Meet Me on Love Lane
By: Nina Bocci
Published Year: 2019
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pages: 304
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this book.
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Charlotte Bishop is out of options in New York City. Fired, broke, and blacklisted by her former boss, she’s forced to return to her hometown of Hope Lake, PA to lick her wounds. Although she’s expecting to find a miserable place with nothing to do, she is pleasantly surprised to discover it is bustling and thriving.
She’s only supposed to be in Hope Lake temporarily until she can earn enough money to move back to New York. She’s not supposed to reconnect with her childhood friends or her beloved grandmother. She’s not supposed to find her dream job running the local florist shop. And she’s definitely not supposed to fall for not one but two of Hope Lake’s golden boys: one the beloved high school English teacher, the other the charming town doctor.
With a heart torn between two men and two cities, what’s a girl to do?
First Impressions
I read the first book in the Hopeless Romantics series, On the Corner of Love and Hate, just recently and enjoyed it. I looked forward to living with these characters a little bit longer, so when I saw there was a sequel I was in. I also loved this cover so much.
What I thought
This book was so much stronger than the first one! I really enjoyed this story and cannot wait for the next one.
Charlotte returns to Hope Lake for the first time in 20 years after being fired from her job in New York. Her mother moved her away when she was a child and never let her back to visit, causing Charlotte to block out pretty much every memory she had growing up there as a child. When she does return, she has negative feelings towards Hope Lake and doesn’t expect to reconnect with her childhood friends, let alone fall in love.
I liked Charlotte a lot. I don’t know exactly what it was that I liked about her, but I connected with her more than Emma. I am, admittedly, a bit of a sucker for romance novel series in which old characters come back in a new story. I loved that in this one Emma actually had a decent sized role. She is Charlotte’s only friend when she gets back to town and I liked how she manipulated a lot of what was going on.
I also loved Henry in the first book, so I was really excited that this story included so much of him too. It was fun to learn more about him and I immediately felt the connection between him and Charlotte. The side characters and stories felt much stronger in this story than the first which I appreciated. Charlotte’s grandma was great and it was fun to see some of her friends carry over too.
I love when books in a series get stronger with each one. I am really excited to read the 3rd book in the series and can’t wait to see what characters pop up next. If you like romantic stories, I would highly recommend checking this series out. It’s more along the rom-com line in that it doesn’t have a lot of physical romance, if you know what I mean. So if you love love but don’t love sex, this would be a romance series for you.