COUNTING CHICKENS

In this second-chance romance, an entrepreneur and a professor fall in love on Martha’s Vineyard.

Since Remy Litchfield divorced her husband and left Austin, Texas, for her home base on Martha’s Vineyard, she’s flourished: palling around with her hippie friends Willow and Teddy Madden, starting her own high-end concierge business, and raising a flock of creatively named chickens. The birds live in a pen near Remy’s cozy house that her uncle is fixing up to sell. When Teddy’s older brother, Jake, Remy’s childhood crush who rejected her when they were teens, returns to the Vineyard for a summer sabbatical from academia, things get even more interesting. Studious Jake can’t deny the chemistry between them but doesn’t quite understand why Remy dropped out of college years ago. After their first date turns disastrous, Remy falls into the arms of Eli Wolff, a sexy British tech star who’s settled on the Vineyard for the summer and has retained her concierge services. But as the island summer progresses, Eli shows his true colors, and Remy can’t quite get her former crush out of her mind. When a tragedy befalls Remy’s snug home, will Jake step up and be a hero? Or will Remy and Jake remain a teenage island fantasy, too different in the real world? Bell paints a lovely, vivid picture of the vibrant, year-round island community, which takes pride in hard work and artistic pursuits and, especially in sweet stoner Teddy’s case, always enjoys a good beach party. Remy is a compelling protagonist: beautiful inside and out and driven to succeed in giving her clients the best Vineyard experience possible while being a devoted “mama” to her chickens. She’s a loyal friend who rescues Teddy from an embarrassing situation in the book’s opening chapter. Unfortunately, Jake is not nearly as dynamic; instead, he’s dull and prone to making damaging assumptions rather than communicating. Throughout the novel, he patronizes Remy and constantly explains things to her. Even when he supposedly changes for the better, the relationship seems unlikely to last.

A mismatch of a stunning protagonist and a man who never quite learns his lesson.