Love Blooms at Mermaids Point" by Sarah Bennett totally swept me away! Set in the charming coastal town of Mermaids Point, this contemporary romance follows Laurie and Jake, childhood friends who reunite during a family crisis. The chemistry between them is off the charts as they team up to save the local pub.

I absolutely loved the heartwarming reunions, the emotional rollercoaster of their journey, and the tight-knit community vibes throughout the story. Bennett's writing perfectly captures the essence of small-town life and the power of love and second chances.

From adorable moments of reconnecting to the heart-pounding obstacles they face, every page had me hooked. It's the kind of book that makes you believe in love all over again, and I couldn't get enough of Laurie and Jake's story!

"Love Blooms at Mermaids Point" is a must-read for anyone who enjoys sweet romances with a coastal backdrop and characters you can't help but root for. Trust me, you won't be able to put it down!

I’ve tried to start this book twice but I’m thinking it’s not for me. I’ve not read the previous two books in the series and maybe that’s why. Or maybe it’s the main characters that I couldn’t connect with. I’m not sure but there’s no point in trying to continue.
I’m happy to see that lots of people have enjoyed it though. Thanks for the opportunity.

I read the Mermaid's Point series out of order, so I am now finishing it up. I am really going to miss this series, I've enjoyed it quite a bit, meeting the characters, having them carry over into other books, the location of the seaside is so relaxing. The author really makes this into a place you're ready to come and visit.
The book is an emotional page turner. With Alex Nelson going through a job change he relocates to Mermaids Point at the suggestion of his older brother who also lives there. When he gets the great idea to buy an old rundown bookshop from the owner who is retiring, he has his blessings to redesign it to suit his fancy. Will it be just what Mermaids Point needs or a bust?
Ivy is a creative woman designing clothing and toys and the bookshop would be the perfect place to sell her designs. When that falls through, she feels the loss even more so because she has the goods strewn about her home and her mother's bedroom whom she misses terribly after her loss.
I loved seeing how Alex and Ivy's romance plays out. They are such a wonderful couple. Heartwarming and gentle this emotionally moving story is a real winner. I'm looking forward to starting the next series she's putting out.

Pub Date 16 Mar 2022
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

Great to be back in Mermaids Point and catch up with all of the characters. Ivy and Alex are the focus of this book and as usual it is a lovely feelgood book in a beautiful setting, Mermaids Point is definitely somewhere I would like to live, full of likeable relatable characters and a book that that makes you feel happy

I was happy to be back at Mermaid's Point again in this lovely, cute, emotional, feel good story. I really enjoyed the book, and it left me feeling uplifted.

This time, Ivy and Alex's story is at the forefront. Ivy's Mum has passed away, and we are all right behind her as she tries to come to terms with this, as well as some upset from her Dad. Alex comes to help her, and we are then shown how the two of them get on.

It was nice to catch up with all the Mermaid's Point characters again, and I am now excited to read the next book in the series, to see what happens next. Highly recommended!

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

I couldn’t agree more that this is ’An absolutely gorgeous book’. I too loved it from start to finish. I struggled to put it down, and when I finished it, I felt a little empty – ready to read it again!

What better way to herald the rapid approach of spring. If you haven’t read any of this series, then this book about the village of Mermaids Point can be enjoyed as a standalone novel. However, if you haven’t read any of this series yet, you lucky thing. I envy you the opportunity to be able to indulge yourself by reading the other books in this series for the first time; an opportunity that I will never have again! This new book will inevitably serve a rather large helping of joy, from start to finish, which is what I have come to expect from Sarah Bennett’s books, such is the quality of her work.

In a world of OK books, Sarah delivers the impossible very time, with each new book somehow surpassing its predecessor. I find myself wanting to be enveloped by their pages, the more immersed I become in each story or series. Furthermore, Sarah continues to delight (me at the very least), every time she introduces a new addition to a series of books; in a world where there is so much wrong taking place at the moment, I am not going to hesitate to grasp some happiness in a literary form, by reading a book by Sarah Bennett and in fact when I have finished reading this novel, I may then re-read the previous episodes in this series as a refresher. I have said on more than one occasion that life is too short to spend time reading books you don’t love – so take from that what you will!
I was thrilled to see that this book was going to concentrate on Ivy Fisher’s story. What a beautiful name, straight from the annals of Beatrix Potter. Ivy has shown herself to be beautiful on the inside, as well as having a beautiful sounding name, in previous books, for example when she stepped up to repair Tom’s Daughter Emily’s precious blanket. This blanket had been made by Emily’s late Mother and Ivy stepped up without preamble and repaired some damage to it, in a truly selfless moment. Emily repaid the sentiment when she sent the blanket to Ivy’s Mother’s funeral ’in case Ivy got cold’. Surely even the hardiest of souls couldn’t fail to be moved by that hugely symbolic gesture.

