"Hometown Girl" by Courtney Walsh

This book surprised me.  For some reason, I thought it was going to be about someone opening a flower shop.  It's totally not.

It's about a business woman helping her sister renovate and restore a tourist farm/orchard/market/place with the help of a handsome cowboy-ish guy who has a deep, secret connection with the farm.  That involves an unsolved crime. 

You know I love mysteries, so that unsolved-crime aspect sucked me in, and so did all the details about restoring old buildings, setting up raised garden beds, and so on.  I love gardening, I love old buildings... it was definitely my kind of book.

Plus, a little sweet romance and a lot of character growth.  So much character growth.  Overall, I liked it better than Walsh's Paper Hearts, which is interesting because I wasn't expecting to like it as well.  Huh.

(From my Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

Her blue eyes alone could make a man forget his own name (p. 251).

"Find your 'why' and the rest of it -- that will fall into place.  And it'll let you off the hook.  All the things you thought you should have done -- if they aren't a part of your 'why,' then they don't matter anymore" (p. 280).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some kissing scenes and a mystery about a young girl who was abducted years ago.