Ben breaks his engagement to Emma and moves to Florida. But Ben isn’t clear about his reasons, and Emma’s suppositions are incorrect. Then Ben comes back to help out his grandparents, and the two are thrown back together. Secrets and misunderstandings abound in this romantic tale which is also liberally dosed with humor. The characters are endearing, and readers can’t help but hope they will get their happily ever after, even while circumstances indicate a different ending. Jennifer Beckstrand has penned a delightful series with the continuing characters of Anna and Felty. I hope they never run out of grandkids to marry off! ( )

Jennifer Beckstrand whisks readers back to Bonduel for another very entertaining and thought-provoking installment in The Matchmakers of Huckleberry Hill series. Huckleberry Spring is a second chance at love romance that is a very fun read but there is also an underlying seriousness to the plot that gives the story depth and substance.

In the months since Ben Helmuth inexplicably ended their engagement, Emma Nelson has put on a happy face for everyone around her, but her broken heart is nowhere near healed. Emma is a sweet, obedient girl who is a bit accident prone and endearingly inept at cooking and sewing. Since her break up, she has concentrated very hard on keeping out of trouble and perfecting her household skills. The one area of her life which needs no improvement is her green thumb, so when Ben's grandmother asks for her gardening assistance, Emma reluctantly agrees since she knows she won't run into her ex-fiancé. Or so she thinks...

As soon as Ben ended his engagement, he immediately moved to Florida and has never returned to Bonduel. Although the reason for the break up is well-intentioned, he is completely unaware of how badly everyone misconstrued his actions and the effect this has on Emma and her relationships with his extended family. Both Emma and Ben are very kind and giving people, but Ben has a bit of an over-developed sense of responsibility and his pride will not allow him to accept help in return. While he knows he cannot (or so he believes) reunite with Emma, he comes up with another well-intentioned but misguided plan to fix things for her, but this leads to further misunderstandings and heartache between them.

Ben and Emma are quite the star-crossed pair but Emma is the most sympathetic of the two since she is in the dark about what lead to their break up. She spends a lot of the story in tears because Ben continues to hurt her off and on as their paths continue to cross. Her clumsiness and her mother's impatience with her make it easy for her to take on the blame for, well, everything, so it is easy to overlook her crying. While it is true that Emma finds herself in some very precarious situations, Ben is guilty of overlooking some of her strengths. There is much, much more to Emma than people believe and it is so gratifying when they begin to realize it.

Matchmaking grandma Anna has her hands full trying to bring Emma and Ben back together. Her harebrained scheme relies an awful lot on her poor husband Felty undergoing quite a few medical procedures. Of course, Felty is a good sport and goes along with whatever she suggests, but keeping in his assigned role is not easy for the active octogenarian. Felty is the first one to see what Ben is trying to hide but will his advice to his grandson fall on deaf ears?

Huckleberry Spring is another heartfelt addition to Jennifer Beckstrand's The Matchmakers of Huckleberry Hill series. It is sweet romance with delightfully lovable characters that imparts an important and practical message that is easy to relate to. All in all, a very lovely story that old and new fans of this series are going to love. ( )

"5 out of 5 stars!! Anna & Felty are match making again! Only this time Felty is being pulled through the ringer just to keep his grandson living with them. Poor thing. Together they try to get Ben & Emma back together again but because of one big secret and a bunch of lies, it might be a harder job than Anna originally planned. But she won't give up without a fight ... and Felty's wise words of course.

I really enjoyed this dramatically touching novel. Anna's quirky ways were all fun to read about but I also liked how sweet Ben was and how determined Emma is to see everything through. All of it put my emotions through the ringer by laughing one moment to getting mopey the next."

Read more of this review and a teaser here: http://frommetoyouvideophoto.blogspot.com/2015/01/blog-tour-idolizing-in-huckleb... ( )

OH MY WORD!

OK… right up front I have to be honest with you. My plans for reading this book were a bit derailed when my devious mother told me someone dies in the book.

She is such a rat! She just loves to needle me when she gets to read a book first and she loves dropping bombshells with absolutely no explanation!

Anyway, coupled with the emotional turmoil that was currently going on among the pages, I thought I might just be better off stopping right where I was.

But boy oh boy… am I glad I didn’t!

“DO NOT LET ANYTHING stop you from reading this book!”

I always say the current book is the best I’ve read yet and it’s always true! Each one of Jennifer’s books get better and better and better!

“This book is by far and away the best I’ve read yet!”

And one of the best things about Jennifer’s books is that I always want to go back and read from the beginning so I get to read all my favorite parts and then breeze right into the new story as if there were no agonizing months in between waiting for it to release!

And I don’t mind telling you that I had some reservations about this story when I read the sneak peek.

“Surgery… poor Felty. That man really will do anything for his sweet Anna!”

Only Jennifer Beckstrand could write such a story and make it so wonderful! Only Jennifer could write such a heart-breaking story and make it so wonderful! Only Jennifer could come up with such a roundabout story of gut-wrenching pain and redemption and weave romance through the entire thing!

“WOW! WOW! WOW!”

And, as usual, I can hardly wait to start the next one! Especially since I read the sneak peek!

This book needs 10 stars! Can I give it 10 stars...

Review © JCMorrows 2014 ( )

Another delightful read from this talented author. I had so many laugh out loud moments. Anna and Felty Helmuth tickle my funny bone. Anna has a lot of plans that usually end up with poor Felty having to suffer some pain to carry them out!

Grandson Ben is Anna's latest unsuspecting victim. Will Anna's plans be fruitful?

Pick up a copy today to find out what happens.

I can't wait to read Huckleberry Harvest, the next book in the Matchmakers series. ( )