This romantic suspense follows Lara after the death of her eco-warrior grandfather, who raised her after her mother disappeared and was assumed dead. Only problem is that Lara has grown up with all the money she could ever need available to her and her grandfather's will makes it clear that pattern will not continue. Lara is appointed Project Administrator of Thalia Island - a private island with the goal of creating a self-sustainable living situation for all residents. Lara must stay on Thalia Island for 1 year and accomplish a series of goals. The idea of trading in her high heels for workbooks isn't easy to accept, but the hunky next door neighbor and co-worker might help convince her. Just as she starts to gain her footing in her new role, a series of unfortunate events threaten the success of the island - and maybe even the lives of the people who live there.
TW/CW: death of an animal, cancer
This was such a fun start to the series and I very much appreciate the author giving a warning at the beginning of the book that this ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. I, personally, really don't like being surprised by cliffhanger endings (especially when I don't have the next book ready to go) so being able to mentally prepare myself as I was reading the rest of the book was really helpful. I was still a little upset at the end that book 2 wasn't out yet, but that just speaks to the quality of the story as well as my own fault for not knowing myself better.
I think Gordon did a wonderful job of giving us a complete plot arc in this book but also left enough open questions that the reader is drawn into reading the next book. I really appreciated how well these larger plot points and questions were worked into the story. Seeds were planted for the reader pretty early on in the story which made the cliffhanger surprise at the end seem like a rational conclusion of the facts we were working with throughout the rest of the book. I've read some books in the past where it felt like the author had a last minute idea (or book deal) for a series and they just tacked on some twist at the very end that sort of negated the main plot from the rest of the book. I also think having the resolution of the plot arc in this book softened the blow a little bit when the cliffhanger hit. The overall pacing of the story was fantastic and really worked to give the reader tidbits and then build on that knowledge as the story progressed.
I really loved the characters, but could see how Lara will be a tough sell for some readers. Lara is pretty darn unlikeable at the beginning of the book. To be blunt, she's a spoiled brat who basically has full blown (alcohol-fueled) tantrums when she doesn't get her way. We don't get to Thalia Island until around the 25% mark and considering the first 1/4 of the book was Lara being pretty awful, I was having a hard time seeing her as the heroine in this story. I got the impression from the book summary that Lara was maybe a little uptight and not used to the outdoors-y type living situations but I didn't imagine she would be this much of a mess. It would have been easy for Gordon to leave Lara as just a spoiled child but we get so many moments in that first 1/4 of Lara's inner thoughts and fears. She's so alone, lonely, and she doesn't let people get close to her. These little details really make it easy to see Lara as a fully rounded human and not just a caricature of a person. Then, once we get to the island, Lara has so much room to grow as a character and we're following her, wanting her to succeed. The same sort of structure holds for our other characters, espeically Rupert. Rupert was Lara's granfather's second in command and we initially only see him through Lara's perspective (and she doesn't like him very much), but we get to see their relationship grow over time and get some more information on Rupert.
The romance element of this story was great and I loved Finan as a hero. He's your typical romance hero (big, strong, muscles for days, a little bossy) but he's got a real soft center that he shows Lara pretty quickly. The two form a sort of alliance and friendship before anything physical starts up which I always appreciate in my romances. Because of their initial friendship, we get a good amount of scenes where they're getting to know each other and their thoughts and feelings instead of just feeling each other up (but don't worry, there's plenty of that too). My only wish is that this story was told in dual POV (which is just how I prefer my romances). Finan was already living on the island when Lara shows up and I think it would have been interesting to get his perspective on how everything is working out. We see from Lara's perspective that Finan is pretty straightforward with his opinions so I didn't feel like he was keeping secrets or anything, but I just like to see how early on he was falling for her and what he thought when everything started going awry on the island.
I thought the mystery/suspense element of the story was great. I'll acknowledge that, at times, it was a bit over-the-top but it felt really grounded in reality which helped when those super over the top moments happened. I would have liked a little more of a creeping dread maybe with smaller issues cropping up before the big issues that we get in the book (or maybe small things in between the few big issues?). I think there could have been a fun dynamic between Lara thinking X was really weird and maybe a little sinister but Finan then just brushes it off as 'that's just how people do things on the island/outdoors/etc'. I really love romantic suspense books because of the teamwork between the love interests and this was no different. Both Finan and Lara bring their own skills to their investigative team and it was really fun to watch them together.
Overall, this was a really fun, lighter romantic suspense story and I can't wait until the next books come out!
I received an advance review copy for free from BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Publication date was April 22, 2021.
Expected publication date for book 2 is summer 2021
Expected publication date for book 3 is late 2021
No comments:
Post a Comment