" Love's First Bloom by Delia Parr is is my first book by this author that I have read. Ruth's father, Reverend Livingstone a man determined to reach the wayward, is falsely accused of murdering a prostitute in a brothel house. Ruth is then sent to live with a couple, the Garners, in his group of followers for her protection along with the daughter of the murdered prostitute. Waiting for her father's trial to end so she can return to her father, a tragedy occurs that forces her to stay in Tom's River longer than planned. Living under the guise of being a widower with a small child and needing a place for serenity she finds a perfect place to grow a garden, except for the fact Jake Spencer lives there. In print Jake goes by Ashton Tripp, the reporter who made an egregious mistake in a newspaper article two years earlier by supporting a con-artist who tricked many out of lots of hard-earned money. Now, given the ultimatum of finding the preacher's daughter or having to sell his share of the newspaper, can he stick to his reporter duties and be unscrupulous in his reporting of her whereabouts or will love cloud his mind and lead him in another direction.
Wow, this book really took me a while to read. I enjoyed the characters and the story, I just felt like I couldn't get into the book. It seemed at some points to be a bit far-fetched and at some points very confusing. I also felt like it jumped to some conclusions without giving much detail about them. In my lowly opinion though Ms. Parr writes a story with some gripping twists and turns, I just felt like the story was missing something. "
— Jodie, 12/21/2013