My Review: Dream Lake

Dream Lake (Friday Harbor)

About the Book:

Dream Lake takes readers once again to the exquisite setting of Friday Harbor, and tells the story of Zoe Hoffman, an innkeeper who has all but given up on love. She’s a gentle, romantic soul, but has been so hurt in the past that she dare not trust her heart with anyone. Especially not Alex Nolan. Alex is the most haunted of all the Nolan brothers. He drinks to keep his demons at bay and not only has he given up on love, he has never, ever believed in it. Zoe and Alex are oil and water, fire and ice, sunshine and shadow. But sometimes, it takes only a glimmer of light to chase away the dark. Dream Lake is classic Lisa Kleypas: romantic, powerful, emotional, and magical.

My Comments:

If you like romances and ghost stories, you'll like this one.  As Alex is renovating his brother's house, he meets the ghost of a WWII pilot.  The pilot does not remember who his is, nor does he know why he is a ghost.  Zoe is a friend of his brother's fiancee, and Zoe needs someone to renovate a house into which she and her grandmother will move.  Her grandmother is descending into dementia.  Of course the story comes together with the ghost knowing the grandmother.  Of course, despite protestations, Zoe and Alex end up together.  As a Kleypas novel, it is steamy in parts.  

Often with series fiction  you feel you've missed something if you don't read the earlier books.  In this case, the books seem to repeat a lot of stuff from earlier books, since the stories are all happening at the same time.  

I enjoyed this library book and give it a B.

Rainshadow Road: My Review

Rainshadow Road (Friday Harbor)

About the Book:

Lucy Marinn is a glass artist living in mystical, beautiful, Friday Harbor, Washington.  She is stunned and blindsided by the most bitter kind of betrayal:  her fiancé Kevin has left her.  His new lover is Lucy’s own sister.   Lucy's bitterness over being dumped is multiplied by the fact that she has constantly made the wrong choices in her romantic life.   Facing the severe disapproval of Lucy's parents, Kevin asks his friend Sam Nolan, a local vineyard owner on San Juan Island, to "romance" Lucy and hopefully loosen her up and get her over her anger. Complications ensue when Sam and Lucy begin to fall in love, Kevin has second thoughts, and Lucy discovers that the new relationship in her life began under false pretenses. Questions about love, loyalty, old patterns, mistakes, and new beginnings are explored as Lucy learns that some things in life—even after being broken—can be made into something new and beautiful.

My Comments:

Lisa Kleypas is a better than average writer of romance novels.  While she writes steamy bedroom scenes, those scenes are not what carry her books, at least for me.  She creates very real characters, even if they are (as in this case) a little magical.  Unlike what is said above, Sam is upfront with Lucy, he tells her that he was asked to romance her, and she goes along with it.  Like his brothers, Sam is afraid of love because of his childhood--he beds women but doesn't sleep with them.  Of course as an old-fashioned woman I had to shake my head at all those folks living together outside of marriage who then wondered why their relationships didn't work  Oh, well...

I enjoyed this library book and recommend it if you like contemporary romance and don't mind steam.  Grade:  B

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor

Christmas Eve At Friday Harbor

About the Book:

One rain-slicked night, six-year-old Holly lost the only parent she knew, her beloved mother Victoria. And since that night, she has never again spoken a word.

The last thing Mark Nolan needs is a six-year-old girl in his life. But he soon realizes that he will do everything he can to make her life whole again. His sister’s will gives him the instructions: There’s no other choice but you. Just start by loving her. The rest will follow.

Maggie Collins doesn’t dare believe in love again, after losing her husband of one year. But she does believe in the magic of imagination. As the owner of a toy shop, she lives what she loves. And when she meets Holly Nolan, she sees a little girl in desperate need of a little magic.

Three lonely people. Three lives at the crossroads. Three people who are about to discover that Christmas is the time of year when anything is possible, and when wishes have a way of finding the path home…

My Comments:

So, Holly ends up in an institution, Mark becomes a playboy and Maggie adopts 32 cats to live in her toy shop since she has vowed never to speak to a man again in her life....of course not, it's a romance novel, how do you think it turns out?  Actually this was more predictable than most, and like many Christmas romances, it was short--just over 200 pages and they were a very easy 200 pages to read.  Though many Lisa Kleypas novels are quite steamy, this one has only one intimate scene and while we are in the room with them, the descriptions are more flowery than anatomical.  

Mark has two brothers and I look forward to reading about them in their books as soon as my library is able to get them to me.  I got this one from the library as well. Grade:  B.