The characters in Mermaids Point has grown both in number and complexity, so I found it useful to read the cast list at the start of the book, in order to refresh my memory. The list was very detailed, even including cats, and it became my mission to find a character who had been omitted from the list.

Alex proves his worth as a friend, on the day of Ivy’s Mother’s funeral, by turning up at Ivy’s place and pronouncing himself her designated shoulder for the day including snot!

It felt as though I had a head start with this novel, in that Alex and Ivy already have a firm place in my affections, so I don’t need to get to know them. rest assured though, this pair are new to you and you haven’t read enough about them, they very soon will claim their rightful place in your emotions.

I loved the way that Ivy’s closest friends performed a kind of human shield around her as she walked to the funeral; a sign of peoples affection towards her. It was marred somewhat by the attempt of Ivy’s estranged Father to join the ambulatory procession with his partner. The protective stance continued at the pub afterwards; the sense of loyalty and protectiveness was all pretty moving to me and a reliable indication of the kind of good, honest people that inhabit Mermaid Point on the whole.

It felt like such a shame to me, that Ivy might ever doubt Alex’s intentions, although perhaps the past behaviour of men in her life – namely her Father – have left her feeling that good intentions from the opposite sex are simply too good to be true? Yes Alex is interested in the old bookshop, but Ivy has never professed her own interest in the shop to anyone, so she can’t possibly expect anyone else to honour that secret interest. I can only hope that she starts to see Alex’s good intentions again before she turns him away permanently.

Ivy has a habit of storing any problems she has in a metaphorical box in the attic of her mind. However, I am of the opinion that such boxes ideally need to emptied every so often, or in this case, at least the pressure released, in order to avoid any kind of emotional explosion.

Pressure on Ivy might also be released, were she to talk to Alex. Equally Alex might find his problems would ease, were he to have a proper conversation with his publisher, Immy. Regardless, it felt as though both their problems were starting to escalate out of control. Ironically Alex and Ivy clearly like each other, and they are both wanting the same thing in life. I was really starting to feel as though I wanted to bang their heads together, to make them talk to each other, before they end up having a terminal fall out.

Such is the realism if the writing, that these two main characters were really coming to life for me and I found myself caring deeply shout what happened to them. Conversely I was not warming to Immy, Alex’s editor at all and I wondered about the morality of her motives at times.

I must confess to a heart in mouth moment, when it appeared as though Ivy’s Father still may have a stake in her Mother’s cottage. One could only hope for the discovery of some newer papers, or that the leopard that is Ivy’s Father had truly changed his spots! I must confess at this point though, thst I felt surprisingly sorry for Wendy, Ivy’s Father’s girlfriend. Whilst at times she had seemed demanding, I couldn’t help but feel thst she had been wronged by Kevin to a certain extent. Who knows – maybe Ivy and Wendy could become allies in the future, if they ever saw eye to eye?

Any vague sympathies I may ever have had for Ivy’s Father, Kevin, pretty soon vanished, the more apparent that it became that he was incapable of being honest with anyone, let alone Ivy. Not being one to give up on anyone, this did sadden me a little.

The further this novel progressed, the more I found myself liking Alex and his idiosyncrasies, but the thing that I found really cute (something I confess to doing too), was the way that when he needed to get something done (writing his book) he would seemingly find 101 other things that ‘need’ doing more importantly (e.g watching the DaVinci code, eating leftover chinese takeaway). He is truly the King of finding an irrelevant distraction, in a most endearing way! I must confess to wanting to hug Alex when he suggested that Ivy uses some space at the book store when he buys it. But will that be enough for Ivy, when she had dreamed of owning it herself?

This story starts to pose so many questions:

Will Ivy and Alex find love?
Will Ivy be happy with using space in what would be Alex’s shop?
How will Ivy feel when she finds out about Alex’s writing career?
Will Kevin really put ivy’s home on the market straight away.
I really don’t want to give away too much, so In order to find out the answers to these questions and more, you will need to read this wonderful book for yourself.

