Love's Sweet Beginning by Ann Shorey

Love's Sweet Beginning is the third of the Sisters at Heart series and my favorite.  I have wanted to read Cassie's story since she came on the scene in Where Wildflowers Bloom, the first book.  Cassie Haddon has come from a privileged background but has found on hard times during the Civil War.  Since the death of her father and then her fiance she and her mother have fallen on hard times.  Cassie basically has no skills but is willing to work hard to learn rather than to depend on the charity of others.  Her mother on the other hand since the first book has been whiney, manipulative and conniving.  She had a short-lived marriage to a man who treated Cassie badly.  Her mother only married Mr. Bingley because she was used to the finer things in life that Mr. Bingley could provide.  Cassie and her mother for a short time live with Rosemary and her husband but Rosemary is expecting a baby and Cassie doesn't want to impose herself and her mother on Rosemary any longer so she takes a job as a cook in Jacob's restaurant.  She's not very good at it and gets dismissed the first day but she is determined to make a way so goes back and he reluctantly lets her continue working.  She eventually finds housing in a cabin but that is not good enough for her complaining mother.  Her mother moves to be near a brother in another town.  Cassie eventually proves her worth as a pastry chef and by the middle of the book she and the restaurant owner have started developing feelings for each other but her job is jeopardized by her mother manipulating her to come visit her in the other town.  Her mother even connives to get her hooked up with the brother of her dead fiance.  She does not love the man but he constantly pursues her even though she has rebuffed his advances.
Jacob has his own secrets that he feels that if revealed could jeopardize his relationship with Cassie and his reputation in town.
As I said I loved this book and hate to see the series end.  I hope the author has another great series in mind lined up.  I love reading her historical fiction.

Thanks to Netgalley and Revelle books for providing me a copy of this book to review.