Pastor Jack McReady has secretly carried a torch for Daisy for two long years. She’s a member of his congregation, after all, and she’ll never see him as more than a trusted counselor. Jack’s best friend Noah has taken every opportunity to encourage his lovesick friend, but when Noah catches wind that Daisy has joined an online dating site, he takes matters into his own hands and orchestrates a meet-cute of the most unconventional kind.
Owner of the local flower shop, Daisy Pendleton is content with her small-town life, but she’d sure like someone to share it with. After several disastrous first dates, she’s about to give up—and then she finds a seemingly wonderful man online. Daisy gets to know TJ through a series of messages but finds herself spending more time with Pastor Jack outside of the church at the same time. What she doesn’t know is that her online prospect and Jack are one and the same.
Just as Daisy’s love life starts to look promising, a mysterious woman appears in town. Daisy is faced with a revelation about her family that turns her world upside down, and she looks to both TJ and Jack for help.
Jack must find a way to reveal himself as her online suitor without breaking her heart and losing her trust. As Daisy faces Jack’s betrayal, she’ll have to learn to extend grace to herself, her family, and the man she’s grown to love.
On Magnolia Lane is classic Hunter: it’s sweet, romantic with realistic drama built in! I love Hunter’s characters: they feel real, but they aren’t perfect. Perfect is intimidating, right? Jack may see Daisy as a beautiful love interest, but she sees herself in a very different light, and nowhere does “classic beauty” come up. I really enjoy that difference in perspective in Hunter’s books, and it makes her characters come across as fresh, friendly, people-next-door kind of people.
The very best part of this book, to me, was Daisy’s dual-life romances with Jack. The (unintentional) deception, the deepening friendship on both levels, and the potential for trouble at any moment made the sweetness extra exciting. The whole situation was fun to read about, but it was realistic enough that you could see something like that happening in real life, too.
I also enjoyed the family secret and the twists that it brought with it. Mysteries always add spice to a story, and this one added to the spiritual lessons that Daisy’s entanglement with Jack provided.
There were other fun subplots involving other characters of Copper Creek, as well. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I enjoyed them all – and I hope that there are many more books to come in this series.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
What are your thoughts?