Rainshadow Road (Friday Harbor #2) by Lisa Kleypas

 

Summary:

From New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas comes a tale of love and magic...

Lucy Marinn is a glass artist living in mystical, beautiful, Friday Harbor, Washington. She is stunned and blindsided by the most bitter kind of betrayal: her fiancé Kevin has left her. His new lover is Lucy’s own sister. Lucy's bitterness over being dumped is multiplied by the fact that she has constantly made the wrong choices in her romantic life.

Facing the severe disapproval of Lucy's parents, Kevin asks his friend Sam Nolan, a local vineyard owner on San Juan Island, to "romance" Lucy and hopefully loosen her up and get her over her anger. Complications ensue when Sam and Lucy begin to fall in love, Kevin has second thoughts, and Lucy discovers that the new relationship in her life began under false pretenses. 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 made into something new and beautiful.
Summary & Cover taken from Goodreads.com
Length: 308 pages (Paperback)
Source: Toronto Public Library
Available Formats: Print/E-book/Audio
Publication Date: February 28th 2012 by Piatkus Books (first published January 1st 2012)            

In my first month of blogging back in 2011 I read and reviewed the first book Christmas Eve At Friday Harbor and I was not much of a fan of the book. I thought that it was very two dimensional in terms of characters and the plot was extremely weak which is why it took me almost 3 years to give the second book in this series a try, and the only reason I did try it was because I wanted in on the buddy read my main GR book group was doing for it.

Anyways, I started this one yesterday morning and by 9 p.m. I was finished. This one proved to be a much better representation of the whole small town romance that the author seemed to be going for as I got sucked into the story very quickly and think it's a shame that I had to put it down for several hours because life had to get in the way.

At first I was a little iffy about the story because of Kevin cheating on Lucy with her younger sister and how the both of them (Kevin and Alice the sister) thought that what they did to Lucy was so acceptable that they blamed her. With the first 30 or so pages I was seething, and kind of hoping they'd get hit by a bus. Harsh? Maybe, but I just hated them both so much that I wished they'd leave Lucy alone because they didn't need to keep rubbing their relationship in her face.

While I did love Lucy, in the beginning especially when she first met Sam I thought she was a bit too snarky and acted a little to jaded to a man who was only being polite. For me there's a line between being rude and being snarky because your hurt, and she stepped over that line in the beginning quite a bit Sam was a trooper and didn't let it phase him which I loved. I liked how sweet and caring her came off as in the beginning (he was that way all the way through) but I liked how despite his idea of him being a confirmed bachelor he wasn't an ass about it at all and genuinely cared for Lucy.

I really liked how while the book focused on Sam and Lucy being friends it also focused on Lucy healing and trusting in herself that she was able to move on despite her sister and her ex making appearances in different parts of the book that caused a whole bunch of drama for everyone involved but I like how that drama was captured. Plus I liked how the book took place over the course of a few months so I got a true sense that things were progressing at a reasonable pace with Lucy and Sam and there was no insta-love thank goodness. Another plus for the book was that I was able to see characters from the first book again and catch up with them especially Holly Sam's niece.

I do wish though that Lucy had stood up to Alice more. She complained about how no one ever tells Alice off for things but when she has the opportunity to finally tell her like it is she gives into her sister's vulnerability and I wanted to reach in my book and strangle her. She was so afraid of confrontation because of Alice's broken heart I wish she had realized that sometimes confrontation is just what two sisters need. It's cathartic and it made the story fall a little flat without it.

My other issues with the book is that while I'm glad they got together in the end, and Lucy didn't abandon her opportunity to teach in NYC to stay with Sam, I felt the end of the book was a little rushed and a bit of a let down and I felt like I was left adrift and then there was the issue of the random magical realism thrown into the story that just seemed ill placed.

In the end there were some issues with the book that irritated me but I will say it was miles ahead of where the first one in the series was and I really did like Lucy and Sam a lot and as a couple they were great. Neither was too much of anything and I like how they each played a part in mellowing each other out. This was a quick fun read and I can't wait for my group to read the rest of the series.

I would recommend this one to fans of contemporary romances and fans of this author. This series while it isn't my favourite will appeal to those looking for a cute small town contemporary romance that isn't too long and has some laughs in store.

Liked It!
★★★1/2

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