A good pick for some wholesome family-oriented romance.
Can a pregnant divorcée and a widowed cowboy let go of the past long enough to rekindle the flame of first love?
When Ellie Marsden left Branding Iron, Texas, she didn't look back—not even at Jubal McFarland, whose heart she broke. Now that she's back, fate seems to keep throwing them together. On the night of their high school graduation, Jubal proposed to Ellie, asking her to return after she finished college. Eager to live a bigger life than their small town allowed, she turned him down. Later, she quit law school to marry Brent, who abused her and cheated on her with one of his legal clients. Pregnant and divorced, Ellie returns to her mother's house in her hometown with her tail tucked between her legs. Jubal has his own complications. A car accident left him a widower with an 8-year-old daughter, and an unpaid loan of his father's left the land he grew up on the property of a mysterious outfit called Shumway and Sons Property Management. In spite of all their baggage, Jubal comes to Ellie's rescue when her car is hit by a falling tree branch. Ellie helps Jubal research the mysterious property company that might have cheated his father out of the farm. Predictably, the two grow closer, and Ellie's baby, her lap dog, and a Christmas miracle all contribute to a sweet if formulaic happy-ever-after. While watching the love between Jubal and Ellie unfold is the main event, Jubal's precocious daughter, Gracie, and Ellie's teacup poodle almost steal the show in this novel written by Dailey's (Refuge Cove, 2017, etc.) longtime collaborator after the author's death in 2013.
A good pick for some wholesome family-oriented romance.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4201-4008-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Zebra/Kensington
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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