Take Me All the Way

November 2, 2015
Blake's third Coral Cove contemporary (after Love Me If You Dare) transports Jeremy Sheridan, a Marine veteran from her Destiny series, from Ohio to the quirky Florida seashore town. Jeremy, suffering from PTSD after a tour of Afghanistan, needs a place to start over. He finds work constructing a miniature golf course. Artist Tamra Day, whose upbringing in an Arizona commune led to her trust issues and need for control, designed the course with Coral Cove landmarks. Forced to work together, rude, bushy-bearded Jeremy and reserved, long-skirted Tamra feel attraction growing, though both try to hide their true selves. By giving Jeremy's backstory and artfully describing his tense reactions to crowds, Blake creates a fully fleshed-out character. Sex scenes sizzle, and emotional encounters resonate with honest feelings. The theme of forgiving oneself adds depth to an otherwise routine romance. Agent: Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

October 15, 2015
Jeremy Sheridan returns from his tour in Afghanistan a broken man with an unbearable secret, prone to hellish nightmares and emotional outbursts. Unable to adjust to civilian life or hold down a job, he becomes a drifter, homeless until the owner of a small motel in Coral Cove, Florida, allows him to stay there. Tamra Day is a local artist. To her, Coral Cove is a place where the ocean is her constant muse, and her friends always have her back. Tamra doesn't have a man in her life, and she certainly isn't looking for one. When Jeremy is offered a temporary job doing manual labor at the mini-golf course Tamra is designing, it's dislike at first sight. However, as they work their way past first impressions, it becomes clear that they're attracted to each other, a fact neither one of them is crazy about. Part of Blake's Coral Cove series (Love Me If You Dare, All I Want Is You, both 2014), this contemporary romance explores a timely issue, the plight of U.S. veterans when they finally come home.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)