Marie Force

Originally posted on Tales to Tide You Over

For a small place, there sure are a lot of love stories on Gansett Island, and each with a different path. Ready for Love picks up a year after Joe and Janey found their much-delayed happiness, but though Luke and Sydney had even longer to come back to this moment, their tale has little in common with the previous book.

Sydney has been coming to the island since her teenage years, but though she met, and loved, Luke back then, she wasn’t mature show more enough to see beyond her parents’ prejudices. Instead, she married someone else, had two wonderful kids, and lived a full life with summers on the island as a minor part of that. Still, she never forgot Luke or got over her regret at how she’d left one summer and returned the next time married to someone else, never giving Luke the breakup he deserved.

Then fate deals an awful blow as a drunk driver kills her family and injures her, leaving Sydney devastated.

All this happens in the backstory. We join the present when, a year after the first time Luke came to check on Sydney in secret, he’s back pulling his boat onto her beach so he can stand guard over her grief. Only Sydney hasn’t been ignorant of his visits as he supposed, something he learns when she calls him on it, finally ready to recognize his presence.

Their story is complicated with trust issues, grief, and expectations, but it’s a beautiful one as Luke tries to move forward while everyone helpfully reminds him how destroyed he was the last time she left him. Sydney is no better as she tries to make her way back to her first love without feeling guilty about finding happiness a second time despite the deaths of her children and husband. The guilt is also because her ties to Luke in memory stayed true throughout her marriage. She was never unfaithful in thought or word, so did not betray her husband, but neither did the past fade as it might have.

Nor does all this happen in isolation as the community of friends we’ve come to know meet to tease, support, and challenge each other, especially since Janey and Joe’s wedding is only two weeks away.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I like all the different paths to love these stories tell, and Ready for Love both has a complete story and several others running in parallel. Even in Luke and Sydney’s story alone, though, there are many threads I appreciated.

Doubt is an aspect, but when it would have been easy for doubt to overwhelm trust, I very much enjoyed how their understanding of each other wins out. Which is not to say doubt plays no part, because it absolutely does, but it’s not the simple things where it shows, but in multilayered ones where some level of mistrust makes sense even without considering their past.

This is a powerful, complex, supportive love story that swept me in. It has open-door intimate scenes, tragedy, and a faithful dog. Buddy is both an emotional crutch for Sydney, and a proper dog who scratches and whines at a closed door rather than a caricature. As much as the book’s about two people renewing a lost love, there’s love of family, found and blood, and active change in more than just the main characters. It was what I wanted to read at this moment, and Marie Force delivered. show less

Maid for Love is the first book of Marie Force’s Gansett Island series and the first book I’ve read by her. I’ve heard many good things about her writing and had taken a book marketing class she taught a while back, which gave me a good feeling about her as well. I had high hopes going into reading this book and I’m happy to say that I wasn’t disappointed. The series features the McCarthy family who are the well-respected owners of a resort hotel and marina on the island. Mac, the show more oldest of the McCarthy siblings, returns to Gansett for a much-needed sabbatical after pushing himself too hard in his business in Miami. He’s barely been back for a few minutes when he accidentally steps into the path of Maddie Chester’s bicycle, causing her to crash and end up badly hurt. As a single mother, she desperately needs her job as a maid at the McCarthy’s hotel, but after her spill, she can barely walk, much less do her work. Feeling terrible that his carelessness caused her injuries, Mac steps up, insisting on taking over her duties at the hotel, as well as spending his nights at her apartment to help care for her nine-month-old son. Maddie isn’t happy about it at first, but realizing she has few other options, she finally relents. Mac ends up falling head over heels in love at first sight, and while it takes Maddie just a bit longer to warm up, his charm and protective care win her over quickly. However, family conflicts and Mac’s need to fix things from Maddie’s past place their fast-moving relationship in some jeopardy.

Feeling stifled by the time high school was over, Mac couldn’t wait to get off the island, so he went away to college, then started a business in Miami that has kept him so busy he rarely comes back. However, burning the candle at both ends, keeping the business running smoothly for years, leads to a health scare. When the doctor prescribes rest and relaxation, Mac heads home to Gansett where he intends to take it easy for a while, but after his unfortunate encounter with Maddie, the protector in him simply can’t leave the poor woman high and dry. He insists that he will take on all her duties as both a maid and a daycare provider, as well as move in with her to care for her infant son. She’s a bit prickly about it at first, but once he wins her over, he’s totally smitten by both her and her son, Thomas. He knows everything is moving fast, but in all his years of dating, he’s never before felt anything like what he feels for Maddie after only knowing her for a few days. When he finds out how hard things have been for her in the small-town environment of the island, he also feels compelled to set things right for her in that respect, too, which is where he runs into a little conflict with her that nearly ends their budding relationship. I absolutely adored Mac. He’s a protective caretaker and a total sweetheart who apparently takes after his father. I love how he tenderly cares for Maddie and he’s a natural at fatherhood with little Thomas. He also doesn’t stand for his mother’s snobbishness and doesn’t care one bit about the island rumor-mill, instinctively knowing that Maddie isn’t who the town thinks she is. He’s also not afraid to get his hands dirty performing the unconventional job of being a hotel maid. I personally found all of his actions to be sweet and romantic even though Maddie had issues with his biggest gesture.

