Growing up with your parents around you often remember things they said or did. That of course could be good or bad depending on your or should I say their circumstances. But that is how we are molded right from the start. Our lives and our dreams are affected by our past and what memories we have stored good or bad. My mother used to tell me that when people asked how you are I should say just fine thank you and how are you. Even if you were having a rotten day. Why? Well the answer is amazingly simple and still makes me smile to this day. People don't really want to know if you've had a bad day or if you aren't feeling just peachy. So give them the rainbow version they want and move on. There's another phrase that I remember and that is April showers bring May flowers. From the dreariness of a drizzly rainy April the rewards are an amazing show of bright beautiful flowers on the horizon. It's called optimism - looking on the bright side.

APRIL SHOWERS by Holly Jacobs is disguised as a bridal story but don't be fooled. Jacobs has masterfully hidden her real message in what should be considered a light hearted tale but is indeed a beautiful story about looking on the bright side of life. There's no way you will come away from this book without feeling just a little lighter with a bright smile on your face. Jacobs included some absolutely memorable characters that will definitely win your heart and promise to be friends for a very long time. I will never look or think of a multisyllabic word again without thinking of this story and Lily and her Sebastian.

As beginnings go theirs was not an auspicious one (ah dictionary word number one). To say it simply Sebastian wasn't quite sure what to make of this woman who had wormed her way in his uncle Hanks life, home and as it turns out business. Surely she had designs on something nefarious (LOL) and Sebastian wasn't going to leave until he ferrets out her plans and saves Hank. A very nobel enterprise for this retired marine who had some serious injuries to overcome. Sebastian came home to attend a good friends wedding. He was not prepared for the feelings and issues that he was going to have to face upon his return. Being unprepared is not the same though as unequipped to handle and as an ex-marine Sebastian was capable of handing any challenges he was to face. And yet in his mind his life had reached an impossible impasse of a myriad amount of problems that made him hard and intractable. So meeting Lily and her light hearted look at life actually set him on edge and he did the unthinkable - he struck back at this wonderful woman. Not physically of course but everyone knows words hurt too.

He had no way to know that this woman who espoused warmth and caring words of encouragement had some very deep seated issues of her own. Lily kept those issues well hidden from all the new friends she had made in the valley. These people had now become her family and there was no way she would allow this temporary visitor to compromise her relationship with these people she loved.

Lily and Hank had developed a mutually beneficial relationship that they both treasured. Sebastian was going to have to come to grips with the reality of life in the valley. Not the home he had left many years ago but the way things and the people he cared for have changed -just as his life has changed.

Lily was an unexpected breath of fresh air and he desperately needed that.

If you were to believe Holly Jacobs then Valley Ridge would be the next best thing to heaven or at the very least the best place on earth to live. A place where people can come to mend their wounds and soul. A place where once you are there you are family and family takes care of its own. Bad things are a hitch in the road and with help anyone can get over those hitches and move on. APRIL SHOWERS is part of a series but I've discovered you can start anywhere and easily catch up. Can't wait to see what Jacobs does in the next book.