Wallflower Blooming and Best Laid Plans by Amy Rivers

Happy Wednesday, readers! I have two reviews for you today as part of the TLC blog tour for Amy Rivers's latest, Best Laid Plans!

Wallflower Blooming and Best Laid Plans are the first two titles in a planned trilogy featuring cousins Val and Gwen. And while you can read them out of order, they do take place consecutively, which means you'll already know some of the events of Wallflower if you read Plans first. So I read them in order :)

Wallflower Blooming is Val's story.

Val has no interest in getting involved in politics. Especially in light of the fact that her own father's business went under when he threw his support behind a local candidate years ago. But when her cousin Gwen decides to run for office in Cambria, Colorado, Val can't say no.

She should have been in the background, quietly running Gwen's PR campaign. But instead, Val finds herself in the spotlight when she falls for a local reclusive, but highly sought after, bachelor. And that's not all, history may be repeating itself when Gwen's competition begins bullying Val's clients. Now with her business at risk and her love life the talk of local gossips, the normally grounded Val is finding it hard to keep it together.

I loved Val! She is so fun. She's focused and driven, but hasn't had much luck in love. Which is why it comes as such a surprise that John Hatfield could possibly be interested in her. As their story progresses, she's equal parts irked and smitten.

Of course work complicates things. Again, she's driven. And her fear of falling into the same trouble that led to her father's business closing begins to affect all aspects of her life. She's the kind of character you want on your side. And the kind of character you want to rally for when the going starts getting rough.

And the same can be said of Gwen! Best Laid Plans follows right on the heels of the events of Wallflower Blooming.

When Gwen won the election for Mayor of Cambria, she figured she was on the fast track to her ultimate goal: becoming the youngest Governor of Colorado. But one year into her term, her plans are starting to go awry. 

First, it appears she's being bullied by certain figures in local government. Then it appears she's picked up a stalker, too. As she tries to juggle mayoral responsibility with her other obligations, it also seems her relationship with Jason could be nearing its end. It'd been rocky already, considering some question the ethics behind the mayor dating one of the city's finance folks, but it becomes worse when Jason bends to pressure and takes another job. One that has him traveling a lot and seemingly getting cozy with a new female coworker. As the uncertainty weighs on Gwen, she begins to wonder if her plans are all for naught. 

Oh, Gwen! The title of her book is quite perfect. Of course one could say that she brings some of it on simply by setting so much stock in her careful plans.

As much as I liked Val's story, I honestly think Gwen's was even better. Or maybe I just identified with Gwen a bit more.

Gwen, like Val, is also driven. And like Val she also hasn't had much luck in love. But unlike Val, Gwen doesn't consider bowing under pressure. Where Val, when faced with a bully who threatens her business, seriously considers bowing out as Gwen's PR manager, Gwen, when faced with an overly zealous city manager, gets snarky. And I loved it!

I should pause to mention the men in these stories, because the books are equally as much theirs. John and Jason each get their own chapters in the respective books, giving readers a chance to see the relationships and happenings from their eyes as well. At times the two seemed a bit too similar for my taste, causing me some confusion at times in remembering which one was paired with which cousin. An argument could be made that because they grew up together and are friends that they are indeed similar, gravitating together as friends do. It didn't detract from the reading, but my Swiss cheese brain did have to do a double take occasionally when they shared a scene.

Together, Rivers's two books make for an easy, breezy pair of fun reads. Each is fairly short, too, so you can literally zip through them back to back.

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here.

For more on Amy Rivers and her work you can visit her website here. You can also like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter and Goodreads.

Purchase Links: Amazon

If you're local to Colorado, you can also find Amy's books at BookBar and Boulder Bookstore!