Weekend Reads #114 – The First Kiss of Spring by Emily March

Happy Saturday y’all! Spring is finally here 😀 The weather is beautiful, the rain has held off, and I’ve spent the last several days outside getting the garden and flower beds ready for planting. I’m loving this weather!!! This week’s Weekend Read is a sweet, contemporary romance about family and redemption. If you enjoy that, I highly recommend it….though you might need a box of tissues while read 😉

The First Kiss of Spring by Emily March
Series: Eternity Springs #14
Published by St. Martin's Press on 2018-02-27
Length: 9hr and 53min
Reviewing Audiobook from Audible
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2018 Audiobook Challenge, 2018 New Release Challenge

Spring has come to Eternity Springs in the newest installment in this New York Times bestselling series by Emily March.

When Josh Tarkington gets stuck on a gondola with the lovely Caitlin Timberlake, he thinks his consistently bad luck might have changed.

After their blossoming romance is interrupted, Caitlin realizes that her encounter with Josh was a sign that she needed to make a major life change. So she packs up her things and moves to Eternity Springs, opens a day care, and sets her cap for the town’s mechanic—Josh.

But Josh is hiding a well of secrets that would ruin him, and his relationship with everyone in Eternity Springs—especially Caitlin. When tragedy strikes, Josh and Caitlin find themselves, and their relationship, tested beyond imagining. Will they be able to find their way back to each other?

The First Kiss of Spring by Emily March is the 14th book in Eternity Springs and the first that I’ve read. Set in a small Colorado town, I found myself charmed by the people and open to the sweet romance the book seemed to promise. However I wasn’t prepared for the heart-aching story of redemption.

Caitlin Timberlake is the youngest of the Timberlake clan and, if you ask her mother, the most successful. An interior designer in New York, on the surface Caitlin has it all. Yet she is missing something. Once home she realizes what it is – home and a family to call her own. She’s been following her mother’s dreams and not her own. I respect that Caitlin knows what she wants and goes for it. It was refreshing to read a character that was so driven. She’s determined to move back to Eternity Springs and start a daycare. The mechanic is a bonus 😉

Josh Tarlington is not at all what I expected. He is dead set against a relationship of any kind. But he can’t seem to get Caitlin out of his mind. SO he is upfront and honest with her from the start. He will not commit to a relationship, not with her or anyone. I found his honesty refreshing. As the reader, we get glimpses into his past through journal entries and letters. I was not expecting the dark turn in his story. It’s heartbreaking and I ached for him.

The First Kiss of Spring is more than a romance. It’s a story about people with real-life problems, goals and ambitions. I loved the meet-cute between Caitlin and Josh. I love her determination from the start that Josh is her one, how she pursues him despite his own warnings that he won’t commit. It was different than other contemporary romances I’ve read. I loved the setting of spring too. Spring is a promise of rebirth after a long dead winter. It mimics Josh and Caitlin’s story perfectly.

Overall I enjoyed The First Kiss of Spring. While it can be read as a standalone in the Eternity Springs, I don’t recommend it. I recommend reading from the start as I suspect there is some world-building I missed surrounding the town and characters. Plus there will be spoilers in the story to previous books as characters crossover and appear here. If you enjoy small-town romance, I highly recommend it.

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