Be sure to have some tissues handy for this one. This is a reissue of Where It All Began and is a prequel to the Blue Moon series. It is book seven of the series and is the story of the patriarchs of the family, John and Phoebe. I struggled with the HEA but enjoyed the couple and the quirky small town of Blue Moon and its denizens.

The author lets us know in the first few pages that Phoebe has had two men that she’s loved in her life and this story is mainly about her and John’s love story. 

We go back in time to when Phoebe Allen showed up to work at John’s farm in the small town of Blue Moon Bend in Upstate New York while she finishes her thesis (about first generation farms). A friend recommended John to her as someone who could use an extra farm hand but it’s funny because he thought she was a he and he was named Allen. She convinces him to let her stay and that she will help out for the summer. He is worried because he thinks she’s beautiful and doesn’t need any distractions. He has been trying to fix up his farm over the past year and has a hard time believing she will be able to help out much. Of course, she proves him wrong and I enjoyed watching her as she figures out how she fits in on the farm and in the community. Blue Moon Bend is a town with unique characters, some of them hippies leftover from Woodstock days. There are lots of VW buses around town and lots of friendly gossipers.

Phoebe admires John for the quiet way he gets things done and how he helps out in the community. There is also a fun secondary romance involving his best friend and another town member. John is attracted to Phoebe but tries to hold himself back from becoming romantically involved with her. For one thing, he is a quiet person and she peppers him with farming questions, which he finds annoying, but they laugh a lot as they work together on the farm.

Phoebe’s father had an accident and has medical bills to pay. Phoebe plans to get a good paying job when she’s done with school to help with the bills. John doesn’t want to hold her back but on a hot summer day, at a summer fair, they decide to go for it and from then on, the book is pretty spicy, with the understanding that when the summer ends, she will be leaving and their romance will be over.

The hardest part for me was that I felt like John and Phoebe didn’t really get their HEA. The story shows Phoebe remarrying and so there is a happy ending in that respect, but I felt like her HEA with John was cut short. 

I loved the small town of Blue Moon Bend. It’s a special community where people are there for each other. Some of the other stories in the Blue Moon series are about Phoebe and John’s sons and the author advises readers not to read Where It All Began first (even though it’s a prequel), but to read the first few books in the series before this one.

I enjoyed the humor and romance and other than the sad ending for Phoebe and John’s story, it was still sweet and I look forward to reading more books by the author.