Every family has its secrets, and the March family is no exception. For the March sisters, Match Made in Devon, the bridal shop opened and run by their parents, was a real-world representation of what true love was all about. But for eldest sister Alexandra that kind of perfection has always seemed unreachable. Alex has spent over fifteen years in Boston, building up an impenetrable shell of … years in Boston, building up an impenetrable shell of confidence and taking control over her own destiny. If there’s anything missing from her life, it isn’t important anyway. But with her mother’s unexpected death Alex is forced to leave her life in the big city behind and return to her hometown of Devon…and a past she’s been running from for years.
As the March sisters try to salvage the bridal shop their parents loved, Alex is forced to confront her painful past and the real reason she left Devon so many years ago…including childhood sweetheart Jonah Dufort.
Jonah represents everything Alex has tried to forget and conceal. But sometimes secrets demand to be revealed, and when the past returns again in the form of a long-lost sister, it’s a shocking reminder to Alex that even a perfect marriage can have something to hide.
With her world falling apart around her, Alex loses control of the perfect life she has built for herself. Now, the only thing that Alex can be certain of is that things will never be the same.
Bound by fate, three sisters will have to redefine the meaning of family and discover the raw power of forgiveness and love.
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Really enjoyed reading this heartfelt, warm and sweetly engaging journey and looking forward to more from this exciting new series. This journey is about love, forgiveness and family, not only is it as second chance romance but it also is a new beginning for the sisters to become closer and get to know one another. Lots of heart in this very enjoyable read.
Secrets may help or impair people´s lives and cause sometimes cause hurt and despair that lead to unexpected actions. In this story secrets, in the end, brought families together, let dreams come true, and were washed away in a wave of good actions and truthful feelings of respect and trust. Really enjoyed reading.
I downloaded a free copy of this book at NetGalley and this is my honest review.
Loved this book! Alex has to come back to her childhood home due to her mother’s death. Her and her sisters have to take care of her parents bridal shop but trying to be prefect Is hard. Life will never be the same.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is the first book of the series, and I read them out of order. Even though The Butterfly Dream is my favorite, all of the books make a contribution to the complete story of these sisters. When I read the other books I had some trouble with Alex seeming selfish and self-centered. By the end of The Family Wish, she has softened a lot, and I grew to love her character. This book – Our Bridal Shop – focuses more on Alex’s story, and has given me a much greater understanding of her. As they journey throughout the series, these sisters find friendship, sisterhood, love, forgiveness and second chances.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The story is well developed, well thought out and is an enjoyable read. The characters are realistic, relatable and easy to get to know. They deal with heartbreak, family secrets that have come out, and the healing that needs to take place to move forward.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This story is about heartbreak and secrets. It tells us about Alexandra’s and her family’s secrets and heartbreaks and what is taking them to face their secrets and losses and mend their hearts. Can’t wait to read about the rest of the March sisters.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is an interesting story with two sisters and an unknown step sister meeting after the sister’s mother dies and leaves the Bridal Shop they own is willed evenly between the three girls. The author does a good job developing the story and delivers an enjoyable read.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own and freely given.
Instead of a past that left the sisters in very different circumstances and places, the death of their mother gifts the girls with a revised family tree, some hidden history and a few chances for very different future opportunities
Thry make discoveries about the imperfect nature of love- and the joys and pains resulting from those imperfections
Moving love story with lots of family, pain, redefining, loss and gain
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is the first book in The March Sisters Series and it is Alex and Jonah’s story. This is the first book that I have read by Danielle Blair but definitely not the last as it was so well written and a really great story and I look forward to reading the next book in this series. Alex goes back home after her mum died and when Alex and her sister Charlotte to to the will reading they find out that they have another sister Freesia and they have all inherit a share in the bridal shop, and now they need to work together to salvage it as it was the shop that there parent’s loved but will they be able to do it. There are many twists and turns and you have to keep turning the pages to see what will happen next. I recommend that you read this book and you will not be disappointed.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This book was very hard for me to get into. I’m not fond of the division of chapters between characters. I didn’t find any of the characters relatable and didn’t really enjoy their journey.
The cover of this book is so stunning. It was the thing that really drew me to this book. This is, however more than a book with a pretty cover. Its a story about family and what happens when one of the family is gone and what happens when you find out the people that you loved had a lot of secrets. That doesn’t include the secrets the main character is keeping.
Alex isn’t the most easy heroines to love, but she does grow on you after awhile, however not by much. This is a story that you’ll want to stay with because of the other characters. Alex was the sister that grew up and went away from her hometown and moved to Boston. Her life is far from perfect and she’s less than nice to just about everyone, including her high school sweetheart. In fact, the only person she’s really nice to, is Jonah’s young daughter. When a family secret comes out giving Alex and Charlotte a sister they didn’t know they had, she’s really hard to deal with.
There’s a lot of family drama but a lot of humor too, but what life isn’t without stress and humor?
You see Alex grow a lot in this story and really you need to, because she isn’t someone you’d like much unless she did. Her relationship with Jonah’s daughter is really the thing that makes her likable. Plus when you understand what happened in her past things make a little more sense. She’s very goal oriented and a perfectionist, and she learns that being perfect isn’t always what you want to be.
