The Bloom Girls by Amy Pine

ARC from Forever Publishing and Netgalley for an honest review.

Book Blurb:

Gabi Bloom doesn’t believe in signs. She believes in photographic evidence, the view through her camera lens, and the snap of the shutter. It’s why she traveled to Europe—to satisfy her wanderlust and to kick off her photography career. But in Ireland, all of that changed when Gabi gazed into the impossibly blue eyes of an American bartender. She wasn’t prepared for their intense and immediate attraction, or the fact that she’d be bringing Ethan home with her . . . as her fiancé.

Gabi’s upcoming marriage is the cherry on top of her mother’s current predicament. Stumbling toward forty, Alissa is a pastry chef who raised her daughter single-handedly while Gabi’s father traveled the globe. Now her baby girl is getting married after a whirlwind romance and Alissa—well, Alissa is pregnant. Again. And not only is her ex the father, he wants her back. For good. Until she can figure out that part of the puzzle, Alissa is hiding her big little secret even as she helps Gabi plan a happily-ever-after wedding. But somewhere between disaster and hope, life might just bloom in a way that is breathtakingly unexpected.

My Review: 4.5 stars

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The Bloom Girls was an absolute treat to read filled with romance, mother-daughter relationships and hysterical family drama. Amy Pine, aka A.J. Pine, is well known for her love and cowboy romances, but here she delves into a Jewish family’s dynamics with smart, relatable humor.

This book sucked me in after just a few pages, and I ended up reading it in a day. I completely related to all the female characters from all the generations. This book has heart, and you could feel the love the characters felt for one another oozing off the page, even when they were untruthful or hurtful to one another.

Pine, a Chicago resident, brings the suburbs of Chicago and city to life. She honors the city with shout outs to Lou Malnati’s, the Botanic Gardens and some other less iconic places in the city. It’s always fun to read about your own town in fiction. I just wish the bakery mentioned in the book was real! Wow, it sounded good.

I read this on my kindle, so I never saw the cover art. As I sat to write this review and pulled up the cover, I was disappointed. It had little relation to the story and nothing that screamed read me! How about Gabi’s camera, the bakery, a pretzel ring, a pregnancy test, Ireland…? Sorry, had to get that off my chest so that no one lets the cover judge the awesomeness inside. The story ends with a “mic-drop”, so the reader knows that book number two is on its way. I can’t wait for it.