"Like Never Before" by Melissa Tagg

It's a good day when you have a new Melissa Tagg book to read! Sure to make you laugh and tug on your heart, there's something special about Melissa's unique writing style. Her stories are full of sweetness and fun, as well as page-turning and thought-provoking situations that leave you thinking about them for quite a while afterwards.

This is the second book in the Walker Family series, and it focuses on Logan Walker, eldest son and aspiring political speechwriter. Logan is a widower with a three-year-old daughter, and he's being vetted to be taken on by a presidential candidate when he receives word that he has inherited a small-town newspaper in Maple Valley, Iowa. Although he's grateful for the man who mentored him and gave him his first writing job, Logan really doesn't have time to go back to his hometown and deal with figuring out how to sell the paper. But he makes time because it means he can see his family and also spend some quality time with his little girl.

Amelia Bentley found a home in Maple Valley after a disastrous marriage and divorce which had left her completely undone. She's reinvented herself as the editor of the Maple Valley News and she dreams of being able to buy it and run it herself someday. When Amelia finds out that the new owner of the paper is Logan Walker, a man whose writing she is a huge fan of, she is determined to either convince him not to sell the News or to find a way to buy it herself. It's only two months until the paper's 100th anniversary, and Logan agrees to keep the publication going at least until they reach that special milestone edition.

As Logan temporarily settles in, he faces pressure from all sides. There's his business partner who thinks he's crazy to take off for two months at this critical junction in their career. There are his in-laws with whom he's felt an increasing strain and he doesn't know how to make that relationship better. There's his daughter Charlie who still doesn't speak and he can't help but wonder if that's somehow his fault. Then there's Amelia, who is enthusiastic and committed and adorable, but why is he thinking about how adorable she is when his plans and career trajectory are in a completely different orbit than hers? Yet he can't help being drawn to the woman who has been wounded and broken and still risen above her pain. As the two work together trying to solve the town's biggest mystery in time to put the story in the special anniversary edition, Logan and Amelia's friendship takes root and may be the balm both of them need after the strains of the past.

There's so much to love about this story. Amelia's obsession with aviators Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart added a fun touch, and if you follow Melissa Tagg on any social media you know how she feels about Logan. Although I did take some issue with the way certain elements of the plot were resolved, overall this is another enjoyable Tagg novel and I'm counting down the days until her next release. Is it September yet?

I received my copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for this honest review. All opinions are my own.