Maddie has lived on the island all her life with her mother and sister, but her father left when she was a child and never came back. Her body developed faster than the other girls, and once she had breasts – and rather large ones, too – all the boys around her wanted to either ogle her or try to cop a feel. She was always a good girl, and just because she didn’t give in to one boy’s pressure for sex, he spread a rumor around town that she’d slept with him and all his friends, which included Mac’s younger brother. Between that and her having a child out of wedlock, she’s been branded the town slut, but nothing could be further from the truth. Now as a single mom, she desperately needs her job at McCarthy’s Inn and she also cleans the elder McCarthys’ house, but she’s always been treated poorly at both jobs. After having such bad experiences with the McCarthys, she doesn’t want to have anything to do with them on a personal level. When Mac knocks her off her bike and she finds out who he is, Maddie just wants him to go away, but when he really steps up to the plate, she can’t help but slowly warm up to him. She’s surprised to discover how comfortable she feels with him and ends up falling for him almost as fast as he falls for her. But family troubles and Mac taking one of his gestures a little farther than she would have liked without telling her is nearly a deal-breaker. Maddie is a very sympathetic character, a hard worker and a wonderful mother, who needs a self-confidence boost after all she’s been through, and Mac is more than ready and willing to provide it.

With Maid for Love being the start of a long-running, small-town romance series, there are supporting characters aplenty that I’m sure will be seen in future installments. Mac’s old friend, Joe, who is the ferry operator has been sweet on Mac’s sister, Janey, for years, but she’s engaged to someone else she doesn’t get to see often. Clearly that relationship is doomed, because Joe and Janey become the hero and heroine of the next book, Fool for Love. Maddie’s sister, Tiffany, isn’t too keen on the idea of Maddie taking up with Mac, and she seems somewhat unhappy in general. It’s hinted that her marriage might be on the rocks, and I’m guessing it probably ends at some point since she’s the heroine of the seventh book, Longing for Love. We’re briefly introduced to Luke, who works at the McCarthy Marina and who becomes the hero of the third book, Ready for Love. Then there’s Mac’s brother, Evan, a musician who grovels very nicely, which made me much more open to him as the hero of the fifth book, Hoping for Love. Then there’s Mac’s parents, Linda and Big Mac. Big Mac is a gentle giant who seems to be kind, loving, and patient with everyone, but Linda rubbed me the wrong way with her bad attitude toward Maddie and her meddlesome opposition to Mac and Maddie being together. She does come around by the end, but she’ll have some work to do to fully win me over to her side. Luckily there are plenty more books in which she’ll have the opportunity to prove herself a genuinely good person.

Maid for Love is something of a take on the classic Cinderella story. Maddie is the beleaguered maid who’s been done wrong, while Mac is the proverbial prince who saves the day. Being a sucker for these kinds of romances, I ended up enjoying it a lot, but there were a few minor quibbles I had with it. Mac’s big gesture almost ruined the good thing he had going with Maddie and I have to admit that I didn’t entirely understand where she was coming from. I got that after her impressive breasts causing such a stir for most of her life, that she didn’t want to be the center of attention, but she mostly dinged Mac for lying to her and keeping secrets. She did have one major incident in her past of someone lying to her, but perhaps she just wasn’t shown struggling enough with trust issues for me to get it. Also, since what Mac did was for a good reason and not a bad one, it just didn’t quite ring true to me. If anything, I got a bit teary eyed over the protectiveness and sweetness of Mac’s efforts. Ultimately I accepted that it was what it was, but because it did cause trouble between them, I felt like the reconciliation and the ending was perhaps a teensy bit rushed. Not that it was a bad ending or anything, but the final page just crept up on me without me realizing it was coming so quickly. Overall, though, these things didn’t detract much from my enjoyment of the story. Love-at-first-sight romances can be hit and miss with me. This one ended up being a hit, because the author established a strong emotional connection between Mac and Maddie almost from the moment they meet, making it a squishy, feel-good story. I adored Mac and Maddie and there are lots of other great characters I can’t wait to see more of in the books yet to come, so I very much looking forward to continuing the series soon. show less

I made a very unwise decision with this book - I picked a 4oo page book to me my literary adventure for waiting rooms. That was not very bright of me since this book is rather complex, starts out super heartbreaking (I almost cried in a doctor's office...) and it's one long read.

