Love's First Bloom by Delia Parr

Reverend Livingstone ministers to fallen women, helping them to find a better life. When one of these ladies is murdered, he fears that he will be accused of the murder and seeks to protect his daughter and the child of the murdered woman. He sends them to a secret safe home under assumed names. Ruth Livingstone is not happy about leaving her father and pretending to be a fallen but redeemed woman with a child and taking on a new name. Ruth must be on her guard against newpaper writers seeking to find the daughter of the Reverend Livingstone, thinking that she may be hiding evidence of his guilt or that she may also be a victim of murder.

Ruth is taken in by a couple who also help Reverend Livingstone with caring for the special ladies who have been saved. While living in their home in Tom's River, New Jersey, she meets Jake Spencer who appears to be a man with an injured back, but who is in fact a newspaper reporter looking for her. Love blooms between the two, but neither of them know all the facts about the other. As pressures mount from many sources, it appears that Ruth and Jake may not be able to be together.

I really enjoyed this story and recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical romance type stories. The book is well written and the story unfolds nicely and leads to a very sweet ending.

This book was given to me by Bethany House Publishers to read and review.