Love in Catalina Cove

September 1, 2018
For a Louisiana woman-turned-New Yorker, going home to her coastal town means facing an old loss--and finding new possibilities in love and life.Vashti Alcindor thought she would never return to Catalina Cove after the way the community reacted to her teen pregnancy 16 years ago. But inheriting her aunt's B&B and getting laid off from her job at a Manhattan luxury hotel--all this on the heels of a divorce--lead her back to her roots, and then an unexpected business offer makes her rethink her plan to return to the big city. Vashti's electric attraction to the town's sheriff, Sawyer Grisham, is another unforeseen complication. The setup is reminiscent of a classic B&B romance à la Nora Roberts. Sawyer is a widowed father, and he (and his daughter, Jade) feels that Vashti is right for him, but she is reluctant to commit to anything that would put her heart at risk and invite gossip. Despite the detailed sex scenes and episodes that show a deepening of Sawyer and Vashti's connection, Jackson (An Honorable Seduction, 2018, etc.) is veering into women's fiction territory here. The most intriguing parts of the novel have to do with the revelations about Vashti's youth and her parents' meddling in the choices she made and the ripple effects of those actions in her current life. Related to these is the large cast of characters, which not only includes people in the Cove (including some who will become couples in future romances), but also in other states. As the plot inches toward the climax, a huge coincidence threatens to turn the story into a soap opera, but it stops short of treacly melodrama.More loosely paced than ideal--there are numerous trips and a tiresome number of references to people eating blueberry-infused food--but the heroine's unusual backstory and the passages on local history and Creole identity add some freshness to this small-town inn-owner romance.

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October 1, 2018
Jackson (the Protector series) opens the Catalina Cove contemporary series with a dramatic but messily constructed tale of love, social ostracism, and motherhood. After Vashti Alcindor loses both her beloved Aunt Shelby and her dream job working at a luxury hotel, she returns to her hometown of Catalina Cove, La., to handle her aunt’s estate. On her arrival, she gets a speeding ticket from the local sheriff, widower Sawyer Grisham, in a fantastical scene of instant attraction; readers may find it hard to believe that a creole woman being pulled over in rural Louisiana is unconcerned for her safety, thinking only about how hot the sheriff is. The two of them strike up a steamy romance, though Vashti has been hurt before and is hesitant to trust Sawyer. Vashti left Catalina Cove in disgrace after a teen pregnancy turned the town against her; now she finds the town to be warmer and kinder than when she left. But skeletons of the past are lurking, and Vashti must eventually face an unbelievable truth about her long-ago pregnancy. Hilariously bad sex scenes (“She was moaning and purring all over the place as he greedily mated with her mouth”), flat characters, and cheesy dialogue diminish the intriguing plot. Agent: Pattie Steele-Perkins, Steele-Perkins Literary.

October 15, 2018

After 14 years away, New York hotel executive Vashti Alcindor never thought she'd be back in Catalina Cove. She's inherited her aunt's beloved yet rundown seaside resort and learns that some of the townsfolk are trying to stop her sale of the property to a developer, leaving her no alternative but to head to the small coastal Louisiana town where she was once happiest--and the most miserable. Of course, a speeding ticket from no-nonsense but seriously hot Sheriff Sawyer Grisham doesn't improve her mood. When she discovers that the same by-the-book lawman is also on the zoning board, she knows it will only get worse. A surprising welcome, a dash of nostalgia, a sizzling yet inexplicable romantic attraction, and a stunning offer soon have her rethinking her plans for the old resort--and her future as well. A heroine struggling to make peace with her past and a widowed sheriff raising a teenage daughter have their lives and their budding relationship thrown into chaos when the past bursts into the present. VERDICT A cruel lie revealed, a profusion of realistic locals, and a startling coincidence that shocks the characters but not readers add up to a heartwarming romance, enhanced by a dusting of Creole culture and a plot that leaves no ends dangling. Jackson (At Long Last) lives in the Jacksonville, FL, area.

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