️s
2 🌶️
🚨 Pub Date: 11/12/24

Thank you to Hachette Audio, Forever, and NetGalley for providing an ALC!

Just too much of this story didn't ring true to me. When a big chunk of the book's plot revolves around parenting choices, I shouldn't be surprised to find out that the author has children.

The main plot of an illegal medical marijuana grow-op also just didn't ring true. The idea of its origins was good, but I can't imagine a solid reason why people would continue to travel to a small town in Georgia for illegal THC and CBD when it is legally available in so many places over the last decade. It just all felt fake to me unfortunately.

Emma is a successful businesswoman with a PR career and politically driven boyfriend. However things start going wrong after a trip to her grandparent's hometown for the reading of their will. She finds out that they have left their farm to her. After she returns home, she has a disaster at work and gets fired. This leads her to break up with her perfect on paper boyfriend and a decision to return to the farm to try to start over again. She soon finds the farm and its attractive manager, Dan Pednekar are not quite what they seem.

I really loved this book. Emma and Dan had incredible chemistry from the start and really charming banter. I loved the town and how the people all ended up taking Emma in and making her part of the family. I thought that the town secret was really interesting and heartwarming. Emma's family story really broke my heart but it really contributed to her growth as a character. I have hope that we might get some more stories set in this town in the future. This was my first Lucy Eden book but it will not be my last. Wesleigh Siobhan's narration of the audiobook was so great. She really brought out the charm in the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I quite enjoyed this book, it isn’t something I would usually read but I enjoyed the banter between the FMC and MMC. The narrators were perfect, they captured the relationship perfectly.

This book ended up as a DNF for me. I listened to the audiobook and really struggled with the narrator. It felt like she was all over the place with the accents and I couldn't tell who she was actually narrating at times. It made it difficult to get into the story. I decided to give it a little break after making it 37% of the way through. When I came back to it, I couldn't remember anything that had happened, even after listening to it for a bit, and I found I just didn't care enough about the characters. Perhaps I would have liked it if I had been reading it instead of listening to it.

I received a digital ARC of the audiobook thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.

Audio note: Mixed feelings on the audiobook! Wesleigh Siobhan has a very distinctive voice​, so I do recommend sampling before you commit to listening to the audio. Her performance brings a ton of personality to the heroine's character, and I liked that. I do think this would've been more successful with dual or duet narration, however, as the hero has a British accent and that was rough with this narrator. I couldn't handle 11 hours of that, so I found myself switching to the ebook. The vibes are light enough that this would work as an office listen, though it's longer than I can typically get through in a single day. The story is a slower burn, with what appears to be a minimal amount of spice.


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DNF Details

How far did I get? I listened to an hour or two of the audiobook before switching over to the ebook and then ultimately skimming.

Why did I stop? I was not feeling the story at all, unfortunately. That cover is absolutely adorable and I've heard good things about Eden's writing, but it was clear from the start that this wasn't going to be a win for me. The heroine has a long-term boyfriend when the book begins, yet she's lusting over the hero almost immediately. There are over 200 mentions of her boyfriend throughout the book, so it's not like she dumps him at the beginning and then connects with the hero - the OM drama is present throughout. Definitely not my personal preference to just keep hearing about a past relationship while I'm trying to connect with the new one. The cover gives off such sweet and swoony vibes, I wasn't expecting to encounter that much drama.

Was I enjoying it initially? No, the red flags popped up pretty quickly, and there was no going back after that. Technically speaking, this should be a fun, fish out of water romance, with our city girl heroine re-evaluating her life after inheriting a farm. I was excited to get to that part of the story, but it took a LOT of stops and starts for me to get that far - every time I would try to pick it back up, something would pull me right out again.

Would I finish this? I would not. Looking at other reviews, very few people have rated it as 5 stars, so I'm okay with leaving it unfinished.

Who would I recommend this to? Fans of fish out of water romances who don't mind some OM drama.

3.5⭐️ thank you to hachette audio, forever publishing & netgally for the advanced audio of love in bloom! this small town romance was so fun & a diverting listen. I could not wait to turn this on in the car, no matter how short the drive lol. the narrator, wesleigh siobhan, truly brought emma and dan to life and made them one of the most memorable couples I’ve had to chance to experience this year. My only critique of the audio is that I wish there could have been a male narrator for dan since he is british, and siobhan’s narration at times just wasn’t as convincing.

I loved the diversity within this book and the multicultural love interests. It was so refreshing and has really inspired me to actively seek out authors of color in an industry that is unsurprisingly whitewashed. I definitely did not expect the “twist” in the story, but that element of surprise was fun & unique.

emma’s is undoubtedly one of my favorite romance fmc’s of 2024. she is so strong, resilient & intelligent, but also kind & empathetic. I know she felt like she struggled to navigate the hurdles thrown her way, but she conquered them with grace and poise. idk how my girl did it honestly, between juggling saving the town/her grandparent’s farm, dealing with teddy, salvaging her relationship with her mom, and struggling with her feelings for dan, I know I would’ve broken under all that stress. her “big struggle” I’ll call it, really broke me and had my heart in shambles for her. but like the debutante and chess master that she is, emma always knows how to pull through. then there’s dan. sweet, sweet dan. does a perfecter book bf exist? probably not. from the beginning, he instinctively wants to take care of emma. which emma doesn’t necessarily need as a strong woman, but she does want that deep down because her ex stopped showing her that kind of love long ago. and that is okay to feel as a woman & another reason I loved emma & dan’s story. it was mature & communicative & just so refreshing to listen to as a 30-something year old lol.

there’s so much more I feel like I could yap about, but if you call yourself a romance reader, do yourself a favor & read this book!

A cute, fun, steamy read. My first read by Lucy Eden and I definitely enjoyed. The narrators took it the next level. A must read/listen.

I mostly enjoyed this book. The FMC was a little insufferable at times but I liked her arc overall. The MMC was good, it might have been the narration, but I did not find him realistic sometimes. The narrator overall was fantastic and she did a good job differentiating the characters. I often felt like I was just listening to the conversations the characters had because she was able to immerse you into the world.

This book was not what I thought it was going to be, and I really wish there were ratings on books to let readers know about language and adult content. This was not a clean read. It was full of language and multiple sexual scenes. Although readers are able to skip the explicit scenes without missing information, it is a bit unsettling to have that in the story in the first place.

This was an interesting read as I would not have guessed the town secret, but the story also fell a bit flat. There wasn't so much character development as there was just word dumping and contradicting statements. I felt the relationship with Emma and Dan was very insta-lust and shallow.

I did enjoy the narration of the story and felt the voice actors were a good match for the characters. The narration was honestly what made me listen to this in its entirety when I would have otherwise put it down.
All in all, I don't think this was a bad book, I just don't think I am the intended audience. Thank you, NetGalley and Hatchett Audio, for the opportunity to listen and review this advanced copy.

3.5⭐️

Thank you NetGalley, Lucy Eden & Hachette Audio for this ARC

This audiobook was such a cute spicy small town romance that will have you laughing and blushing as you go. The story focuses on our FMC Emma who is a high flying publicist living in Atlanta. Here estranged grandparents have passed away leaving her their large farm located in the small town of Green Acres and she will soon discover that the town has a secret. As her life starts falling apart in Atlanta she decides to spend some time on the farm to get to know it all (including the hot British head farmer Dan).

Key themes:
- City girl in a small town
- hallmark movie vibes
- family secrets
- grumpy hot farmer