The Secrets of Love Story Bridge: A Novel

by Phaedra Patrick

Overview

From the author of Rise and Shine Benedict Stone, now an original movie on Hallmark.

“Patrick blends romance, mystery, and quirkiness to highly entertaining effect.” —Booklist

“A wonderfully hope-filled story.” —Sarah Haywood, New York Times bestselling author of The Cactus

A single father gets an unexpected second chance at love.

It’s summer in the city and passions are soaring along with the temperature—for everyone but Mitchell Fisher, who hates all things romance. He relishes his job cutting off the padlocks that couples fasten to the famous “love story” bridge. Only his young daughter, Poppy, knows that behind his prickly veneer, Mitchell still grieves the loss of her mother.

Then one hot day, everything changes when Mitchell courageously rescues a woman who falls from the bridge into the river. He’s surprised to feel an unexpected connection to her, but she disappears before he can ask her name. Desperate to find out her identity, Mitchell is shocked to learn she’s been missing for almost a year. He teams up with her spirited sister, Liza, on a quest to find her again. However, she’s left only one clue behind—a message on the padlock she hung on the bridge.

Brimming with Phaedra Patrick’s signature charm and a sparkling cast of characters, The Secrets of Love Story Bridge follows one man’s journey to unlock his heart and discover new beginnings in the unlikeliest places.

Don’t miss Phaedra Patrick’s winning new novel, The Messy Lives of Book People!

Check out these other heartwarming stories from Phaedra Patrick.
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone
The Library of Lost and Found

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780778389439
Publisher:	Park Row Books
Publication date:	02/09/2021
Edition description:	First Time Trade
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	73,320
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Phaedra Patrick studied art and marketing and has worked as a stained glass artist, film festival organizer and communications manager. Her books have been translated into twenty-five languages worldwide and her first three novels were all USA Today bestsellers. Her second novel Rise and Shine Benedict Stone has been made into a Hallmark movie. Phaedra lives with her family in Saddleworth where she writes full-time.

Editorial Reviews

Patrick blends romance, mystery, and quirkiness to highly entertaining effect.” —Booklist

“The Secrets of Love Story Bridge is a wonderfully hope-filled story about how plunging into the unknown and allowing ourselves to be swept along by the currents of life can bring us to a place of unexpected happiness. Phaedra Patrick has a knack for creating memorable and touching characters, and Mitchell Fisher is no exception. A brave, compassionate man who has locked away his emotions following a tragic accident, Mitchell earns our affection as we follow his journey to truth and acceptance.” —Sarah Haywood, New York Times bestselling author of The Cactus

“Fans of cozy fiction will enjoy this small escape from reality.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Tender but twisty, this fourth novel from Phaedra Patrick bears the writer’s signature for layered tales of finding family and belonging, as she skillfully reveals the hidden connections that bind the lives of these endearing characters together.” —Library Journal

“Exceptionally well written. The characters are multi-dimensional, realistic, and vivid… You’ll go through the range of emotions with this book. Much of it is bittersweet, but the underlying emotion of this story is hope. This is truly a feel-good read with substance.” —San Francisco Book Review

From the Publisher

03/01/2020

Three years after partner Anita's death, architect Mitchell Fisher copes with his grief by writing her daily love letters—or mostly updates about their plucky nine-year-old daughter Poppy. He's still too guilt-ridden to open the note she left him on the morning of the accident that so unexpectedly took her life. For work, he removes the padlocks lining the city of Upchester's oldest bridge, a job he should loathe but secretly relishes. One fateful summer afternoon, with steel cutters in hand, he sees a woman with an uncanny resemblance to Anita who fastens her own declaration of love to the bridge, then loses her balance, plunging into the river below. Jumping in after her, Mitchell saves her life, but once safely ashore is knocked unconscious by a cyclist, having never learned the alluring stranger's name. His quest to find her takes the story in a surprising turn when Poppy's offbeat music teacher Liza claims the woman is her estranged sister Yvette, who's been missing for months. VERDICT Tender but twisty, this fourth novel from British author Patrick (The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper) bears the writer's signature for layered tales of finding family and belonging, as she skillfully reveals the hidden connections that bind the lives of these endearing characters together. [See Prepub Alert, 10/14/19.]—Annalisa Pešek, Library Journal

Library Journal

2020-01-27
Three years after a single dad suffers the loss of his partner, he finds love again.

Mitchell Fisher, former architect and current city maintenance worker, is doing his best as a single dad. He and his 9-year-old daughter, Poppy, live in his onetime work-week crash pad in the city of Upchester, England, now the only home they have. It's been three years since Poppy’s mom, Anita, died in a car crash, and Mitchell is still struggling with his grief over her death and with the long hours he spent working apart from his little family in an effort to take care of them. Author Patrick (The Library of Lost and Found, 2019, etc.), known for her cozy tales, has crafted another one. The story here kicks off when Mitchell catches the eye of an attractive woman on a bridge just before she locks a padlock onto the railing, a token of love and commitment that's become a citywide trend. (Mitchell has to remove these padlocks as part of his job.) Then the woman falls into the river below. Despite not being a great swimmer, he jumps in and saves her, but he doesn't manage to learn the woman's name. When Mitchell becomes a local hero in the press, though, he finds out that the woman, whose name is Yvette, has been missing for 12 months, and he joins together with Liza, her sister (conveniently his daughter’s new music teacher), to locate her. Readers will need to suspend their disbelief at the tale; the right person always shows up at the right moment, solutions appear just as they are needed, health scares aren’t really that bad, and bad guys back down immediately. Told in uncomplicated prose, this is a straightforward story that takes as fact that love is truly in the air.

Fans of cozy fiction will enjoy this small escape from reality.

Kirkus Reviews