When Love Blooms by Robin Lee Hatcher is a typical Christian romance novel.  Emily Harris, a young woman who is uncertain what she wants to do with her life, takes a job as a governess with the Blake family on their Idaho ranch in the 1800s.  What she doesn’t realize when she takes the job is that Brina and Pet’s mother, Dru, is dying of cancer.  At first all Emily knows is that Dru is sick, Dru’s husband, Gavin, immediately disapproves of Emily, and Emily takes an instant liking to her new charges.

Emily is also unaware of Dru’s plan to find a new woman for Gavin to love after her passing.  Even without knowing of Dru’s plan, both Emily and Gavin begin fighting an attraction for each other, and the typical misunderstandings follow, including Emily becoming engaged to another man, and her returning home to Boise.  But will they discover how they feel about each other before it’s too late?

It was a good book, the kind you might take to the pool or beach over the summer.  Certainly not a particularly original story–kind of The Sound of Music meets Love Comes Softly–but that characters are likable, the setting is fairly unique, and the Christian themes make it a better alternative to a lot of the books currently available in bookstores.