HEARTBREAK COVE

HEARTBREAK COVE                             LILY EVERETT
Posted:  March 23, 2015

Heartbreak Cove by Lily EverettSheriff Andie Shepard may be new to Sanctuary Island, but, like everyone else who comes here, she’s already fallen under its healing spell. Andie is determined to leave her mistakes behind her and make this scenic haven her home. But she just might have to change her plans—as well as open her heart—when an unexpected visitor shows up on her doorstep…

Caitlin is the ten-year-old niece Andie never knew she had. Silent, wary, and shy as can be, Caitlin only responds to the horses that run wild across the island. Andie has no idea how to deal with Caitlin—until Sam Brennan enters the picture. A tall, handsome loner who rehabilitates abused horses, Sam is able to help Caitlin break out of her shell. But that’s not all: He finds a way to touch something deep in Andie’s heart, opening her up to the healing power of love. Together, these three lost souls must face the darkness in their past to build a brighter future. Because here, on Sanctuary Island, anything is possible…
 

MY REVIEW:
    When two people feel this pull to be together what can you do?  They both have past they are working through yet not by choice.  It took the lost hope, faith, and trust of Sheriff Andie Shepard’s niece, Caitlin, to bring it to the forefront. 
     Sam Brennan is running and hiding from the law.  As he has all his life.  Caitlin and he have something in common and it will take their love of horses to bring it to the surface.  Yet, with the knowledge that he needs to and should stay far away from Caitlin’s aunt, Sheriff Andie, Sam is drawn to her like a bee to honey.  Knowing he would have to spill his truth.
     For Andie she feels a sexual pull so strong with Sam.  Fear from her past keeps her hypersensitive to possible danger even if it could just be to her heart this time and not to her person like last time.  She knows that he shows concern and love for his young teen cousin Matt, so she gets mixed signals emotionally.  She still seems to question herself in a lot of ways because two men who said they loved her betrayed her love and trust.
     Now there’s little Caitlin she is into Andie’s life when she’s 8 years old.  She comes with her own baggage that just breaks both Andie’s and Sam’s hearts.  Love, faith, and trust she knows for sure do not exist and if they come it would never come from a women only a man.  The saddest part is she never has met “Owen” Andie’s brother and her father because her mom was dragging her heels.  Then, the worst possible tragedy happens and Caitlin has no other relations that are living.
     So, it becomes a “priority #1” for them to find dad.  They did but he was overseas getting ready to leave on a mission with his Ranger Unit.  So, Owen sent her to Andie…
     This story has a story within a story because you know how Andie and Sam were brought together by two teen’s best friends.  Well, you will see the secret crush the two carried for each other unfold or will it break even their friendship apart?  
     I enjoyed the story as a whole but at about the 70% mark it started to drag for me but picked up at the 80% mark.  It tells a story of abandonment, fear, loneliness, family, bonds, commitment or lack of most of all love and trust.  In the end you get your HEA but wow it is a wild ride of emotions.  I give this 4 stars.  Provided by Net Galley.
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SNOWBOUND SUMMER

SNOWBOUND SUMMER                           SALLY CLEMENTS
Posted:  March 23, 2015

Snowbound Summer by Sally ClementsSummer in the snow… 
Restaurant owner Summer Costello, reeling from recent failures in her perfect life, is hiding out in her childhood home. When she finds an injured dog outside in a snowstorm, she calls the local vet, who turns out to be her younger brother Declan’s best friend, gorgeous Nick Logan. 
She’s his secret crush–no woman Nick’s dated has matched up to the fantasy of being with Summer, the woman who blazed out of Brookbridge for a new life in London years ago. Now, a dog needs his aid, and despite treacherous conditions he drives out to help. She’ll be there with her boyfriend, and surely his infatuation will have burned itself out? 
Stranded in a snowstorm, Summer sizzles with attraction for the man Nick has become. And when Summer confides her long-term relationship is over, and suggests a clandestine fling, is there any way Nick can resist her, even though she’s the one woman Declan warned him to keep away from?

MY REVIEW:
     I have to say this was a fun fast moving short story.  The best part is that the characters were enjoyable, believable, and engaging.  You could actually see this very thing unfolding in your own family or to a friend.
     It seems there is always that one friend that is and always has been an over-achiever.  That never ever saw the bottom rung of a ladder.  They were always at the top.  No one had to put them there they just were.
     Well, that was Summer Costello.  She made everything in her life a competition.  She had to be the best at everything.  Most of the time it came naturally other times she did have put forth a little effort.  So, when she told her family she was leaving Ireland for London to be a chef they knew she would be.
     Well it crushed her younger brothers’ friend Nick Logan who Declan knew he had a mad crush on his older sister.  Because for as long as he could remember he had been in love with Summer.  He would watch over her when she got herself in a pickle in those rare times she let her hair down.  So, when he found out the family was going to London to the opening of her first restaurant he figured this was his opening.
     Nick knew she had a boyfriend but he had to declare his love once and for all.  That night though she surprised them all by telling them all that this guy, Michael, that no one liked, she was moving in with him.  Nick was crushed and made a decision right then and there that he was moving on and would no longer pine over her any longer.  Now a year has passed and Nick is called out to care for an injured dog at the home of Declan’s parents but he knows they’re in another country visiting Declan. 
     Nick arrives to find Summer there soon after and weeding through her lies he finds out she and her ex Michael have broken up.  Yet, she doesn’t tell him the other big secret nor does he share his darkest secret with her.   Can they build enough trust being snowed in to get to that point?  You will have to read and find out.  I totally enjoy this story.  I give this 5 stars.  Provided by Net Galley.
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