Review and Giveaway: All You Need Is Love

All You Need Is Love (Green Mountain - Book 1) by Marie Force

Publication Date: 02/04/2014
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley Sensation
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 368
ISBN-10: 0425266761
ISBN-13: 978-0425266762

(Received for an honest review from Berkley Sensation)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Indiebound

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Excerpt from, All You Need is Love, courtesy of the author's website.

Synopsis:

Bonus: Exclusive to this edition--a never-before-in-print Green Mountain story

The family-run Green Mountain Country Store is cherished by locals as a reminder of simpler times. The Abbott children are determined to keep it that way—but their father has different plans…

When Cameron Murphy heads to Vermont to build a website for a new client, she imagines a more relaxing trip than she gets. After wrecking her car by colliding with the town moose, she meets the most handsome hero she’s ever seen. Unfortunately, her savior, Will Abbott, is also the son of her client—and he wants nothing to do with the new website or the city girl creating it.

For all Will cares, Cameron can march her fancy boots right out of town and out of his family’s business. But he can’t seem to get her out of his head. As his family’s dispute heats up, so does the chemistry between the two, leaving them wondering if simple is better after all—especially when it comes to matters of the heart.

Thoughts:

Author Marie Force begins her new Green Mountain series with her new book, All You Need is Love. Force introduces readers to a local Vermont family that will warm the heart and make them nostalgic for their own small hometowns. The Abbott's are proprietors of the local country store and they all have different ideas on how to bring it into the new world of their technologically savvy patrons. Force conjures up humor and even gives a nod to the Beatles with her new series, which is sure to bring her many new fans. A great first book in a new series.

What I liked:

Green Mountain is a town after my own heart. It's a mountain town in the wilds of Vermont that even has it's own town moose named Fred. Marie Force has given readers a fictional town that will probably remind them of many of their new small hometowns and all of the local goings on. The Abbott's are one of the towns oldest families and they run the general store, which serves as the local meeting place, gossip spot and so on. I thought Force did a fantastic job of setting up the atmosphere of the town and giving all the natural flavor that made it special in this first book. It's a place readers will want to return to again and again.

The main characters for this particular story from Green Mountain are Will, one the Abbott's and Cameron a city girl and web designer who arrives to help bring the General Store into the new technological age. The Abbott patriarch has decided to branch out and set some changes in motion that not everyone in the family thrilled about, especially Will. Cameron has no idea what a firestorm she is walking into. But as she and Will get closer it becomes obvious she is falling in love with the family as much as he is Will. I thought Force did a great job of showing why this family was so close knit and why change seemed to be so difficult for them. They are a family that will grow on the reader from the first page to the last.

Cameron made a good heroine for several reasons. First of all, she was from the city. She had a totally different perspective on life than the people from Green Mountain. The opposites attract theory was definitely at work with Cameron and Will. He had no intention of falling for someone who was so fundamentally different from the girls he was used to. I thought Force made Cameron, intellectual and smart, a bit daring and full of surprises. Will didn't know what hit him. 

Will on the other hand is a local boy. He wants things to be the way they have always been. Change was for the birds and not for Green Mountain and the Country Store. He was dead set against the website and Cameron. It was really interesting to watch the wheels start to turn when he begins to have a change of heart about the beauty from New York. It was also interesting to watch Cameron start to see life from Will's point of view as well. 

I loved Force's nod to the Beatles. It appears that each book in the series will be from Beatles song and i thought that was priceless. We have seen this tactic from other authors like Mary Higgins Clark and it works like a charm. It makes the reader nostalgic and it keeps the titles in their heads. Like a song you can't get out of your head. A great idea and a great way to once again immortalize a great time in musical history.

What I didn't like:

This series reminds me a great deal of Marie Forces other series Gansett Island. It has it's own family and it's own environment, but the idea is the same. It's like basically transporting the characters from the island to the mountains with this series. I can see a lot of potential for this series to veer off and change. I hope that Force is able to differentiate this series from her last one or it may become repetitious. 

Bottom Line:

This was a book about two worlds colliding. The city girl and the country boy. Readers are given a great family and a very cool town, but is that enough to carry a new series from this author? I think so, there is a lot of potential here and I think fans of the classic small town love story will really be drawn to this series and this book. Can't wait to see what's next for the Abbott's. 

All You Need is Love is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from my book bag!

About the Author:

Marie Force is the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling, award-winning author of more than twenty-five contemporary romances, including the Green Mountain series, the McCarthys of Gansett Island series, the Fatal series, the Treading Water series and numerous stand-alone books. While her husband was in the U.S. Navy, Marie lived in Spain, Maryland and Florida, and she is now settled in her home state of Rhode Island. She is the mother of two teenagers and two feisty dogs, Brandy and Louie.

Giveaway Details:

The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of All You Need is Love by Marie Force.

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~ The deadline to enter this giveaway is Midnight EST, March 4th.

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