This story really pulled at my heart strings! Clare was in a coma and her husband left her for another woman and had children with said woman. For me, that was the worst betrayal and totally made me hurt for Clare. show more There is a bit of a happy ending for Clare since she goes on to find another love, but man it still haunted me throughout this whole book. Clare did a better job at coping than I did! For me, that totally made this book feel so much worse than it was. Even though this book is well written and Marie Force has done an excellent job with crafting this story, the whole time all I could think of was "Screw Jack!" with an army of angry people with pitchforks.

And before you say it, yes - that's clearly unreasonable.

Alongside Clare's new love story, we follow her daughter Kate. What's so special about her story? Oh man, she's an eighteen year old virgin going after a 45 year old man. That was even stranger for me. I was pulled in and had my heart ripped to shreds due to Kate's father, and now this girl is going after a much older man? It seemed so weird... This book was full of two very strong tropes that can definitely be triggering for people. This story is not finished in this book, FYI.

Clare and Aiden have a rather lovely story. It's a redemption story for sure and I'm glad Clare isn't just the victim in this story.

My negatives:
1. The first half of this book DESTROYED me. I felt so bad for Clare! I hadn't read the first book in this series so I didn't fully know what I was getting into. I needed a book to read and it was free - I liked the description and figured it'd fall into my wheelhouse. I was so depressed from this book that I literally had to put it away for a month before I could go back to it. It just made me feel so bad and I do not like books making me feel bad - books are my escape from the cruelties of the world. That being said, it's still a good book but NOT FOR ME. Definitely not for me. Yes, there's a happily ever after and some lovely scenes in the second half of this book, but the first half made me not like this book at all.

2. Love develops FAST in these books. It's not a con for me, but some readers absolutely hate it. Be warned fellow readers... Be warned...

3. Andi. That's all I can say. I really dislike Andi for really dumb reasons. She's all upp-ity up, but in my mind she stole someone's husband, got pregnant and is now living the dream. Clare was in a coma, not dead, and you swoop in and make her life miserable? Sure, she's not supposed to be the villain but she didn't feel like the hero to me either. It's a weird dynamic that probably played out weird for me because I haven't read her book (the first novel).

4. I didn't totally know what was going on with the story because I didn't read the first book. This book gives you some good hints but I probably would have liked this story more and understood it if I read the first book.

My positives:
1. Marie Force is a beautiful writer. I love her style and prose! I would love to read more by her, but I need positive books. I'll have to do some further research before I jump into her other novels for that reason. I would definitely recommend her though if you aren't as faint as heart as I am!

2. This is a wonderful "redemption" novel. Clare "gets what she deserves" after having some really awful times. Marie does a very good job making this story end on a high note.

With all of my positives and negatives, I have to say that this book is good but not for me as a reader. So, I hate to say it... but I have to give it a low star rating. This book put me in an awful mood and made me feel ridiculously sad.

That should not pull you away from this book though. As a reader, I didn't enjoy it but you probably will! This book has some wonderful romance, it gives Clare a second chance at love and and pull at your heart strings pretty darn good! I'd highly recommend this book if you love those types of plot lines, but I... alas... do not.

One out of five stars.

I found this book for free on Bookbub. show less

Fool for Love is the second book in Marie Force’s Gansett Island series. While the first book of the series introduced us to the McCarthy family and told the story of oldest son Mac, this second volume gives us a romance between Mac’s best friend, Joe, and his only sister and the youngest McCarthy, Janey. Joe has been in love with Janey from afar for years, while Janey has been in a long-term, but also long-distance, relationship with her high-school sweetheart, David, who is studying to show more become a doctor. But when Janey finds David in bed with another woman on their anniversary, she’s devastated. When her car breaks down while fleeing the scene of her heartbreak, she calls the only person she can think of for help and that happens to be Joe. He takes her home and tenderly cares for her, and when she all but begs him to make love to her, he can’t resist even though he knows it might lead to his own heartbreak down the road. Soon he has almost everything he’s ever dreamed of, but David’s revelations, family machinations, and Janey finally getting a chance at her dream career may stand in the way of their HEA.

