Publication Date - 1st March 2012
Paperback - 336 pages
Genre - Contemporary Romance
Source - Received from publisher for review
Rating - 5 out of 5: It was amazing!
Book Info - Lucy Marinn is a glass artist living in beautiful, inspiring Friday Harbor, Washington. Creatively fulfilled and engaged to be married, she is content with her life, until she is stunned by the worst kind of betrayal: her fiance Kevin announces he's leaving Lucy to be with her younger sister.
Facing the disapproval of Lucy's parents, Kevin asks his friend Sam Nolan, one of the owners of the Rainshadow vineyard, to 'romance' Lucy and help her get over her anger. But then Sam and Lucy begin to fall in love and things become complicated, especially when Kevin starts to have second thoughts. And as Lucy discovers that the new relationship in her life began under false pretenses, her world is shattered, and she is forced to question everything.
My Thoughts - I've never read any contemporary romance before but when a review copy of Rainshadow Road arrived through my door I instantly fell in love with the beautiful front cover and knew that I was going to give it a try. I'm so glad I did - I just loved this book and am very much looking forward to reading more from Lisa Kleypas.
I really liked the main characters, Lucy and Sam. Lucy has been hurt by her fiance and is reluctant to get into another relationship in case she gets hurt again. She shows a great deal of strength when she feels attracted to Sam but doesn't act on it - she isn't the kind of woman who feels as though she needs a man on her arm. I enjoyed reading the back story of Lucy and her younger sister, Alice, and I felt it added a lot of emotional depth to the story. It really helped me to understand Lucy more and, although I still don't like Alice, it did help me to understand why she acts the way she has and I even ended up feeling sympathy for her.
And I just loved Sam! He is a man who enjoys a woman's company but he definitely has commitment issues. Again, his back story gives a lot of insight into this behaviour and I really felt for him and his brothers as I learnt what their life was like when growing up. But what made my heart melt the most about him was his relationship with his niece, Holly. She is an orphan and Sam and his older brother Mark have become her guardians. There are some very heart-warming moments between Sam and Holly that just made me melt inside and fall in love with Sam even more.
The romance was very sweet but also had a lot of heat behind it. They have both experienced a lot of pain in their past and don't want to hurt each other but they just can't fight the attraction they feel for each other. And when they do finally give in to temptation there are some very hot and steamy moments.
Summary - A sweet and charming love story that is full of well-written, three-dimensional characters that you can't help but fall in love with. Whilst reading Rainshadow Road I became completely immersed in the story and even managed to finish it in less than a day (and with two boys under the age of five to run around after that is quite an accomplishment!). I predict that I will be reading more from this amazing author very soon.
Other books in this series:
1. Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor
2. Rainshadow Road
3. Dream Lake (August 2012)
Other reviews of this book:
Book Binge / Dear Author / Smexy Books
This book counts towards the following challenges:
Book #18 for 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
2 comments:
This sounds like a fabulous story Chrissie. I've enjoyed the occasional Contemporary Romance, but for me they have the tendency toward two-dimensional characters and slow plots which don't do it for me. So my experimenting in the subgenre has been limited.
Rainshadow Road looks like it would be right up my alley (but then I shouldn't be surprised since you liked it...)
Shelagh - The characters in this book was the main strength for me. They were all very much three-dimensional and I fell in love with all of them :)
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