I’m really enjoying the Mermaids Point books. The sense of community is so strong and Sarah’s writing gets better and better. The characters in this book become alive to the reader . This is Alex and Ivy’s story plus a catch up with previous characters. Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended - a gem of a book
Thank you to Netgalley, Boldwood Books, and Sarah Bennett for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review

A real feel good book
Love this series
You just want to move there to be with Ivy and Alex
Can’t wait for the next in this series
Thanks NetGalley

I have been a fan of Sarah’s books for a while now. I haven’t quite caught up with everything that she has written but I hope to rectify that fairly soon. I have a particular fondness for the series set in ‘Mermaids Point’. I read and loved he first three books in the series and so when I heard Sarah was due to release a fourth book in the series, then I knew that I had to grab a copy and read it as soon as I possibly could. Well ladies and gents, I managed to get hold of a copy and I can definitely say that it’s a cracker of a read and then some. I adored reading ‘Love Blooms At Mermaids Point’ but more about that in a bit.
I was initially drawn to this book by the bright and breezy cover, which sounds very superficial. Looking at the cover both cheered me up and enticed me into the story. As soon as I started reading the story itself, I knew that I wasn’t going to be doing anything other than reading for the rest of the afternoon. I warmed to the lead characters from the start and I ended up feeling as though they were friends of mine, so of course I had to keep reading to see how the story panned out for them and whether or not they got the ‘happy ever after’ ending that they so deserved. I couldn’t turn the pages of the book quickly enough as I seemed to charge through the story. At one point I was turning the pages so quickly that it was almost as if they were turning themselves and the page numbers became a blur. I became so wrapped up in the lives of the main characters and in the story that I lost all track of time and just how quickly I was getting through the story. All too quickly I reached the end of the book and I had to say goodbye to Alex, Ivy and the rest of the characters. I found ‘Love Blooms At Mermaids Point’ to be a delight to read from start to finish. A lovely story in a lovely setting with lovely characters.
‘Love Blooms At Mermaids Point’ is superbly written but then I have come to expect nothing else from Sarah Bennett. Sarah has one of those easy going writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. In fact reading one of Sarah’s books feels more like a chat between friends rather than reading a book. I hope that makes sense. For me, the story started in a sad way with the funeral of Ivy’s Mam but from then on the story proceeded at a gentle pace and took on more of an uplifting feel to it. Sarah clearly cares about her characters and this shines through in the very vivid way in which she describes them. She describes them so realistically that they seem just as real as you and I. I love the way in which Sarah makes the reader feel as though they are part of the story and at the heart of the action.
In short, I adored reading ‘Love Blooms At Mermaids Point’ and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Sarah’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

A return to Mermaids Point where Alex and Ivy want to take over the new shop.
Alex is the doctors brother and wants to turn the shop into a bookshop and Ivy wants home to showcase her refurbished furniture. Can they devise a plan to keep them both happy, will the past and family secrets ruin their plans and make life difficult?
I was really invested with the characters and the idea of a bookshop and need to go back and read more of this series.

Enjoyable, small town read. 3rd in the series, but starting here wasn't a problem for me. I'd read another by this author.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

This continues the series based around Mermaid's Point and centres this time on Ivy and Alex. Always nice to catch up with familiar characters, Ivy is quite quirky and individual with serious trust issues, caused in part by her father. Ivy has recently lost her mother so is at a vulnerable stage in her life but Alex seems to understand that she needs space and gentle support. He has his own reasons for wanting to relocate to Mermaid's Point and to take on a new challenge so for much of the story, he keeps his writing low key. You can see how well suited they are but patience is needed!

Full of warmth and family loyalties, all the usual ingredients of the series are there. Friendship is also key and it is heart-warming to see how the Morgan family rally around Ivy. It has been a really enjoyable and relaxing read with a setting I can visualise. Sarah Bennett is known for her happy ever after stories but you do seriously wonder just when Nick will get his. I am guessing that the next in the series might just be his turn!

In short: Can Ivy trust again?
#blogtour

We begin with an ending, and end with a new beginning.

When first we meet Ivy, she's reeling from great changes in her life...not great as in wonderful, either. We see her at her lowest, her heart in hibernation, and her feelings on display for the world...but thank heavens for the small town she lives in. Small towns walk a fine line because everyone knows everyone and is in everyone's business, but when one of their own is wronged or in despair, they come together in spades to help, support, and show they care. Such is the case for Ivy...including some unexpected attention from newish arrival in town, Alex. He's easy on the eyes, is debating the purchase of a bookstore (be still my heart!) and is there for her, and only her, on this dreary gray day, but that's something she hasn't had outside of her departed mother for a very long time. It's hard to trust in the best of times, let alone the worst. Then again, Alex has his own trust issues which come to the surface at the worst possible time (of course!), but in the end, they'll come to realize just how strong they both are to not only pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but allow someone else to truly see them.

