Love Blooms on Main Street
Series: Briar Creek #4
By: Olivia Miles
ISBN: 1455567175 (ISBN13: 9781455567171)
Author’s Website: http://www.oliviamilesbooks.com
Review brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra
Synopsis: 
Florist Ivy Birch fantasizes about the day a man will surprise her with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Especially if that man happens to be Brett Hastings. One stolen kiss at her best friend’s wedding and Ivy can’t get the sexy ER doctor out of her head.
In the small town of Briar Creek, you can’t avoid anyone for very long. Not that Brett has been trying to avoid Ivy. He just can’t afford to let anything distract him from his work-not again. So when a hospital fundraiser throws them together, love is the last thing on his mind. But with her quick wit and sweet laugh, soon the one woman he’s tried to keep at arm’s length is capturing his heart.
Review:
Much to my delight, I am loving this series by Olivia Miles. As each story unfolds, I become more engaged with the residents of Briar Creek. I just want to go and live there myself. I was also very delighted that Love Blooms on Main Street was Ivy’s story. She is such a vibrant and strong woman…her love story needed to be told.
Ivy Birch is a successful business woman who owns as well as runs the local flower shop, Petals on Main. She has had a crush on Brett Hastings since grade school. She keeps reliving the one and only kiss the two shared a few months ago at her best friend Grace’s wedding to Luke (Brett’s cousin). When will she ever get over this???
Brett Hastings is a successful ER doctor temporarily taking a break from the big city hospitals and has accepted a job at the local hospital in his home town of Briar Creek. His plan is to find another position and just be in Briar Creek for a brief period of time. Surprisingly, Brett’s boss gives him other duties besides his work in the ER. He must organize the annual fundraiser! And what is a fundraiser without flowers? So Brett must work with the distractingly pretty Ivy.
I love how Ivy is a strong character. She has had a hard life growing up. Both Ivy and her brother Henry had to grow up fast and learn to look out after themselves as their mother was not capable of looking after them. As well, Ivy has kept a life long secret from essentially everyone she is close to…she is diabetic. Now I did ask myself why, but her explanation is reasonable. Certainly not one I would use, but this is her life.
Brett made a mistake (professionally) and now his confidence is shaken. With this change of scenery, he is hoping to regain his confidence as an ER doctor and return to a big city hospital in the near future. Brett has also for years kept people at bay, not wanting to form close attachments. We learn that this probably stems from the fact that his father left the family when he was five years old. Brett was fortunate enough to get scholarships and the opportunity to study at prestigious medical schools. He took these opportunities at the insistence of his mother and brother. But this left him out during an important time in his family history – when his mother was fighting cancer. So needless to say, Brett carries around a boat load of guilt!
So as expected, a sweet and slowly developing love story between Brett and Ivy blossom. I enjoyed how they complimented each other. They learned to confide in each other as true soul mates do. But never fear, no love story is complete without some strife…culminating in a break up. And then the make-up….
One of the stories (think cookies and Kara) with its link to the hospital fundraiser, Brett and Ivy kept my interest throughout and is a great segway for Kara’s story in book #5, Christmas Comes to Main Street. Also, an inspiration in that each of us should strive to follow our dreams. It may not be easy, but is certainly fulfilling.
All in all, a great addition to the Briar Creek Series. A fun filled romantic story set in a great little community with engaging main characters along with a host of chuckle worthy supporting characters. Well done Olivia Miles. I cannot wait for book 5!