One of my favorite quotes came from her sister Charlotte when she returned home again, after some major upheaval in Alex’s life “The way I see it, home is a soft place to fall and no one questioning you at the bottom.”
I can’t wait to get to know Charlotte and Freesia better in books to come, because even though you saw some things through their eyes, you really want to know them more. I also want to see how Match Made In Devon does under their ownership.
This was really a good read!
4 heartbreaking stars!
This beautiful story have made me cry a lot. More often than not in life when one thing goes wrongly then suddenly all other aspects of your life seem to follow in the wrong direction as well. But every cloud has a silver lining.
I felt so connected to Alex that I was identifying myself with her. It was so heartbreaking and heart wrenching story and I couldn’t put it down once I started to read. And the way the author has build the storyline is something I didn’t expected at all when I turned the first page over. Also words used in this book are something else than I encounter in other books I read, more sophisticated. I need more from the world of March sisters I hope to read soon next books.
Just give it a try you won’t be disappointed.
Match Made in Devon Series:
Our Bridal Shop #1 – Our Bridal Shop – This is my first read by this author. The main character Alex ruined it for me with her continued self-destructive stupidity. There was just too much of her problems and not enough for the other two main characters. I really like the two other sisters and what all three sisters had to go through to become a family.
Several of the supporting characters did well in their roles. The old love interest could have had more background, instead Jonah was stuck too much in the background; same for the younger sister’s husband Nash. Nicely edited, except for several proper nouns being lowercase. I contacted the author to review her book and received it through Booksprout. 3*
The Butterfly Dream #2 – Oh, that Alex! I still dislike her but she gave Charlotte some good advice about having an affair; don’t. This book is better than the first book of the series, but it is much darker. C drove me a little crazy with her abandonment of her husband and children, and then treating her man so shoddily when/after he jumps through all her hoops. When they married, the couple agreed what they wanted and now fifteen years later she’s reneging and leaving him in a bind, part of her making. Jonah and Nash do not deserve the treatment they receive from these two sisters; both are wonderful guys who tolerate a lot of smelly poop from these “women”.
I just hope Freesia is the better of the sisters when it’s time for her story, assuming there is a third book. The storylines are interesting, the characters are growing and a lot of problems surface. After contacting the author to review this book, I received it through Booksprout. 4*
Match Made in Devon Series end.
Wow! Love these type of sagas. This is “Large”! Mega, mega hours of very pleasurable reading. It boggles the mind that the author must have an extraordinary intellect and imagination to set up such a labyrinth of complexity to the story. So many layers to this tale. Story line – excellent. Characterizations – excellent. This novel will take a bit of time to read, however, it is well worth the endeavour!
Recommended Reading.
I voluntarily received an advance review copy of this novel via Booksprout and I am leaving an honest and unbiased review. I have no affiliation to this author.
Our Bridal Shop by Danielle Blair (Match Made in Devon Bridal Shop Book 1) begins after the funeral of Alexandra’s and Charlotte’s mother, Ella. Charlotte notices a stranger at the cemetery, a way off from the rest of the mourners and wonders momentarily who she is but then gets on with it. They next see her at the reading of their mother’s will at the lawyers office where they are each handed a letter written by their father, before he died, over five years earlier. They are then introduced to the young, mixed-race woman they had seen earlier: Freesia Day, who is their half-sister, the daughter of their father. She has inherited 1/3 of the bridal shop that their parents had owned; a bridal shop that is barely holding its own.
Alex is very opposed to having Fressia work in the shop. However, Charlotte wants her around and wants to get to know her.
One day while in the shop Freesia is wearing a dress of her own creation when a Hollywood A lister and her friends come through the shop. They love Freesia’s clothes and want dresses just like them! Alex can’t say no of course. Freesia can’t say no either.
Alex’s old boyfriend is now a windowed. Alex is still in a loveless marriage. Alex has known her marriage was over awhile ago.
The book does have a good story line. However, some of the characters, plot wasn’t necessary.
I did receive a free Goodreads copy in exchange for an honest review.
I enjoyed this well-written, entertaining book. The three March sisters saw the bridal store opened and run by their parents as a real-world representation of what true love was all about. Oldest sister Alexandra (Alex) has always striven for perfection in her own life, and has built a career in Boston. With her mother’s unexpected death she returns to her hometown and has to face the past she ran away from – including Jonah. Alex and Jonah have to interact with each other in the present and also face the secrets of their past. This book can be read as a standalone story, though it is the first in a series. I look forward to reading the next book in the series and recommend this author to others.
Wow! I loved this! Alex returns to her home town after the death of her mother after being away for years. The shell/wall she has built around herself in Boston soon starts to crumble when she gets to her small hometown. She and her sister have inherited the bridal shop, and a secret comes out that shakes her to the core. It brings back memories that he ran from and the boy she left behind. This is at time heart wrenching, yet sweet and shows how you can get love and forgiveness and it just makes you stronger. It’s so good!
Three sisters, struggling to overcome a parent’s betrayal and life’s curve balls. Will everything collapse around them?
Have to say that I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this book. Each sister has their own problems on top of the problems left over from their parents. I liked how this one predominantly focused on one sister, but at the same time gave glimpses of the other two. Really can’t wait for the next book in the series!