This had all the makings of a wonderful cozy mystery. A woman trying to escape after a bad man cheated her and wronged an innocent child. A picturesque little town on the coast. A cop with a painful past. Wonderful descriptions and great pacing, plus a quaint, quirky little cottage you just want to spend time in on the beach!

It turns out Camilla’s ex may have been even more dangerous than she initially believed, and as bad things begin happening in Pajaro Bay, Ryan must work to put the pieces together and figure out the history of her ex before he can get to her and adopted son Oliver. Great combination of romance, cozy, and police procedural. Good character backstories. Likeable side characters. Bonus points for seagulls and an amusement park. This is the first in a series and I downloaded it for free, and I definitely plan to check out more in the series.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.
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A cozy mystery set around San Jose, California. Rather angsty as Camilla comes to terms with both her boyfriends crimes and her fathers crimes and how that affected her life. But still, she did manage to snag the local village police offcer (as in she married him) while investigating the boyfriend and looking for a serial killer. ( )

"The Honeymoon Cottage" is the first book of a series. I got the book for free a couple of years ago, and it is still is in the Amazon app. I thought it is a cozy mystery, and I was in the mood for one I picked it up.
The truth is, "The Honeymoon Cottage" is a regular mystery-thriller, it doesn't have a sleuth detective, but the police are taking part in the investigation of the mystery.
This story has so many teaching moments—a lot of sad times and a lot of pleased times. It is an ok read for me; I might continue with the series, but I am not sure when it will happen. ( )

I really liked this romantic suspense. Barbara Cool Lee is a very illustrative writer making it easy to picture the events taking place. The book is a great read and definitely captures the reader in the story line, but that wouldn't work if she didn't have good characters. Ryan and Camilla are such likable individuals that you can't help but root for them. Camilla's ex stole her money, embezzled from her company making it look like she did it and left. But he didn't take his young son, Oliver. Ryan is the sheriff in the small town Camilla moved to. He tried to keep Camilla and Oliver safe which got trickier when he realized a serial killer was after them. I loved how protective Ryan was and felt bad that he was so hard on himself. The slow building of feelings between Camilla and Ryan was great in this sweet romance. I liked the small town where everybody knew what everybody else was doing - all the time. The surprising twist at the end made this book an even better read. ( )

Magnificent read! The characters Camilla and Ryan are intriguing people that fit the plot perfectly. A bit of a mystery, hiding, broke, a child, a sheriff and a strange nosy town that means well. The writer introduced the characters so smoothly and naturally it warmed my heart and seemed real of today not forced or made up but rather unique and sweet. After reading and finishing… I wanted it to go on, wanted to know what else might be in store for them, I wasn’t through knowing them yet.
I received this book via good reads and certainly do appreciate the opportunity to read it and meet these characters. I will look for more books by this author. ( )