Meet Me On Love Lane by Nina Bocci

Meet Me On Love Lane by Nina Bocci
Published by Gallery Books ISBN 978-1982102043
Trade paperback, $16, 282 pages

This past summer I read On the Corner of Love and Hate,  a sweet romance novel by Nina Bocci.  (My review here) It is set in the small tourist town of Hope Lake, Pennsylvania, and tells the story of Emma Peroni,  who works in the Ecomonic Development Office of the town and is the daughter of the long-serving and popular mayor.

Emma is terrific at her job, and resents her coworker Cooper, the handsome ladies' man her father is grooming to become the town's next mayor. I loved the small town setting of Hope Lake, and coming from a small town, I felt the characters to be realistic portrayals.

So I was happy to find that Bocci has a second novel in what she calls her Hopeless Romantics series, Meet Me On Love Lane. Charlotte Bishop returns to her hometown of Hope Lake after having left with her mother when she was ten years old.

They moved to New York City after her parents' divorce, and 21 years later she comes home after her mother's death and her career as an events planner falls apart. She shows up unannounced at her doctor-father's office, much to his delight and surprise.

Charlotte moves in with her elderly grandmother Imogen, a retired doctor and popular figure in town. People are constantly stopping by Imogen's house to drop off food, run errands, or pick her up for her one of four book club meetings. One of her many visitors is Henry, the high school English teacher.

 Henry also works at the town's bookstore, and runs several book clubs. He is popular with town's residents, from the very young to the more mature. He is single, and seems to be keeping his eye on Charlotte from a distance, yet always there when she needs a ride or a helping hand.

Charlotte reconnects with her best friend Emma, and Nick and Cooper, her other childhood friends. She doesn't recall Henry at all, even though as children they were all thick as thieves. She also meets the hunky Dr. Max, who works with her father and would like to become better acquainted with Charlotte.

With no plan in sight (or money), Emma convinces Charlotte to stay in town and temporarily run a new florist shop. Charlotte is still trying to sort out her conflicted feelings about being back in Hope Lake, her attraction to Dr. Max, and why she can't remember Henry from years ago.

Meet Me On Love Lane is a strong second novel in the Hopeless Romantics series, beautifully picking up where On the Corner of Love and Hate left off. It made me happy to be back in Hope Lake and to meet more of the town's residents. The way Bocci describes the lovely town square, I can picture it clearly in my mind's eye.

I enjoyed that Emma and Cooper also played a prominent role in Charlotte's story, it felt like catching up with old friends, and I liked meeting more of the town. I want to shop at the bookstore, grab some lunch at Casey's, and stop by Late Bloomers to pick up a bouquet of flowers. Give me a terrific love story in a small town, with a local business owner in it and I am all in!

I went to Nina Bocci's website and was overjoyed to see that there is a third novel in the series due in April 2020. I cannot wait to return to Hope Lake then.

If you are a Hallmark Channel fan, Meet Me On Love Lane is the novel for you. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Nina Bocci's tour. The rest of her stops are here:

Monday, December 2nd: Bookchickdi

Wednesday, December 4th: Reading Reality

Thursday, December 5th: Read Love Blog – review and guest post

Friday, December 6th: @lifeinlit

Friday, December 6th: The Sassy Bookster – guest post

Monday, December 9th: @pieladybooks

Tuesday, December 10th: @everlasting.charm

Thursday, December 12th: Audio Killed the Bookmark and @beritaudiokilledthebookmark

