If You Choose Me

If You Choose Me is another in the sweet Sugar Maple series. Ciara Knight is one of my favorite writers of hope and love, friends and family. Bringing to us with the then stigma of unwed motherhood, mixed with a difficult family situation. Shirley joins the Bessler family hiding with her daughter, trying to find a new and settled life. Mix in Wayne, the journalist, sent to get the ‘scoop’ on the Besslers and their house full of adopted children.

Both Wayne and Shirley have secrets and difficult childhoods, although very different, but still not easy lives. Place them in adorable Sugar Maple, Tennessee at the same time and they have a fighting chance. Knowing Rosie and Victor’s background from If You Keep Me, Wayne and Shirley are surrounded by loving, caring, encouraging people.

This is a light-hearted, with a few difficulties, uplifting romance to warm your toes as you continue to believe in faith and love. Although this is one of the pre-quals, I have read each as it has come out, so kind of out of order. All are stand-alone books and can be read in any order without becoming confused.

This novel goes back to Post World War II era, and finds Shirley Stephens taking a job as a nanny to a family of five children. Rosie and Vincent are adopting street children who have had no family to speak of but have become a family among themselves. Shirley is an unwed mother who takes on the guise of being a war widow to take the job as nanny. Who she truly is and who her family wants her to be is what she's running from. As she arrives in Sugar Maple, Tennessee, a man arrives at the same time, Wayne Bishop, who is a journalist writing a "feel good" story for the newspaper in Detroit.

Ciara Knight takes the reader on a rather comedic journey to the happiness she's trying to portray in this novel. The people who populate the town make for some fun reading. Mrs Slaughter runs the boarding house and is a not-so-subtle matchmaker. Rosie builds furniture, Vincent runs a general store, Wayne is trying to write a story for the Valentine's Day paper, but trying to keep his real purposes for being in town under his hat. Shirley is hiding her daughter and herself from her New York Society family. Shirley's two year old daughter, Beth, falls for Wayne in a big way, calling him "Daddy" in spite of Shirley's attempts to teach her otherwise.

The sweetness of the name of the town portrays the sweetness of the novel. Wayne goes out of his way to figure out what the hold-up is in the oldest child, Davey, being able to be adopted. When he does that, he exposes Shirley's secrets and puts her in an untenable situation where she feels she has to leave to protect Rosie, Vincent, and Beth.

This is an enjoyable read that earns four strong stars.

Author Collective 20 and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Wayne works for the paper and was directed to this small town to report about the family that adopted 5 kids. But on the bus he was close to a woman and small child and had no idea what was in store for him. Shirley has a huge secret but she can only think about getting far away from her parents and her "sin" but when Wayne keeps showing up she has nothing but love for him. Can both there secrets make them stronger.

In this sweet, Hallmark-style story, neither the disgraced socialite Shirley nor former World War II news correspondent Wayne is honest about their past—or their present, for that matter. Shirley seeks to begin a new life for her and her daughter by taking a job as a nanny for the Bessler family in the Tennessee town of Sugar Maple, the setting for the Sugar Maple series. Contrary to Shirley’s expectations, the Besslers welcome her, not as a servant, but as a member of the family. Meanwhile, boarding house matron, Mrs. Slaughter, covertly teaches the young nanny some much-needed cooking skills, while doing a little matchmaking between boarder Wayne and her cooking pupil.

Then secrets are exposed. Secrets that threaten to doom not only the budding romance, but the lives Shirley and Wayne have begun to rebuild amidst the kindness and grace of the Sugar Maple community.

The story made me want to live in Sugar Maple, so I could get to know Shirley, Wayne, Mrs. Slaughter, and the Besslers better. At times I felt a little surprised by the characters’ responses, as if I didn’t know them quite well enough. However, this may have been due to not being familiar with other books in the series. Overall, I enjoyed my visit to Sugar Maple, and hope to visit there again through other books in this series.

I'm a sucker for small town stories where people rally to protect and defend their neighbors. This is what happens in this small TN town after WW2. It was uplifting and a quick, fun read!

I received a free ARC eBook from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for my honest opinions.

This is a novel not to miss I am so glad that I didn’t. I have so enjoyed the contemporary romances that are a part of Sugar Maple, Tennessee but I loved If You Keep Me. Now If You Choose Me by Ciara Knight goes back in time to that favorite place of mine - Sugar Maple, right after WWII. There is no going back to the life before the war with changing roles and perspectives building in the United States. A hard and often harsh time but also an exciting one. These people are known as the greatest generation for a reason, no where more evident than small town Sugar Maple, Tennessee. This may be the last place expected to be moving forward.

Shirley Stephens (Malone) comes to Sugar Maple to take a job that she is ill trained to do as nanny and housekeeper for the Besslers. (If you haven’t read their story in the first post WWII story, you owe it to yourself to do so.) Hard worker, with a strong willingness to learn puts Shirley in good standing along with her little sweetheart Beth. Running from those who should have loved and supported her she blossoms in Sugar Maple. Former war correspondent, Wayne Bishop also comes to Sugar Maple, becoming a part of the community as quickly as Shirley does. Both of these individuals need acceptance, love, and purpose to feel safe enough to reveal their secrets. An unexpected twist near the end brings events quickly to a turning point. I so appreciated how the story shows that nothing is simple coincident but really the plan of God at work.

Now I will need to go back to the contemporary stories to see if Beth is still in Sugar Maple. Davey is so she may be too. I will be looking closely at those older woman now. If You Choose Me is a book for everyone. All will enjoy coming home to Sugar Maple, past or present.

An ARC of the book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley which I voluntarily chose to read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This felt like a quite predictable plot. The story was encouraging but had no suspense. It was predictable. There were some parts that showed encouragement to follow truth and openness.