Review: The Magnolia Sisters

The Magnolia Sisters by Alys Murray
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

He was entranced. And he wasn't sure he'd ever been entranced before. 

Growing up with parents that couldn't be bothered with them, had Luke Martin dropping out of school and working hard to care for his younger sister Annie. He managed to build up his own tech firm in LA and become very close to a billionaire. So when Annie falls in love with someone who lives in a small town in CA and wants her dream wedding at a flower farm, Luke will do anything to make that possible. Harper doesn't have time for the rich guy from LA and even though their family farm is struggling, the blank check he hands her to have a wedding on the farm, only makes her more angry. Luke's plan to work on the farm and show Harper he's more than his bank account might give him blisters but it also has Harper opening up her heart. 

She wanted to hate him. She wanted an excuse to push him away and hold him at arm's length, to spend so much time despising him she had no room in her schedule for thinking anything else about him. But she couldn't. Not anymore. And she didn't know how to feel about that. 

First in a series about three sisters who grew up and work on the family flower farm in a small town in CA, The Magnolia Sisters started off with Pride and Prejudice vibes. Readers get to know the Anderson family, older sister Rose, middle sister Harper, and youngest May, along with their gossipy energetic mother and quietly but lovingly dealing with it all father. Harper starts off a bit hardhearted and cutting her nose off to spite her face with her constant rejection of Luke and his money but her wall slowly starts to crumble as she spends more time with him. Luke, for his part, is instantly drawn by Harper on an almost metaphysical level but has moments of struggling mightily with her attitude on earth. 

As she sat there, close enough to touch him but afraid to even breathe in case it knocked them out of this spell, a realization dawned on her. Slowly at first, but with all the rushing energy of a star bursting within her very heart. 

She'd been falling for him this entire time, and she didn't even know it. 

Harper and Luke are pretty brittle towards each other but at the half-way mark they start to thaw as they learn their preconceptions were wrong and they want to learn about each other. Their coming together is hampered by Luke's sister Annie engaged to marry Harper's sister's ex-highschool love. It's an obvious series baiting plot, readers never even get to see this fiance, Annie doesn't really seem into him, and much is made about how May never told the story of the night she and the ex broke up. It's there, like I said, to intrigue for future books in series, but also gave some manipulated, easy to reach for angst towards the end when Harper turns heel a bit to stick up for her sister and provide a wedge between her and Luke when her feelings scare her. The secondary characters work to fill out the world but there were times I wish we could have gotten more focus with emotional depth scenes between Harper and Luke. 

This was very much a Hallmark movie in written form and when the I love yous come it at around the 75%, they were lukewarm. P & P vibey beginning, irritability between leads that masks some fear of attraction feelings, a sweet family/small town setting, and a warm romance.

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