About this book:
“Lucy
Kendall returns from a tour of the Continent, her luggage filled with the
latest fashions and a mind fired by inspiration. After tasting Europe's best
confections, she's sure she'll come up with a recipe that will save her
father's struggling candy business and reverse their fortunes. But she soon
discovers that their biggest competitor, the cheat who swindled her father out
of his prize recipe, has now hired a promotions manager--a cocky, handsome
out-of-towner who gets under Lucy's skin.
Charlie Clarke's new role at Standard
Manufacturing is the chance of a lifetime. He can put some rough times behind
him and reconnect with the father he's never known. The one thing he never
counted on, however, was tenacious Lucy Kendall. She's making his work life
miserable...and making herself impossible for him to forget.”
Series: While apart of a series, it is not connected to any other book.
Spiritual Content- A couple Prayers; Talks about God, forgiving, & sins; ‘H’s
are capitalized when referring to God; Church going (but neither Lucy nor
Charlie pay attention to the sermon); During a Confession time at Church, Lucy
thinks that “if God knew everything, then there oughtn’t be a need to
confess to the things we’d done wrong”); Lucy thinks that if God gives her
a passion she wasn’t allowed to do (making candy), that she’ll just ignore Him;
Charlie has resented God for something that happened in his childhood &
doesn’t like going to church; Both Lucy & Charlie are witnessed to by a new
friend, though neither of them fully understand what she’s saying; Towards the
end, there doesn’t seem to be much improvement on their thoughts about God
(Charlie mentions that talking to God won’t do any good); Partially set during
Christmas; Mentions of God, Jesus, & forgiveness; Mentions of churches,
church going, preaching, & sermons; Mentions of missionaries; Mentions of Christmas,
a nativity, & those in the Bible; Mentions of sins, sinners, & sinning;
A couple mentions of blessings; A mention of someone believing like doubting
apostle Thomas; A mention of someone finding religion; A mention of that
religion is impolite to discuss;
*Note: After thinking he’s played
a dirty trick, Lucy thinks that Hell was too good for Charlie and that she
hopes “there was someplace even darker and hotter and more miserable for his
soul to go and rot.”; Mentions of Santa; A mention of God hearing Lucy’s
prayers for a business to go away; A mention of people “raising Cain” (upset) about
something; A mention of someone being the spawn of the devil; A mention of a
factory being hell; A mention of a woman being blessed with an angel’s voice,
but that she’s also been cursed because of her using it in a saloon.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blasted’, a ‘drat’, a ‘shut up’,
a ‘stupid’, and three ‘dumbs’; The phrase “curse *enter name* for doing *this
thing* is said a few times; Eye rolling; Fighting/Boxing; Charlie drinks
whiskey out of a flask, goes to a saloon (two or three times), drinks, & social
drinking (all positively looked at by him, including him thinking that dancing
and drinking were good ways to stay warm during the winter months); Charlie
takes part in a card game & wins money (gambling); Lucy plays dirty tricks
on Charlie’s father’s company (such as canceling their sugar deliveries and not
following instructions from a store-owner); Many mentions of murders,
murderers, arrests, criminals, crimes, & jails; Mentions of fights,
fighters/boxers, beatings, seeing someone beaten and killed (border-line barely-above-not-detailed
// semi-detailed); Mentions of thugs using guns, breaking kneecaps or legs,
& throwing people off bridges; Mentions of thieves & stealing; Mentions
of fires & explosions; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of hatred;
Mentions of social/dinner drinking, alcohol, bars/saloons; Mentions of cigars,
cigarettes, tobacco, pipes, & smoking; Mentions of Charlie’s parent’s
divorce; A few mentions of rumors; A few mentions of poker, card games, &
gambling; A mention of arson; A mention of throwing up;
*Note: Many mentions of Charlie’s
father who left their family & discussions about it; Mentions of animal
furs (seal, bear, pony, & fox, barely-above-not-detailed).
Sexual Content- Three cheek
kisses, two almost kisses, a not-detailed kiss, two barely-above-not-detailed kisses;
Recalling a kiss (up to semi-detailed); Staring at someone’s lips, Wanting to
kiss, & Wanting to be kissed (barely-above-not-detailed to semi-detailed); Touches,
Embraces, & Hand holding (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes & Winks;
Noticing, Nearness, & Smelling (barely-above-not-detailed); A ‘whore’ (Charlie’s father says
the only girl you’d be alone with in the dark is a whore or your fiancée); Mentions
of an engaged man flirting and hanging out with a saloon singer; Mentions of kisses
& kissing; Mentions of reputations & ruination; Mentions of blushes
& winks; A few mentions of a honeymoon, a husband seeing his wife’s
nightgown, & “what [married couples] have to do” (“rapturous embraces,
passionate kisses, and that sort of thing” Lucy wonders if pleasant since people
do it, but then wonders if they do it just because they had to); A couple
mentions of jealousy; A mention of a married couple kissing; A mention from
Charlie that he’s kissed at least a dozen girls, but Lucy’s lips were the
sweetest; A mention of Charlie would whistle his appreciation for a girl (Lucy)
but doesn’t, thinking it would be taken the wrong way; Love, falling in love,
& the emotions;
*Note: A mention of a girl’s
figure filling out a dress (Lucy hopes she figure will do the same one day).
-Lucille “Lucy” Kendall, age 19
-Charles “Charlie” Clarke
1st
person P.O.V. switches between them
Set in
1910
391 pages
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It’s my second time reading this
novel, and while I definitely enjoyed it more the first time around, I still
found this book to be very interesting with the candy factories and rivalry. I
found myself getting quite into the rivalry, actually! Both Lucy & Charlie
had their moments where I wasn’t liking their choices (Lucy because of her
dirty tricks and Charlie drinking and gambling a bit), but overall, I thought
the book was pretty realistic in their thoughts and actions—if you were in
their shoes, that is.
I’m not sure if I really enjoy the
enemies-to-lovers tropes, which this book is for the majority, though. I think
it’s always the “I’m so mad at this person/I hate this person, but I can’t help
look at their lips” parts that make me unsettled and wrinkle my nose in
displeasure.
It was interesting to see both
main character’s parts in a 1st person point of view, which isn’t
common.
The faith content was…different
in this book and both Lucy and Charlie’s questions/disgruntlements (?) weren’t
wrapped up by the end, which I thought was unfortunate. Lucy also had her moments—such
as being so annoyed with Charlie she thinks that Hell is too good of a place
for him. That really rubbed me the wrong way, personally. It showed herself as
the selfish, mean, and rude person another person said that she was when she
was younger, but still. I thought that was completely not necessary to say.
While somewhat clean in most regards,
there was some comments that would go over the heads of some readers. I’ll
still recommend “Like a Flower in Bloom” by this author more than this
novel.
See y’all on Friday with a new
review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this
author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
