Jean Oram

Hailey Summer is the oldest of the Summer sisters, and the one her mother, incapacitated by a stroke, asked to take on the responsibility of keeping their island cottage in the family, as it has been for generations. Unfortunately, her mother had to pass it on to her with back taxes owing. Her younger sisters don't know this, and they don't realize, because Hailey hasn't told them, that the taxes have gone up a lot in recent years. The reason for protecting her sisters from this is that they show more were in school. Now they're all out, and working. But Hailey is still protecting them, and keeps convincing herself that she can't tell them what's going on. She's trying to make her career as an art photographer, not a commercial photographer, but in the short term, of course, that's less profitable in the short term.

Finian Alexander is a Hollywood actor, who stars in action movies, and has a carefully cultivated bad boy reputation. Taking a vacation in a small Canadian town where there's no trouble to get into, because he needs a break from that, is getting him less attention from the tabloids faster than he anticipated. His agent is annoyed with him, and he's worried himself. He needs is currently profitable career because he's made big promises to his home town, to his family, and to a variety of charities, to raise the money to solve the problems that plagued his family when growing up.

Hailey needs to save the cottage from a tax sale. Finian needs some bad boy pictures to boost his tabloid coverage again.

Hailey has almost convinced herself to compromise her artistic and ethical standards to stalk the bad boy actor until she catches him in behavior that will give her the shots she needs to sell to a tabloid for big bucks.

It would seem they could cooperate and both benefit, if they didn't both keep stumbling over both their principles, and their desire to be seen by the other as a real person, not, on Finian's part, the bad boy image, and on Hailey's part, the rather hostile image of the money-hungry, cynical paparazzo.

Oram manages this quite neatly and believably, with bonus points for not having anyone be overly stubborn about insisting on doing stupid things because the plot requires it. As an older sister myself, I found Hailey's certainty that asking her younger sisters for help would make her a shameful failure as an older sister all too natural and believable. (No, that doesn't mean her sisters, or for that matter mine, would agree with that, or necessarily react that way. It's just a thing that can happen inside your own head when you've been the older sister and proxy parent much of your life.) Even Hailey's ex-boyfriend and real cutthroat paparazzo, Austin, turns out to have real depth and interest to him.

This is a light, fun romance, with no purpose but being entertaining, but it's just better written, and therefore more satisfying, than it needs to be for that purpose. I'm glad I listened to it.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, and am reviewing it voluntarily. show less

Maya Summer, the second of the Summer sisters, is a business school graduate with brains, drive, ambition, and maybe not such a good grasp of the importance of human connections. She thinks her family is too sentimental about the island cottage that's been in the family for generations. However, they are committed to keeping it, and she sees a possible way to both help pay the back taxes on it, and advance her own goal of landing the perfect job to launch her business career in Toronto.

Rent show more out the cottage as an "executive retreat," along with her own services as a summer assistant.

When Connor MacKenzie, business powerhouse, the "King of Toronto," giver of TED Talks on business, and Maya's own personal business idol, books two weeks on the island, Maya thinks her dream has come true and she's on her way.

Too bad Connor is there unwillingly, under pressure from his doctor and an ultimatum from his most trusted assistant at his company, CME. They have told him he needs rest, relaxation, recovery from the damage he's done to himself with his nonstop drive to rule the business world. He's at risk, his doctor says, of heart attack, stroke, and potentially a premature death. Stella, his assistant, points out his memory lapses, walking into doors and other objects, and other signs that he's just not all there. He knows, of course, that they must be wrong. He is young, strong, manly, the King of Toronto, a driving force of the business world. It's just the economy that's stressing him some, and he'll get through it. A few days will be all the rest he needs, and then he'll be back in Toronto.

Maya has a lot to learn about business and about people. In quite different ways, so does Connor. His needed education includes getting to know his own needs and wants--to recognize what's really going on not just with his health, but with his company.

Maya needs to learn that she needs to slow down, "waste time" in what she thinks of as useless chitchat, to build the connections she needs to get anyone to have the confidence in her to pay attention to her ideas.

It was harder for me to warm up to Maya and Connor than to Hailey and Finian in the previous book, but I'm glad I did. Hailey and Finian had "oldest sibling" issues that were more familiar to me. Maya and Connor are very different, and for me, less immediately appealing and accessible. It was worth giving them the time, though, because as their story and their personalities played out, I grew to like them quite a bit, and they have a really entertaining romance.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, and am reviewing it voluntarily. show less

I had very mixed feelings about this book.

