Love's First Bloom by Delia Parr

Love's First Bloom

By: Delia Parr

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Summary: Ruth Livingstone's life changes drastically the day her father puts a young child in her arms and sends her to a small village in New Jersey under an assumed name. There Ruth pretends to be a widow and quietly secludes herself until her father is acquitted of a crime. But with the emergence of the penny press, the imagination of the reading public is stirred, and her father's trial stands center stage. Asher Tripp is the brash newspaperman who determines that this case is the event he can use to redeem himself as a journalist. 

Ruth finds solace tending a garden along the banks of the Toms River--a place where she can find a measure of peace in the midst of the sorrow that continues to build. It is also here that Asher Tripp finds a temporary residence, all in an attempt to discover if the lovely creature known as Widow Malloy is truly Ruth Livingstone, the woman every newspaper has been looking for. Love begins to slowly bloom...but is the affection they share strong enough to withstand the secrets that separate them?

Review: Love's First Bloom tells the story of Ruth Livingstone who must leave her home in New York and relocate to a small town near New Jersey when her Father a minister is accused of the murder of one of the young prostitutes who he (her Father) helps in the ministry he runs helping the young fallen women of New York restart their lives in new places.  Ruth takes on a new identity, and takes care of the young murdered women's child.   As she adjusts to her new life Ruth must learn to rely on God, and the middle aged couple she is living with as she awaits the verdict in her Father's murder trial.

To cope with the stress of not seeing her Father and learning to care for a young child Ruth plants a garden, and in this pursuit meets a man named Jake who she suspects may have as many secrets as she does, and seems to be not altogether truthful.  As this story unfolded it was not always easy to connect with all the characters, and the flow was not always connected.  The end seemed to be almost smashed together.  The toddler Lily was my favorite character and was one of the reasons I continued to read the book.  If your looking for a sweet Christian historical type romance I'd recommend it, but it won't be on my top ten for the year.