Title: Montana Cherries
Author: Kim Law
Series: Wildes of Birch Bay #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Novel
Available: Now
After her mother’s tragic death, Dani Wilde had no choice but to abandon her dreams. She left Columbia University and returned to her family’s Montana cherry farm, intent on being a maternal figure to her brothers. Now the kids are grown, and it’s finally her time to fly. Her sights are on New York City, and nothing will stop her—not even an old flame with gorgeous green eyes.
Celebrity photographer Ben Denton hasn’t seen Montana in years—and hasn’t spoken to Dani since “that night” so long ago. When he discovers he’s a dad to a four-year-old—and the child’s mother refuses to care for her—Montana and the Wilde farm spring to mind. The orchard is the only place that’s ever felt like home, but will the warmth of the Wilde family be enough to help Ben figure out how to be a father?
As the Wilde family gathers for the yearly cherry harvest and Dani struggles to figure out what she really wants in life, she discovers the shocking truth about her own mother—and learns that following her heart may lead her to her dreams after all.
Source: Bought it
The third book in this series is about to be released and plenty of early reviews recommend reading this one first, in order to get the full effects of certain characters lives before the events in that book. Well, since it was on offer on Amazon I thought why not. I enjoyed the second book in the series, Montana Rescue, so I was interested to see where it all began.
However, I’m a bit torn about this one, to be honest. I loved Ben and his daughter Hailey and seeing them form a relationship was beyond doubt my favourite part of this book. They’ve both been badly hurt by their mothers (which is definitely a recurring theme in this book) and are also afraid of reaching out to someone new. I loved how their new relationship built and by the end they were amazing together.
Dani plays a big hand in this, so in that way it’s great to have her around. I had quite a bit of sympathy for her, especially at first. It’s clear her family takes complete advantage of her and she gave up her dreams for them.
Or did she? Because the longer the book went on, the harder I found her to like. Yes, she has all kinds of bad stuff in her past and all kinds of reasons for the various things she does, but that didn’t mean I could like her. Particularly because of the way she treats Ben. He is not like everyone else in her life. He listens to her, he helps her, he clearly cares deeply for her, but she’s awful to him, running away from her feelings, shoving him carelessly aside. She dreads being like her mother, which is clearly untrue in many ways, but when it comes to Ben she is definitely selfish and careless with his heart.
At the same time, this book does an amazing job of exploring the effects being raised by a narcissist has on a family. Dani’s issues are sensitively handled and I probably would have liked her more if she hadn’t treated Ben so badly.
So for me this was a good book in many ways, but while the romance had it’s moments, I don’t feel like these two belong together. Ben deserves better and Dani should have had to work a lot harder to prove herself willing to care about Ben’s feelings – and Hailey’s too. Everything is all about Dani and for me that wasn’t the happy ending I was looking for.
Montana Cherries is Out Now.
Visit Kim Law for more details.
