Review: Chasing Carolina Jessamine (The Southern Isles Book 3) by Laurie Beach

 

Sometimes, beauty’s not enough…

Carolina Jessamine Boone was created to be beautiful. At least that’s what she’s been told her whole life. So, why is she still alone?

Jessa has a good job at the island winery and is making an old Lowcountry bungalow into a home—she’s content, and certainly has no need for a man. But anonymous gifts left through an old milk door raise both questions and memories of the past. Were the gifts left by the suave outsider who has designs on not just her, but the winery itself? Could they be from the boy who broke her heart years ago? Or is she about to finally discover who her father is?

The more Jessa opens her heart, the more she puts herself at risk. But sometimes heartbreak is simply a nudge onto a new, better path.

 

My Review:

A beautifully written love story. 

This book is the perfect escape.  It is so well written that I could easily picture myself in the South Carolina lowcountry.  The book is filled with everything I was looking for, family, friendships, secrets and finding true love where you least expect it.  I couldn’t get enough of Jessa and Gates’s story.

 

 

Review: A Brush with Murder (The Shepherd Sisters Mysteries, Book 4) by Tracy Gardner

Can Savanna Shepherd and her sisters unravel a deadly web of art and betrayal before the final brushstroke paints their doom?

When Savanna Shepherd’s father, Harlan, and artist friend Sebastian Alexander vanish during a sailing regatta along Michigan’s west coast, the Shepherd family is plunged into turmoil. As the Coast Guard scours the Great Lake, Savanna sets aside her work on Sebastian’s art show to join her sisters in comforting their mother and aiding in the search.

When Sebastian’s assistant is found dead—Savanna’s keen eye as an art authenticator turns to a darker canvas: decoding the secrets of Sebastian’s bitter family. Days later, the missing yacht drifts ashore, with Harlan gravely injured, Sebastian missing, and a sinister bloodstain on the bow.

In this compelling mystery brimming with small-town charm, loyal pets, and family ties, Savanna must piece together the clues to uncover who cut the lines, spilled the blood, and nearly tore her world apart.

 

My Review: 

A fast-paced cozy mystery. 

While Savanna, an art authenticator, is busy preparing for a friend’s art show and her sister’s wedding.  Savanna’s father and his best friend turn up missing during a sailing regatta.  Soon after that, she stumbles upon a dead body, her artist friend’s assistant.  Savanna will do everything possible to solve the crimes.  While reading this book (and the rest of the series) I struggled finding a stopping point.  The books are that good.  This is a fast paced and I predictable story.

 

Review: Breaking the Alpha (Serpent's Tongue Ink Book 2) by Katja Desjarlais

He’s a perfect disaster. She’s a perfect escape.

River Baker has traded his failed marriage, a social media disaster, and his modeling career in LA for his hometown of Epson. Awaiting him is the notorious Baker reputation, a job at his brother’s tattoo shop, Serpent’s Tongue Ink, and there’s no escaping the judgment over why he couldn’t keep his ‘perfect life’ together. But when he meets a business woman who sees past his handsome façade to the scars he hides, River finds the true escape he seeks.

Angelina Watson owns Wholly Yours and strives to live a quiet life of balance. A free spirit who never felt like she belonged, Angelina has created her own peaceful world of candles, essential oils, and trinkets as unique as she is. The broken, conflicted River sets her passion and her bed on fire, but she wants to be his partner, not his crutch.

Torn between perfection, expectation, and love, River has a choice to make before Angelina makes it for him and walks away for good.

 

My Review:

I was hooked from the very first page. 

This is the first book, by this author, that I have read, and it won’t be the last. I missed the first book in the series and I am ready to pick it up now.  Even though I missed the first book, I had no trouble getting into this one.  River and Angelina’s story is so good.  I read it in record time.  The book is well written with interesting characters, some suspense and lots of passion.  Top it off with a bad boy and it’s a win for me.