Joe is a steady guy who’s lived on Gansett Island all his life. He owns and captains the ferry that runs between the island and the mainland. Although a best friend to her brother, Mac, he’s also been a friend to Janey, and he’s been in love with her for as long as he can remember, maybe even since they were kids. Before he ever had a chance to reveal his feelings, he watched Janey chose David in high school and she has remained with him ever since, leaving Joe struggling to move on. He still sees Janey all the time and wants her desperately, but knows he can’t have her, even though he also sees that David doesn’t treat her with the respect she deserves. So his life is filled with work, hobbies, and the occasional dalliance with a woman that’s never been anything more than a physical release, while there’s a big Janey-sized hole. When he’s the one Janey calls after the fateful night she catches her fiancé cheating, he’s more than happy to help her pick up the pieces, and when she begs him to make love to her, he’s helpless to resist. It’s the best sex both of them have ever had, and from there on, they simply can’t seem to keep their hands off each other. But Janey is uncertain about her true feelings for Joe, leaving him in a painful limbo. Joe is a real sweetheart of a guy, who isn’t afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve. When given the chance with Janey he’s been longing for most of his life, he doesn’t hesitate to jump in with both feet even though he knows it might lead to his own heartbreak later on if Janey can’t return his feelings. I love how he’s always there for her, and pulls out all the stops to romance her in hopes of getting her to fall in love with him. He’s one of the most devoted and loyal romance heroes I’ve ever read.

As the youngest McCarthy, Janey has had to put up with four older, over-protective brothers all her life, but even they couldn’t see David’s flaws to prevent her heart from getting broken. Janey fell for David as a teenager and has been with him ever since. They had plans to get married, but their relationship is a long-distance one with David living in Boston and Janey staying on the island. After going to surprise him on their anniversary and seeing him in bed with the other woman, she doesn’t even stop to confront him, and instead, runs away, only to have her car break down. Since all her family and friends are on the island, the only person she can think to call is Joe, who keeps a house on the mainland. He doesn’t hesitate to come to her rescue and provide comfort for her devastated heart. One thing leads to another, and soon, all Janey wants is to feel something besides pain. Although Joe tries to talk her out of it, she eventually wears him down and gets him to make love to her, which turns out to be a revelation. Sex was never as good with David as it is with Joe, and Joe is so much more attentive in general than David has ever been. But with her barely ending their thirteen-year relationship, she isn’t sure what her true feelings are for Joe. She’s always loved him, but is she in love with him? Is that even possible in such a short length of time, or is he just the rebound guy? While she tries to figure it all out, Joe encourages her to pursue her dream of becoming a veterinarian – something that David had discouraged – but when her dream comes within reach, she doesn’t think she can have both it and Joe. Janey is a very relatable heroine who is sweet but with a backbone. She never wavers over the end of her engagement even when David comes begging her to take him back and makes a major revelation. Even though she questions her feelings for Joe given how quickly it all happens, she’s always cognizant of possibly hurting him and doesn’t want that. She even tries to make what she thinks is a selfless choice, but I adore how Joe turned the tables on her to show her just how much he truly loves her.

With Gansett Island being a long-running series, there are supporting characters aplenty, many of whom get their own books in the series. The McCarthy parents, Big Mac and Linda (Celebration After Dark) are there to support their kids, and this time around, Linda was more likable, even though I worried for a moment that she might be conspiring with David’s mom to push him and Janey back together. Mac and Maddie (Maid for Love) get several of their own POV scenes as we see them preparing for their wedding, and their relationship hits a small snag when Janey confides in Maddie who remains mum about what’s going on between Janey and Joe. The other three McCarthy brothers, Evan (Hoping for Love), Grant (Falling for Love), and Adam (Waiting for Love) return home for the wedding, and Maddie’s sister, Tiffany (Longing for Love) is seen in a couple of scenes. As I read, I wondered about what might happen to David. Although he was unfaithful to Janey and didn’t always treat her the way she deserved, he wasn’t a totally bad guy, and the author did end up giving him a sympathy factor. This made me curious if she might redeem him, and the answer is yes in the book, Time for Love. Then there’s Mac and Joe’s friend, Luke, who much like Joe, has been in love with a woman named Sydney for years. He gets one POV scene where he sneaks over to her house in hopes of getting a glimpse of her after she returns to the island following a devastating loss. Their book is the next one of the series, Ready for Love, which I very much look forward to reading. Of course, I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention Janey’s menagerie of special needs pets who are just too cute for words.

If you can’t already tell, I absolutely loved Fool for Love. At first, I wasn’t sure about the insta-love plot (at least from Janey’s side), but Marie Force really sold it. Joe and Janey are simply perfect for one another. Joe is a to-die-for hero who’s kind, loyal, and not afraid to put his heart on the line, while Janey is sweet, strong, and knows what she wants out of life. Their love scenes are plentiful and steamy, while their romance is deeply emotional and gave me all the feels I look for in a romance. I loved the secondary storyline of Mac and Maddie’s wedding preparations, which helped tie the book into the greater series story arc, as well as the brief introduction to Luke and Sydney’s story that’s yet to come. With two big winners in a row, Marie Force has earned a spot on my favorite authors list and I can’t wait to continue the series soon. show less