ON MAGNOLIA LANE by Denise Hunter

Daisy Pendleton loves her small town life and working with her mom at the flower-shop.  But as nice as that is, she really longs for a husband and family like her good friends have.  She’s tried online dating without success, that is until TJ sent her a message.  Pastor Jack McReady has been counseling Daisy for a couple of years and has fallen in love with her.  He doesn’t want to risk what they have by telling her how he feels.  Jack’s friend Noah signs him up on the same dating app as Daisy uses but uses Jack’s initials ‘TJ’ instead of his name.  Noah thinks it will it will provide an opportunity for Daisy to get to know him as a man instead of pastor.  Jack doesn’t feel comfortable deceiving Daisy but kind of gets pull into it when she contacts him as TJ through the dating app.  When Daisy finds out something about her family that blindsides her she expresses to Jack how much she hated her family not being honest with her.  Jack is guilt stricken but what can he do now?  What will happen will Daisy finds out that TJ is really Jack?

A cute story that was enjoyable to read.  I have read all the books in this series but I’ll admit this was not my favorite of the three.  That said, there was a lot of things I liked about the story.  I enjoyed that we see all the familiar friends from the previous books.  I enjoyed how folks banded together during a difficult time. I was inspired by how Daisy dealt with some difficult things.  I guess for me, Daisy didn’t have that ‘spark’ I was looking for toward Jack.  I felt Jack had it toward her though.  I also felt like Jack was a stand-up kind of man and could have said no to Noah.  Also, knowing Noah from the other books, I couldn’t see him doing what he did.  But, this is fiction and I did still like the story.  I also think any of this author’s books would make great “Hallmark” movies including this one.

*This complimentary copy was provided by Thomas Nelson through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Some favorite moments:

Hope squeezed her hand.  “Try and be patient.  God’ll bring you the right guy at the right time, just like He did for me.  And sometimes that guy can be someone completely unexpected.

“You know, honey…sometimes you just have to extend a little grace to people.  Not because they deserve it - but because we don’t deserve it either.

“I’m so sorry, Daisy.  Can you ever forgive me?”  She smiled at him - because in giving grace, she received hope and joy.

For information about this book or other books by this author I encourage you to visit her website at https://www.denisehunterbooks.com.