Crystal Cove by Lisa Kleypas

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As the proprietor of a successful boutique hotel, Justine Hoffman has the life she has always wanted. But there is still something missing: Love. A spell was cast on Justine when she was born, with the result that she will never find her soul mate. But she is nothing if not determined and eventually Justine finds a way to break the enchantment—never dreaming of the dangerous complications that will follow…

When Justine meets Jason Black, she accidentally unleashes a storm of desire and danger that threatens everything she holds dear…because little does she know that Jason has secrets of his own. And he wants more from her than fate will ever allow…








Review:


Justine is has succeeded in everything she has worked at….except love.  No matter how many men she dates, no matter how many spells she casts, no relationship lasts.  She never feels a connection beyond friendship.  Then one day she breaks the rules and looks at the one page in her grimoire that she was warned to never look at - the page that will show her how to achieve her heart’s desire.  But that achievement doesn’t come without a price.

Jason Black is ridiculously successful in life.  He is also extremely private and particular.  Due to his success people are constantly trying to learn more about and report on his public and private life.  But one thing that people will never know is that Jason doesn’t have a soul.  The key to acquiring the one thing he wants but doesn’t have is in an infamous old grimoire.  When trying to acquiring to the grimoire, Jason has to face the complication of falling for the witch that can deny him the one thing he has been searching for.

Unlike Rainshadow Road which I found to be too timid with the magic, Kleypas owns the magic within the story of Crystal Cove.  Probably a good thing since Justine is a witch.  Unfortunately, that is where the story stopped engaging me.  I had an extremely difficult time believing the romance between Justine and Jason.  There didn’t seem to be any real connection between them.  I felt like Jason just happened to be the closest guy in the vicinity after she broke the geas that was put upon her as a child.  That she would have fallen for the first guy she saw.  As for Jason, I felt that his interest in her never went beyond the grimoire.  Yeah, I know the story says differently but I never saw or felt the sparks that I usually feel in a Kleypas novel to make me FEEL differently.    In the end, I enjoyed the novel but it did not live up to so many of the amazing Kleypas stories I have read.


Nat

Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas

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Lucy Marinn is a glass artist living in Friday Harbor, Washington, with a boyfriend, Kevin, who she believes is her soul mate. She has always had a magical side—a gift that finds its way into the glasswork she creates—and she struggles to keep it contained. But when Lucy is blindsided by the most bitter kind of betrayal, she questions many of her choices. Kevin leaves her and his new lover is none other than Lucy’s own sister.

Meanwhile, facing the severe disapproval of Lucy’s family, Kevin asks his friend Sam Nolan, a local vineyard owner on San Juan Island, to “romance” Lucy so that she can more easily move on. But when Sam and Lucy begin to feel real sparks between them, Lucy must ask herself if she can easily risk her heart again. Questions about love, loyalty, old patterns, mistakes, and new beginnings are explored as Lucy learns that some things in life—even after being broken—can be re-made into something beautiful. And that it is only by discovering who you really are that you can find the one who truly deserves you. (BN.com)

I have been a Lisa Kleypas fan for long time.  She is one of my top three favorite romance authors – in good company with Julia Quinn and Amy Lane.  I initially fell in love with her historical romances.  When she started writing contemporary romance I was skeptical.  Her first, Sugar Daddy, was just meh.  But the following two, Blue-Eyed Devil and Smooth Talking Stranger, were absolutely stellar.  Seeing that she could rock the contemporary romance just as much as she did historical romance, I was super excited to read her new Friday Harbor series.  What did I think of them?  Well keep reading to see what I think of Rainshadow Road.  A review of Dream Lake will be up in the next week or so.  The last in the trilogy, Crystal Cove, will be published in February and you can bet your sweet self that I will be reading and reviewing that one too.

Lucy thinks life is pretty perfect right now.  She is making a living doing what she loves.  She lives on a beautiful Pacific Northwest island with lots of lovely friends.  Her boyfriend, Kevin, of three years is absolutely amazing.  Then all of a sudden that perfection is lost when Kevin showed up in her glass shop out of the blue to inform Lucy their relationship wasn’t working for him anymore and he had met someone else.  That someone else being her sister. 

Handling the news as well as anyone would, Lucy takes off on a bike ride - her way of blowing off some steam. And along the way she meets the very sexy and commitment-phobic Sam Nolan.  That initial meeting sets off a friendship that both insist will never be anything more.   

As is usually the case with a Kleypas book, I really loved the characters.  Sam was my favorite kind of hero.  Geeky AND sexy.  The Nolan brothers are a hot mess.  And when I say hot, I mean, “Hot damn!”  And when I say mess, I mean, “Yikes, look at all the emotional baggage.”  I enjoyed Lucy’s independence and how she was open and honest about protecting herself.  Lucy’s friends, Zoe and Justine, are the best kind of friends.  Between the pastries and the reading, this trio of friends made me think of Bel, Shel and I.  Except that the three of us would probably get into a lot more trouble if we were all living together with no supervision. 

Overall this was a good read.  But I didn’t love it.  Although it was both engaging and romantic with plenty of sexual tension, there seemed to be something missing.  Maybe I am greedy but I wanted more.  I wanted more examples of Sam being a geek.  I wanted more scenes with Lucy and her girlfriends having fun.  And I wanted more magic.  Because there is magic in this book and it is beautiful magic.  But it was so tentatively done that it left me a little confused and unfulfilled.   

That being said…there are two reasons I would recommend this book.  One:  If you are a big Kleypas fan like me, then you should read it for that reason alone.  Two: If you are going to read Dream Lake (and you are because I told you to) then you should read this because the two stories overlap a little bit.  They stand alone but it is my personal opinion that it is fun to see some overlapping scenes through more than one point of view. 

Until next time; when I annoy you by gushing over the second installment in the Friday Harbor Trilogy.

 

Nat