Small town romance set in Canada
The MMC's beloved mother died when he was 12, and he immediately became estranged from his stepfather. So much so that he demanded to be sent away to boarding school. The stepfather agreed and, in the process, the MMC became alienated from his younger full-sister and several half-siblings. He is currently around 33 years old and has not been home to visit since he was 18.
Frustratingly, it is never made clear why the MMC is so convinced that his stepfather hated him, because there is a great deal of information about the stepfather's personality that presents him as a warm and caring human being. In addition, inexplicably, there has never been any attempt on the part of either the MMC or the now deceased stepfather to breach the divide between them.
The MMC returns home when the stepfather suddenly dies. After the funeral, there is a reading of a bizarre will that we are informed the stepfather did not do randomly. He spent a lot of time planning this will and making sure it is ironclad and cannot be broken. The terms of the will are that the MMC must live in the big mansion of the stepfather for six months and get involved in a local charity or all of the rich stepfather's substantial estate will be given away to several different charities. This plot point makes very little sense. First, that the stepfather would do this to his other children, making their inheritance subject to the unpredictable whims of the stepson he has not seen for 15 years. Second, that the MMC gives in within about 5 minutes to this crazy will by declaring to himself that there is nothing he wouldn't do for his siblings. Really? These are the same siblings that he has avoided for 15 years.
There is a popular trope in this novel that quite a few people enjoy. An MC, whether an FMC or an MMC, left the small town where they resided during their childhood and teen years, with no intention of ever living there again. However, unexpected circumstances bring them back, and they come to accept, as they never did before, how absolutely fantastic their Hallmark version of a hometown is. And of course, because this is a romance, they find true love.
I am not personally a fan of small town romance in general, because I was raised in a series of small towns in the Midwest, and these sentimental stories are so far from reality, I struggle to suspend disbelief. I'm also not particularly drawn to the trope, "the wanderer returns." What caused me to give this story a try were two factors: First, the book was on sale for free, and, secondly, the FMC and MMC are heavily involved in nurturing the FMC's 7-year-old nephew, who has been abandoned by his mother. I am quite fond of that particular trope.
Well, the little boy is definitely cute, and the FMC and MMC caring for him definitely makes them sympathetic. But unfortunately, this was not enough to overcome major flaws within the execution of the weird-will premise. Everything just fell in place too easily for the MMC to overcome the dual negative motivations of his resistance to relationships with his family and to ever living again in his hometown.
Finally, and this is just me, but the name Trickle Creek really turned me off. It struck me as a really ugly name that did not endear me any further to the whole small-town concept.