GRR Reviews Montana Cherries (The Wildes of Birch Ba by Kim Law

Montana Cherries at its heart is a "woman is ready to leave town, just as her old crush is coming back home to stay" story, but the rich tapestry of family relations, and we found to our surprise that the FMC's views were actually unreliable (look up "unreliable narrator") and the story suddenly became much more interesting than a simple romance.

Dani Wilde gave up her dreams of making it in New York and gave up her scholarship at Columbia when her mother died in a tragic car accident, to run the family cherry farm, and be the maternal figure to her brothers. Now that all the brothers are grown, and one even had married, Dani has made plans and even tentatively accepted a job offer in New York, and she's leaving in a few weeks. She had dreamed of this too long, no one is going to stop her... not even her first crush, Ben Denton, and his surprise daughter (that he had just found out not long ago), moving back to town. .

Ben Denton had a celebrity mother, but was mostly brought up by his grandparents, and was groomed to be a model until he found himself better as a photographer. He dated models, and recently, he suddenly found himself father to a four-year old girl whose mother basically dropped her off at his door and went sayonara (sucker). Overwhelmed by responsibilities, Ben decided to go back to his childhood hometown, and encounter with Dani was... surprising. For Ben and Dani had a one-night fling... He took her v-card, and she left before he could say goodbye. Now Ben is back, and the Wilde clan was happy to help him be a dad...

As the Wilde family prepares for the yearly cherry harvest, and Dani prepares for her departure, Ben settles into town life, and tries to connect with his daughter, but the Wilde family is keeping a secret, one that Dani was not privy to. And when that secret was exposed, it will call into question everything Dani thought she knew about her family and her relationships with everybody... and esp. the most important question: is Dani ready to love Ben for real this time? Or is she leaving no matter what?

The mother sounded like a saint, through Dani's eyes, but she was an unreliable narrator, through no fault of her own. And the more you learn, the more you wonder what had led to her actions all these years, and how can she let go of her past and perhaps, embrace her future? My main problem here is the final solution was a change of heart, but it was reached after months of decision. I guess one is allowed to change their minds. And I would still rate this novel 5/5.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman is ready to leave town just as her old fling came back into town; can he convince her to stay, or was this the end?

Tropes: family secrets, small town, reunion

Overall Rating:  5/5