[Book Tour] Sweet Bliss – Jennifer Bardsley

For the next stops on the tour you can visit Literary Bound Tours.

Synopsis

Welcome to Harper Landing, a small town filled with people who believe in happy endings.

Left raising his newly orphaned nephew after a tragic accident, Aaron Baxter fears he’s not cut out to be a single dad. But to give baby Jack the life he deserves—and to find a peaceful refuge for himself—Aaron moves to the idyllic Pacific Northwest town of Harper Landing.

Julia Harper, descendant of the town’s founder and successful frozen yogurt shop owner, is mostly resigned to her role as the often-overlooked girl next door. But when the town newcomer, Aaron, reaches out for help with Jack, she finds herself yearning to take part in a sweet love story of her own.

To Aaron, the grace Julia extends is a balm for his aching heart and the guilt he feels over his sister’s death. To Julia, Aaron’s adoration is the key to finally realizing her own worth. With a baby in the middle, can these two hurting souls find completeness in each other?

Review

A huge thank you to Literary Bound Tours and Jennifer Bardsley for allowing me to be a part of this tour.

Sweet Bliss is a Small Town, Clean Romance book. I LOVE movies of this style, they are my favorites to watch with my mom, but this is the first time I have read a book of this style, and I was really worried that I may get bored.

Fortunately, it was an unfounded fear, and while the book didn’t catch me completely right away, it didn’t take long for me to become so fond of Aaron and Julia that I didn’t want to stop reading their story. And of course with the exquisite Jack.

Aaron is a 29 year old, co-creator of a very successful Paleo company…

*Cultural moment: The paleo diet is based on the fact that human beings are genetically adapted to eat what our Paleolithic ancestors ate: meat, vegetables, fish, fruits; and it is better to avoid dairy, legumes and cereals.*

Maybe he’d stop by the Smoothie Hut and gulp down a glass of carrot juice. Aaron normally disapproved of consuming juice since it wasn’t in the fruit’s or vegetable’s pure form, but he was feeling dangerous. Heck, he might even stop by the Parisian Café later and get a croissant. So what if it made him cramp up an hour later? Mr. Polo Shirt wasn’t the only one who could eat gluten.

His co-creator and best friend named Jared also became his brother-in-law by marrying his sister Sara. But Aaron’s life was turned upside down when Sara and Jared perish in a car accident leaving their newborn Jack under his care.

Aaron and Sara were raised by babysitters, and they didn’t want that for Jack, so Aaron decided to leave everything behind and move in with Jack near Jared’s parents, in the town of Harper Landing.

It was Friday night, and Aaron was googling nipples. Not the fun type of nipples, but the type that went on bottles.

Julia is a 28-year-old young woman who owns a frozen yogurt shop called Sweet Bliss. In addition, she is the only member of the Harpers, founders of the town, who is still alive after the death of her mother a year ago. As such, she owns several buildings which she rents at a much lower price than they are actually worth.

Waverley had said that freshly shined shoes expressed to the world that the person had their act together. Julia wasn’t sure if she had her act together or not, but at least with her blazer and shiny boots, she could pretend she did.

She is also the owner of a labrador named Toby, who is full of love but never stops making disasters. When Toby decides it’s a great idea to swim out to open sea, a stranger rushes to his rescue. The stranger turns out to be Aaron, who has moved into town a few months ago.

Her chocolate Labrador was a lot of things—loyal, affectionate, devilishly handsome—but clever wasn’t one of them. Over the past six months of their relationship, Julia had cursed his pedigree on more than one occasion. If there were just a smidgen of shelter mutt in him, maybe he’d be smarter. Now, her adorably clueless puppy was swimming into open waters, and all Julia could do was scream at the top of her lungs.

From this moment on, fate seems to want to bring Julia and Aaron together, even in the most unexpected situations, but neither of them will complain about it.

It is a beautiful story. Aaron has fully taken over care of Jack and is doing his best, becoming an exemplary father, but still feels inadequate and remains concerned about it.

How could he explain any of it? Was Jack his nephew or his son? He loved Jack with all his heart, but he wasn’t proud of the fact that Jack was in his care. It was Aaron’s fault Jack had been orphaned. No way could he push up the stroller’s sunshade and show his baby off. Not without feeling more awful than he already felt every day.

While Julia is an incredible woman who believes she is totally invisible due to her low self-esteem fueled by her mother’s criticism.

Everyone from her childhood was married or buried. But she was stuck in the same exact place she’d always been, alone.

It seems impossible to both of them that a person like them could be with someone so wonderful, which brings me to the points of view. We can see the story from the eyes of Julia and Aaron, so we can see how they think the other person is wonderful (and they really are) while, when we return to their point of view, we see how little they feel.

“There is no but.” She pointed at Jack. “If it weren’t for you, Jack would be an orphan right now, not the other way around. You’re the hero in his life story , not the villain.”

In addition to seeing the birth of this beautiful relationship and how they both help each other grow, we can also meet other villagers such as Martha and Frank, Jack’s paternal grandparents, who have a beautiful relationship, but are also having to deal with some problems, in addition to still suffer the loss of their son. There are more little pieces of stories that we get to see, but I don’t want to spoil any of it.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this story, and I’m really glad I read it. I just felt that the end came rushed, but because I didn’t want the story to end.

PS: Like I said, this book is a clean, small-town ROMANCE. I repeat it because it is different to my usual recommendations. Also, I’ve seen a lot of bad book reviews lately that actually happen because the person chose a genre that was not of their liking, and this is not the fault of the book or the author.

Author

Jennifer Bardsley believes in friendship, true love, and the everlasting power of books. A graduate of Stanford University, she lives in Edmonds, Washington with her husband and two children. Jennifer’s “I Brake for Moms” column has appeared in The Everett Herald every week since 2012. She also writes Young Adult Paranormal Romance under the pen name Louise Cypress. When she’s not writing books, or camping with her Girl Scout troop, you can find Jennifer walking from her house to the beach every chance she gets.

You can find her on her socials:

Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

And here’s all the book info:

Sweet Bliss by Jennifer Bardsley
By Montlake Romance
On July 13th, 2021
Genres: Sweet Romance, Small-town Romance, Women’s Fiction
Pages: 251
Format: Paperback, Ebook, Audiobook
Purchase: Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes and Nobles
Age Requirement: 18+