Harbor of the Heart

Harbor of the Heart by Katherine Spencer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

5th in the Angel Island series, Harbor of the Heart continues the storyline between inn owner Liza Martin and carpenter/EMT Daniel Merritt. With summer approaching Daniel is considering taking his board exams over to return to the medical field but it means a season away from Liza and the inn. Plus, it means facing and overcoming his old fears. Meanwhile as he and Liza consider the cost to their relationship, a small white sailboat flounders off the shore near the inn and the sailor is thrown into the churning water, nearly drowning - if not for Daniel's quick reactions, with Liza and Claire's help. Who is this sailor that reportedly has no family except for a huge friend named Edison?

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The Way Home

The Way Home by Katherine Spencer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Katherine Spencer's Angel Island series are gentle reads - and companions to her Cape Light series. In this book Claire North, the inn's cook and Liza's right hand woman, takes a more prominent role. Jamie Carter, twenty and out of work, veers back into her life and Claire remembers the once little boy she almost adopted many years ago. Can Claire help Jamie set upon the right path or will Jamie once again stray and return to his old life back in Boston? At the same time Avery Bishop is excited about opening her new cafe, The Peregrine, on the busier side of the island. Avery finds out that her only competition is the Lazy Tuna, a happening, crazy burger joint that the island's visitors flock to in droves. How can her culinary expertise and fancy dishes compare to fish and chips?

A relaxing, inspirational read...and as Reverend Ben says, “…when people are trying to change their lives for the better, the road to becoming whole isn’t always a straight one. People tend to fall off the path now and then, or take wrong turns. Especially if they’ve been damaged, they can’t always make all the right choices.”

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The Perfect Hope by Nora Roberts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The third and final conclusion to Inn Boonsboro ties things up rather nicely. Sexy, swaggering, tool belt toting, and oldest brother Ryder Montgomery is at odds with the lovely city girl and innkeeper Hope. Admittedly Hope runs his mother's inn like clockwork, smoothly and perfectly. When the inn's resident ghost and matchmaker, Lizzy, locks them in the penthouse together, the only thing to do pucker up and make Lizzy happy. Hope's best friends, Avery and Clare, are delighted to see the romance progress and want Hope to be included in the Montgomery family.

MacTavish's Restaurant and Tap House gets finished and another building begins demolition and rehab. The dialog is hilarious as usual, the way the Montgomery men interact with their children, as in Men night, is a hoot and learning what led to Lizzy's fiancee's death during the Civil War is heartbreaking. Great series to finish!

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Tidewater Inn

Tidewater Inn by Colleen Coble
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Libby Holladay loves to save old buildings and renovate them; her partner Nicole convinces the property owners to entrust them to Libby's care. While talking with Nicole by way of a live cam and a laptop, Libby actually views Nicole's kidnapping by two men at Hope Beach, where her friend has been exploring an old life-saving station for possible renovation. After calling 911 Libby races to Hope Island to help find her friend but is actually viewed with much suspicion by the local police. Now, this read is already turning into a mystery, but Libby finds out (on page 3) that her late father who died when she was five, was very much alive until just a month ago. To top that off, Libby discovers that she now has two half siblings and an aunt living on that same Hope Island. Mystery after mystery is solved as Libby is determined to find Nicole.



Inspirational, mystery, and throw in a light romance, Tidewater Inn is very good read.



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The Last Boyfriend by Nora Roberts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book 2 in the Inn BoonsBoro series picks up on the friendly relationship between detail-oriented, list making Owen, one of the three Montgomery brothers and impulsive, pizza shop owner Avery - who loves to dye her hair a different color every several weeks. Although it seems like the two are opposites, both are quite driven, full of energy, and they even share a past - their dads were best friends and Owen was Avery's first boyfriend - at age five. Now grown up and with a little help from the inn's resident ghost, Lizzy, the two are literally pushed together and sparks fly.

Although the book is predictable and seems to be more focused on the details of getting the inn up and running, I think the author, because of Owen being the detail man, considered this in her writing. I like that Lizzy the ghost is becoming more "fleshed" out - in the next book we're sure to find how she died and more about Billy. Not as exciting or as funny as the first book, The Next Always, a few of the livelier lines are about Avery's dad, Willy B and Owen's mom.

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A Wandering Heart

A Wandering Heart by Thomas Kinkade

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Book 3 in the series, An Angel Island Novel, is another sweet read by the team of Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer, where island folklore told of angels that helped a community of residents near death. Actress Charlotte Miller, who covers a world of past hurts with a beautiful smile, has come to the island to stay at the inn with a movie crew, all set to film her new and upcoming with co-star Nick Dempsey. When a rogue wave tumbles the troubled Charlotte into the ocean, it is fisherman Colin Doyle who jumps in and rescues her. As the two form a quick attachment, Charlotte knows that the attraction can not last and sadly breaks it off. Meanwhile, goat farmer and cheesemakers Audrey and Rob are having heartaches of their own - will they have to give up their beloved Gilroy Farm in order to move to Boston for fertility treatments....

The world lost a beloved artist on April 6 - the Painter of Light and author Kinkade passed away at his home.



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The Next Always

The Next Always by Nora Roberts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Book one of the Inn Boonsboro Trilogy was a great read - especially since the setting is right over the mountain! I knew that Nora Roberts had opened an inn in Boonsboro and after reading The Next Always I'd love to mosey on down the road to take a peek.

The three Montgomery brothers, of the Montgomery Family contractors, are the key characters in this trilogy. Book one focuses on Beckett, architect and youngest brother who has a very busy life restoring the old inn. Back in town and now running the local bookstore, Turn the Page, is Clare Brewster and her three sons. Clare had fallen deeply, madly in love and married, right out of high school, Beckett's friend who had joined the military and died in Iraqi War. Clare doesn't realize that Beckett, after all these years, still carries a torch for her and is also falling for her three ornery, little boys.

Some of the antics in this 300+ novel will make you giggle out loud and I do wonder if there really is a ghost in the Inn Boonsboro who is friendly!



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In the Company of Others

In the Company of Others: A Father Tim Novel by Jan Karon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


One of my very favorite series of all times - A Father Tim novel and by the same author of the Mitford Series, Jan Karon. I love the gentleness of Father Tim, a retired Episcopalian priest and the spunkiness of his wife Cynthia, illustrator of children's books. This time round, they head over to Ireland for a long overdue vacation. But while staying a lodge at Broughadoon in the middle of nowhere, odd things begin to happen and they both are pulled into age-old family problems. Will a beloved family heirloom be found and will the family matriarch confess before her alcoholism takes her down? Sometimes generational secrets need to be exposed for healing to be found.



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The Wedding Promise

The Wedding Promise by Thomas Kinkade

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As Liza continues transforming her inn on Angel Island, she is approached by an excited couple who knew her Aunt Elizabeth and wish to be married outside the inn in the gardens. But Liza has never put on a wedding and isn't sure she can handle the job, especially with the inn still being in disrepair. Her friend Claire and Daniel, the local carpenter and handyman, encourage Liza with the promise that her aunt would have been thrilled to accommodate the young, romantic couple. When Daniel asks Liza out on a date, she hopes that this handsome, funny man will continue to stay in her life.



A sweet, easy read with some of our favorite characters from the town of Cape Light combined with a few miracles thrown in for good measure.



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