View source for Cherry Blossom Boutique by Brooke Adams

{{infobox1
|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique
|author=Brooke Adams
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=#
|rating=3
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Maybe
|pages=104
|publisher=Troubador Publishing
|date=November 2020
|isbn=
|cover=B08NF79QXT
|aznuk=B08NF79QXT
|aznus=B08NF79QXT
}}
Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award.  She's delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn't be more pleased.  Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and their four-year-old daughter, Ava.  Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.

Two years ago - and after a three-year relationship - Daniel dumped her by text.  He runs a small building company but doesn't seem to have a lot of ambition, something which is alien to Liberty.  There was an added problem in that Daniel was also a heavy drinker.  You might think that Liberty's well out of the relationship but Daniel had a sexual charisma that Liberty still finds hard to resist.

A new man comes into Liberty's life.  He's Tom Anderson, a good-looking silversmith in his late thirties.  There's a definite spark between them but the relationship is thrown off course when Daniel makes an unexpected re-entry into Liberty's life.  Will Liberty be able to resist Daniel - and can she put him behind her sufficiently to make the relationship with Tom work?

I got cross with Liberty on occasions: ''just tell Daniel to get lost'' was what I wanted to shout but then most women have had that bad boy that they just can't resist in their lives and Liberty cannot resist Daniel.  Tom Anderson's a one-woman man and he likes his women to have the same principles: he's not that long out of a divorce which happened because his wife had an affair with the man he thought was his best friend and business partner.

We've encountered author [[:Category:Brooke Adams|Brooke Adams]] before when I read her debut [[Capturing Emilia by Brooke Adams|novella]].  I was impressed by the way that Admas developed her characters well in eighty pages and she's done the same thing again.  If I had to be picky, I'd say that she can be over-reliant on descriptions of clothes, food and decoration to build her characters: I'd like to see her be more adventurous and make more use of her obvious story-telling talents.

It's a feel-good story that wraps itself around you and gives you a good cuddle.  There's plenty of sex and it's better than most fictional sexual encounters in a story that's simple, but well-told.  I'd like to thank the publisher for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

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[[Category:Short Stories]]