Friday, December 13th: @inquisitivebookworm

Monday, December 16th: Blunt Scissors Book Reviews and @bluntscissorsbookreviews

Tuesday, December 17th: Nurse Bookie and @nurse_bookie

Wednesday, December 18th: Hallie Reads

Thursday, December 19th: Girl Who Reads

Friday, December 20th: Tar Heel Reader and @tarheelreader

Monday, December 23rd: From the TBR Pile – review and guest post

Monday, December 23rd: Thoughts on This ‘n That – review and guest post

Tuesday, December 24th: Jathan & Heather – review and guest post

Thursday, December 26th: Openly Bookish

Friday, December 27th: Not in Jersey and @notinjersey

Monday, December 30th: All Roads Lead to the Kitchen

Monday, December 30th: Broken Teepee – guest post

Tuesday, December 31st: Books & Bindings

Thursday, January 2nd: Kahakai Kitchen

Friday, January 3rd: What is That Book About

Monday, January 6th: The Romance Dish

Tuesday, January 7th: Bookish Bliss and Beauty and @bookishblissandbeauty

Wednesday, January 8th: Kritter’s Ramblings

 

Friday 5ive- November 22, 2019

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post where I share five things that caught my attention this week.

1) The fabulous Kristin Chenoweth spent a week at the Nederlander Theatre performing songs from her wonderful CD For The Girls. I love my signed copy that I got when I met her at Barnes & Noble where she shared some great stories with the audience. Her show was amazing, and she had special guest stars at each performance. We were lucky enough to get gospel singer CeCe Winans, who sang one solo song, and then she and Kristin blew the roof off the theatre with their duet of How Great Thou Art. Kristin performed a duet with the current Glinda from Broadway's Wicked (Kristin was the original Glinda) and then she invited a young woman from the audience to come up and sing a duet of Popular with her. The seventeen year-old was astonishing. I'll have more in a future blog post, but let me say, if Kristin Chenoweth is performing near you, you must go see her. For The Girls is on constant repeat at my apartment- I adore it!

2) On Sunday, I was invited to go to an Escape Room with my daughter-in-law, nephew's wife, and another nephew's girlfriend. I'd never done an escape room before, but these women were veterans. You are locked in a room and have to figure out a set of clues that lead you to another set of clues and on and on until you solve all the clues or your time of one hour is up. The scenario was that we had to solve the clues to save humanity from destruction, and let me tell you, forget Tom Cruise or Will Smith- if we need to save the world, get these young women. I was in awe as they ran around,worked together and figured it all out with eighteen minutes to spare. They could have taken a coffee break and still saved the world. It was fun and next time I hope to be of more (any?) help.

You're welcome humanity

3) The sign of the week caught my eye as I was running errands. I saw this in the front door of an apartment building. I think one of the occupants is hoping to get some of that $1000 a month Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is promising voters. Good luck.

4) I read two books this week. The first was Amaryllis Fox's memoir Life Undercover- Coming of Age in the CIA about her days as a young undercover operative in the CIA. I found the life she led intriguing, particularly in light of the testimony of the diplomatic and national security people we heard this week. These people are loyal to our nation and to our national security. There are so many young analysts and undercover agents working hard to keep us safe, and they sacrifice much to complete their missions. I give this one a solid B.

I'm in the middle of Nina Bocci's romance novel Meet Me on Love Lane, the second in her Hopeless Romantics series of books set in the Pennsylvania tourist town of Hope Lake. (The first one was On The Corner of Love and Hate.) In this one, Charlotte comes back to Hope Lake after a twenty year absence to try and figure what her next life move should be. Her father is the town doctor, her best friend Emma is head of the Community Development Office, and there are two men who could be her love interests. It's a sweet story, and if you live in a small town or just wish you did, this is a great series of books for you. I'll post a full review on December 2nd. 

5) I've been bingeing the first two seasons of Netflix's The Crown, about the life of Queen Elizabeth II. Claire Foy is brilliant as the young Queen, I can see why she won all the awards that she did for this role. John Lithgow is always stellar, and he shines again as Winston Churchill. I found Princess Margaret's (beautifully played by Vanessa Kirby) story moving, perhaps because I just finished a novel, The Other Windsor Girl, recently and enjoyed it. I can't wait to get to the newly released season three. Are you watching?  

The first two seasons are on DVD

Thanksgiving is less than a week away- are you ready?