Beth is a very likable character, who wants a quiet life in her hometown of Blueberry Springs, her career helping people in and out of the local hospital as a recreational therapist, and marriage, a white picket fence, and kids. A big family around the table for every holiday. She's planning her wedding to her sweetheart, Oz.

Except that Oz, who has seemed a bit "off" for a little while, announces they need to take a break. He hates his work as an show more accountant in his father's firm. He's living the life his father wants him to live. He needs to find himself.

It's not clear to Beth why she can't help him find himself, but what can she do? She agrees--and moves out of the trailer home they bought together. The friend best able to put her up temporarily is her best friend Katie. Awkwardly, she's also Oz's kid sister, but they make it work.

This where things start to get weird. Their "break" goes on longer than Oz had originally suggested, months in fact. His father has given him the business, signed it over to him--but with the killer clause that if he sells the business sooner than five years, most of the value will go to his father. He's feeling more trapped than ever. He's been drinking, and transferring clients to the rival firm, and he says, more than once, that Beth needs to move on. He doesn't know who he is, and can't be who she needs.

But every time Beth does something that even looks like moving on, Oz does something crazy. Gets into fights, causes scenes, comes to the hospital where Beth is doing a dance session for the seniors in continuing care, including her grandmother. He's drunk, and Beth orders him to leave, but he won't--and her grandmother is quite eager to dance with him, while her sort-of boyfriend in the continuing care program takes exception, and in the idiocy that follows, her grandmother falls and fractures her hip.

For this incident as with all the others, in this small, gossipy town, everyone blames Beth, and tells her she needs to get back together with Oz, because they're right for each other, and she's ruining him by not getting back together with him. No amount of pointing out that he broke up with her and has made it clear that he's not ready to change that now, or possibly ever

And Beth, being no dummy, is starting to wonder if Oz was ever right fore her.

I haven't mentioned Dr. Nash Liam, doctor from the "big city" of Dakota, in Blueberry Springs to work at the local hospital for a few years, and gain experience to advance his plans to move into hospital administration. He's a genuinely nice guy, and becomes the friend whom Beth can turn to when she needs to talk to someone who doesn't think she should just fix things by getting back together with Oz. He also encourages her to try some paths in her career than she hasn't considered before. He sees Beth the way she wants to be seen, and values the independence that no one else sees.

He's a city guy, though, and doesn't really like Blueberry Springs. That they're being hard on Beth doesn't help his impression of it, but that's not the main problem. He's just fundamentally a city, frustrated that a lot of things he enjoys can't be found closer than Dakota. The way things are done in Blueberry Springs, such as the time, later in their budding relationship, the only local mechanic who can work on his Volvo "breaks into his car." It set off his alarm, and Nash of course came running, and punched the guy out for trying to steal things from his car. But what he was really intending to do was put a part on the seat that Beth needed for her car. She'd called and asked him to, both she and the mechanic taking it for granted that the car would be unlocked. This is just incomprehensible to Nash.

It's frustrating; at first I wanted him to be the right guy for Beth. As the story progressed, I didn't want her to wind up with either of them. I wanted her to truly spread her wings.

Yet when we finally get Oz's version of what's been happening and why, on the one hand it's a much more attractive and understandable view of Oz, and really, he just should have talked to Beth.

On the other hand, he was getting drunk regularly instead of talking to Beth about what was really going on, and nobody, not one person, ever suggests that Oz needs to do something about his alcohol problem. No. It's Beth who has to get back together with Oz and save him. Beth is on her own trying to figure out the right thing to do. No real support, in this town where she knows everyone, and says repeatedly, really is her family. Who needs family like that?

I like Oram's writing. and the characters in this book are complex and interesting. I can't honestly say that I liked this story.

I bought this audiobook. show less

I got this book as a freebie, which is why I read it in the first place. I'm not a big fan of romances, as a rule, and I don't really like getting sucked into series. That being said, I found this story to be a nice, light, easy read and it was actually quite enjoyable. I was pleased with it from start to finish! At the end, there was a sample of the second book in the series, and against my better judgement, I read that, too. Now I'm actually wanting to read the next one and continue to show more follow the characters in this series! Doggone it! :) show less