Review: Butterfly Cove

Butterfly Cove (Hqn)

About the Book:

Girl's gone bad…for the town's new golden boy 

Maybe opposites don't always attract. If they did, architect Olivia Sullivan would have run away with bad boy Rafe Russo when they were teenagers. Instead, Olivia has spent ten years dreaming up designs for a life that hasn't gone the way she planned. Still reeling from her career's implosion and her father's death, Olivia thanks her lucky stars for the support of her three lifelong friends. But this good girl is through sitting on the sidelines. When Rafe returns to the beautiful Oregon coast where they grew up, her former flame ignites a new desire. Now Olivia must take a walk on the wild side to show the new deputy that in matters of love…being bad can feel very good. 

Freshly back from Afghanistan, rugged ex-Marine and new deputy Rafe is done breaking laws and hearts. He's always regretted leaving Olivia behind, but now she's after adventure and he'd better proceed with caution. Because wanting her again might be easy, but fighting for a future together will be his biggest risk yet.

My Comments:

I stayed up late last night reading this through in one evening/night, so it definitely kept me engaged.  However, in the end, it fell flat.  I liked both Olivia and Rafe.  Olivia has always tried to make everyone happy, especially her emotionally distant father.  Of course that hasn't made her happy, but rather has given her anxiety attacks.  Rafe grew up on the wrong side of town but fell in love with the mayor's daughter.  Then suddenly one day he was gone, and she never heard from him again.  Now they are both back in town.  Now they both finally know what separated them.  Guess what it was?  Not that I read romance novels for original plot lines but...

The book includes a bit of mystery. Olivia's father has always been relatively well-off.  Now, it seems his money has all disappeared.  One night the power is cut to the house and mysterious noises are heard.  Something strange is found.  What does it all mean?  It's like there was this build-up and then Pfftt...it just deflates--that's the answer to the mystery?

There are a couple of steamy scenes though they are as flowery as descriptive.

If you are a fan of the other Summer Island Books:  The Accidental Bride, A Home by the Sea and The Knitting Diaries (links are to my reviews)  you'll enjoy catching up with old friends.  Otherwise, I'd pass on this one.  Grade C+

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  

Review: The Accidental Bride

The Accidental Bride (Hqn)

About the Book:
When her friends order her to take a vacation, successful chef Jilly O'Hara is less than enthused. She may be overworked, but a trip to the mountains is not her idea of fun. Especially when she's roped into an outrageous scheme to pose as a happy bride—all to fulfill the kindly resort owner's dreams of once again hosting a lavish wedding. But the ruggedly handsome make-believe groom may just make it tolerable….
Walker Hale has kept to himself since his return from active duty—but the next thing he knows, he's also playing along with the wedding charade. Even this jaded loner isn't immune to Jilly's quirky charm…or her beauty. But vacations have to end sometime, and they'll soon have to decide if the feelings between them were more than pretend.

My Comments:

Jilly has heart problems (physical) and her doctor orders rest.  Her friends (we've met them in other books) send her to a knitting retreat (she thinks she's going to a cooking retreat--she's a chef).  While she is at this resort in the middle of nowhere she meets Walker, who is a veteran recently returned from the Middle East.  They fall for each other, and agree to marry, just temporarily, to make an old woman happy.  What can I say? It is not the most realistic plot I've ever read.  It was a cute story, and she fell for his dog before she fell for him.  There are a couple of hot and heavy scenes but they aren't terribly explicit.  Great literature it is not, but its not a bad pool read.  Grade:  B-

Review: A Home By the Sea

A Home by the Sea (Hqn)

About the Book:

Grace Lindstrom has followed her fiancé across three continents, starry-eyed and full of dreams. But when he dies in a plane crash, Grace discovers that their life together was the cruelest kind of lie—and swears to never lose herself to that kind of love again. Until one night, when a chance encounter leads her to the kind of man she's always dreamed of—and the deep family ties she's never known.

Noah McKay knows he can't offer Grace any kind of future—not when he spends every day putting his life on the line. But when Grace's grandfather suddenly falls ill and she's called home to the small island town where she grew up, he realizes he can't live without her. Aided by good knitting, good chocolate and deep friendship, Grace is slowly learning to trust again—but can she learn to love a man whose secrets run so deep?

My Comments:
Three young women who grew up together.  Three young women who were young when they lost their parents.  The first found love in The Knitting Diaries (my review); the second finds love in this book, and I'll bet I know who the guy will be in the third book.  As is true of many series books, there are things that happen in this one for no apparent reason, but if you realize another book is coming, then they make sense.

It's a romance novel, a quick enjoyable read with a pretty basic plot.  She writes about cooking and travels around the world doing research.  She was engaged to be married by her fiancee died.  Shortly thereafter she learned that he regularly cheated on her so she's twice burned.  He defuses bombs for a living, for some top-secret government department, so he can't tell folks exactly what he does.  He is on call frequently and has to go where the job sends him.  He has had lots of women but no love.  They meet when he sees her rescuing kittens from a dumpster and basically it is love at first sight for both of them, though they fight it.  They are both loving people who love their families and are willing to sacrifice for them.

There is one moderately graphic romantic scene and it happens outside of wedlock.  Its funny, the book mentions that he has no trouble getting women to share his bed, but that they know going in that it isn't serious.  He meets her and courts her attentively for a few weeks, even going across the country to see her.  At that time, just a few weeks after they meet, he uses his body to tell her what he cannot say.  I have to wonder, if he falls into bed that easily and that indiscriminately, what does his body say?  He may be technically proficient in such activities, but how can you communicate something special with an activity you will do with anyone--but that's just the old-fashioned Catholic in me speaking.

I'd like to thank the publisher for sending me a review copy of the book via NetGalley.  I was not obligated to write a positive review.  Grade:  B.