The Daisy Chain Flower Shop Review: Laurie Gilmore's New Dream Harbor Book Is A Delight
For the sixth installment of Laurie Gilmore's Dream Harbor book series, The Daisy Chain Flower Shop, the author uses familiar romance tropes and dives deeper into the small town's history to deliver a fresh and delightful story. With a mixture of fake dating and friends-to-lovers, and a curse plaguing the female main character, The Daisy Chain Flower Shop is a swoonworthy love story made even more lovable by its quirky small-town setting. The book follows Daisy, the youngest in a long line of women named Daisy who've run Dream Harbor's flower shop, as she attempts to keep her family's store from failing. However, after a divorce and broken engagement, plus a string of bad luck befalling the weddings she provided flowers for, the small town is convinced she's cursed. Enter Elliot, the shy architect who moved to Dream Harbor after his own divorce, who gets roped into being Daisy's fake boyfriend when her ex-fiancé comes to town looking for wedding venues with his new partner. If the plot sounds a little convoluted and more than a bit far-fetched, it is. Romance novels are known for their escapism, and when you throw in a quirky small town that believes its mayor's dreams are psychic signs from the universe, The Daisy Chain Flower Shop has plenty of elements that don't feel realistic. But that's also the benefit of Gilmore's Dream Harbor series being six books in; it's a lot easier to suspend your disbelief and go along with the town's wacky antics, especially since Daisy and Elliot's story is rooted in real, relatable emotions.
The Daisy Chain Flower Shop's Story Is Fake Dating Done Right
The Daisy Chain Flower Shop By Laurie Gilmore Book Cover
It occurred to me, while reading The Daisy Chain Flower Shop, that one of the best parts of fake dating as a romance trope is it's often accompanied by the friends-to-lovers book trope — and Gilmore's sixth Dream Harbor novel is a perfect example of these two tropes working well hand-in-hand. Although there are sparks early on in Daisy and Elliot's relationship, they each believe themselves to be too damaged by their failed relationships to be worthy of love. However, they've entered into a fake relationship, which gives them a chance to become friends first. Unlike more antagonistic tropes (like enemies-to-lovers and rivals-to-lovers), Daisy and Elliot's love story develops with much more sweetness. They're both scarred from their past relationships, and it's a delight to see them evolve from wanting to protect themselves to wanting to protect the other person from their baggage, which they perceive to be too much for another person to handle. Because their love story is based on a foundation of friendship, there's true, genuine care in how they treat each other, and it makes for a lovely, enjoyable read. While the fake dating storyline does feel a bit contrived — especially since Daisy ropes Elliot into the charade because she wants to prove to her ex-fiancé that she's doing fine without him — it takes on a deeper meaning when it becomes about helping Daisy save her family's flower shop. The book also manages to make a decent enough case for the relationship benefiting both Daisy and Elliot, the latter of which is using it to assure his family he's moved on from his ex-wife. Altogether, The Daisy Chain Flower Shop pulls off this particular trope, and uses it simply as a tool to get to the heart of the story.
The Daisy Chain Flower Shop's Love Story Feels Real In The Best Way
Gilmore grounds The Daisy Chain Flower Shop's more fantastical elements in the realism of Daisy and Elliot's past failed relationships. Both were hit especially hard by their divorces and, in Daisy's case, her broken engagement, and it helps to humanize the characters. Although not everyone may have been hit by a breakup as bad as Elliot, who fell into a depression and isolated himself from his brother and mother, most readers can likely relate to some aspect of his or Daisy's story. Perhaps it's because their histories are particularly fraught, but seeing Daisy and Elliot overcome the grief of their failed relationships and the fear of getting hurt again is particularly poignant. Their love story is a beautiful reminder that even those with baggage, who might be "cursed" in love, can find someone who understands and cares about them enough to love them even when they don't think they're worthy of it. And that's the beauty of a really good romance novel — which The Daisy Chain Flower Shop certainly is.
The Daisy Chain Flower Shop is an excellent read for any romance fan
As someone who already likes fake dating as a trope (especially when it's woven in with friends-to-lovers), I was predisposed to like The Daisy Chain Flower Shop, but I was surprised by how much I loved it. All of Gilmore's Dream Harbor novels juxtapose a realistic love story with the town's quirky personality, but it all comes together especially well in Daisy and Elliot's romance, especially as it relates to the story of Daisy's ancestor. As a bit of a history nerd myself, it was really fun to get some insight into Dream Harbor's history, even if in a small way.
Ultimately, The Daisy Chain Flower Shop is an excellent read for any romance fan, and might even be sweet enough to win over some skeptics of the genre or the fake dating trope. There are plenty of appearances from past Dream Harbor couples to reward those who've read all other books in Gilmore's series, but it's not a requirement to enjoy Daisy and Elliot's romance. All told, The Daisy Chain Flower Shop is an enchanting and entertaining romance novel that's sure to please anyone who reads it — there's nothing fake about the love in this story, and that's what makes it wonderful.
