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A review by lauriereadsrom1
If You Love Me by Ciara Knight
4.0
Ciara Knight's "If You Love Me," the first book of the Sugar Maple series, was a funny, cute, and sweet story featuring a number of likeable, amusingly quirky characters and an interesting plot. The central enemies-to-lovers romance between main characters Drew Lancaster and Carissa Donahue was completely clean (kissing only), but still had a nice slow burn feel to it.
Drew came across as somewhat grumpy and off-putting at first, but it soon became apparent that his grumpiness was mainly due to dissatisfaction with his job. Drew worked for his friend and fellow military veteran Knox Brevard, but seemed to spend more time cleaning up Knox's messes than doing real work. He was particularly unhappy about being sent to the small town of Sugar Maple because he didn't think it would help him get any closer to landing a job with a "real" TV network. However, as he got to know the town and its people, Drew came to realize that his priorities might have been out of order, and that he had been putting too much time and energy into work rather than living his life.
Like Drew, Carissa had also put most of her energy into her career in recent years, concentrating on building her bakery from the ground up and leaving very little time for a social life since losing her fiance to her former best friend ten years earlier. I really liked Carissa and empathized with the loss of confidence she faced after her fiance's and best friend's betrayal, but thought she might have held on to the grudge a bit too long. It definitely wasn't doing her any favors to continue looking towards the past rather than the future, but fortunately, Carissa's outlook started to change when her mentor pushed her into participating into a reality show competition to benefit the town, leading to Drew's arrival.
I found the idea of a reality show that would somehow save the businesses in Sugar Maple to be an interesting idea, but I have to admit that I was a bit confused and felt like I missed the explanation of exactly how the show was supposed to work. Was it a competition show where bakers or fashion designers were given challenges and then judged, or were they just trying to highlight the best locally-owned businesses of whatever town Knox and his team chose to feature? It seemed to have some elements of both, but the idea was never fully explained. Also, who exactly was Knox Brevard and why was he famous? Did he have a show on a network like HGTV or the Travel Channel, or was he a YouTuber? Hopefully some of these details can be fleshed out in the next book of the series.
Overall, I think I enjoyed "If You Love Me" mostly because it reminded me so much of a cozy, comforting Hallmark movie. While it was a little predictable, the characters were likeable, and it was a cute, quick story perfect for a single afternoon or evening. I would recommend it for all fans of clean (kissing-only) contemporary romance and will probably continue with the series.
*ARC provided by the author via InkSlingerPR. All opinions expressed are my own.
Drew came across as somewhat grumpy and off-putting at first, but it soon became apparent that his grumpiness was mainly due to dissatisfaction with his job. Drew worked for his friend and fellow military veteran Knox Brevard, but seemed to spend more time cleaning up Knox's messes than doing real work. He was particularly unhappy about being sent to the small town of Sugar Maple because he didn't think it would help him get any closer to landing a job with a "real" TV network. However, as he got to know the town and its people, Drew came to realize that his priorities might have been out of order, and that he had been putting too much time and energy into work rather than living his life.
Like Drew, Carissa had also put most of her energy into her career in recent years, concentrating on building her bakery from the ground up and leaving very little time for a social life since losing her fiance to her former best friend ten years earlier. I really liked Carissa and empathized with the loss of confidence she faced after her fiance's and best friend's betrayal, but thought she might have held on to the grudge a bit too long. It definitely wasn't doing her any favors to continue looking towards the past rather than the future, but fortunately, Carissa's outlook started to change when her mentor pushed her into participating into a reality show competition to benefit the town, leading to Drew's arrival.
I found the idea of a reality show that would somehow save the businesses in Sugar Maple to be an interesting idea, but I have to admit that I was a bit confused and felt like I missed the explanation of exactly how the show was supposed to work. Was it a competition show where bakers or fashion designers were given challenges and then judged, or were they just trying to highlight the best locally-owned businesses of whatever town Knox and his team chose to feature? It seemed to have some elements of both, but the idea was never fully explained. Also, who exactly was Knox Brevard and why was he famous? Did he have a show on a network like HGTV or the Travel Channel, or was he a YouTuber? Hopefully some of these details can be fleshed out in the next book of the series.
Overall, I think I enjoyed "If You Love Me" mostly because it reminded me so much of a cozy, comforting Hallmark movie. While it was a little predictable, the characters were likeable, and it was a cute, quick story perfect for a single afternoon or evening. I would recommend it for all fans of clean (kissing-only) contemporary romance and will probably continue with the series.
*ARC provided by the author via InkSlingerPR. All opinions expressed are my own.