This was a novel filled with heartache, despair, surprises, endings, and new beginnings in so many ways. It shared the emotions we all feel at some point in our lives and the myriad of ways we can cope, but inadvertantly reveals the promise of a new day, the chance to change our own stars, and the strength that comes from not only knowing ourselves, but sharing that with others. The author has created a wonderful community that reacts and acts much as you'd expect them too as things progress, even including a little well deserves retribution for the town gossiper, but she also manages to remind us that in all things, it never hurts to be kind. A great read for Women's Fiction fans, as well as Contemporary Romance readers.

Set in Mermaids Point this book is great
As two friends learn how to trust in fate.
There are upsets and hiccups along the way
But fingers crossed that love will save the day.

This is a lovely contemporary romance
About learning to trust and give love a chance
It starts with the funeral of Ivy's Mum
And the support given by Alex her chum.

Alex is a secret best selling author who
Is struggling to write his next book, too.
He's decided to buy a bookshop where
He hopes he can settle to a new life there.

Her Mother's death leaves Ivy upset
But there's worse news for her to come yet!
Her life is changing but she's unsure just how
And what on earth will she do now?

Secrets and surprises, family dramas, too,
All play a part in this lovely read I recommend to you.
The characters are brilliant and feel like friends
And the community is there for each other right to the ends.

For my complementary copy of this book, I say thank you,
It's a great addition to his lovely series and this is my honest review.

Sarah Bennett is one of my very favourite authors. She writes wonderful series full of interesting, fully-formed and believable characters in glorious settings (her Butterfly Cove series remains one of my all-time faves). The Mermaids Point series is yet another success and pulls together everything that makes the perfect book in this genre. I thoroughly enjoyed following Alex & Ivy’s story while also hearing from other residents of The Point and catching up with the goings on in their lives since the last book. I’m hoping there’s another couple of books still to come in this series (especially a happy ending on the horizon for Nick! And maybe a wedding or two to come).

What a truly stunning read this book is and Sarah never fails to disappoint. Heart warming and beautifully written.

Another fabulous installment in this series. Love the characters but also love the scenery and the community spirit.

I received this book as an ARC, and I chose to read it because I really like the author’s writing style and characters. I also have enjoyed two other books in this series and was curious to see how this particular character’s happily-ever-after would unfold. I mentioned this in the very beginning because I went into this book with this bias, and it coloured my entire reading experience. I would actually recommend reading this separately or before the others because it does not matter much when it comes to ‘secrets’. Having already read about the others, I was not as awed by the story here.

The author has written in her usual interesting way; the people are three dimensional. Their issues come through, and the reader is actively left cheering for the lead couple. The problem was that the plotline of this story was already introduced in the previous work. Except for the addition of renovation work and the antics of a cat and a crazy ex, there was not much more added to the story.

Ivy is trying to get used to the new normal in her life. Her mother has been ailing for a while, and it was bound to happen sooner rather than later, but it is still hard. I felt for Ivy and could see her struggle. On the other end, Alex is trying to break through his writer’s block by doing something new. This is when their paths properly cross. Given that the entire cast is interlinked in one way or another, it is impossible for them to avoid one another. They work well together, and it was a pleasant read with the usual twists.

I would recommend it to readers of this genre and fans of the author, but my rating reflects where it stands on the series ranking.

Another lovely instalment from Mermaids Point.
I reviewed this via Rachel's Random Resources and Boldwood Books.

We are back in Mermaids Point, and I for one have truly missed being there, we get to see all of our old favorites, but this time we get the Story of Ivy Foster, if you have read any of the series before, you remember that she was the seamstress that came and saved the day when a blanket was torn. But in Love Booms, we find ourselves in the middle of a sad time for Ivy; as heartbreakingly her mother passes on and Ivy is faced with the possibility of seeing her father and dealing with the house all by herself, but then at the doorbell rings and there stand Alex, ready to be a shoulder to cry-on and the person to protect her.

But Alex is not just a friend and the object of her hidden desire, he becomes a business partner of sorts, but Alex has secrets of his own, ones that he wasn't ready to reveal, but ones that were unfortunately revealed for him, but where does that leave Alex and Ivy?

I don't know if it's me that's just been dying for this book since Autumn Dreams, but from the moment Alex met Ivy in the doorway of the kitchen, the sparks just flew, but oh! nothing truly prepared me for how their story truly was and just how much I came to love this book.