Hello everyone!
As September draws to a close, so too does my trilogy of reviews for one of the last summer-y themed books I'll probably read this calendar year.
Because, let's face it, when the frost creeps in and the leaves turn from green to red, you want to cosy up by a fire with a cup of something hot and a REALLY good, occasionally scary, comforting read that takes you into the seasonal feeling.
I mean who doesn't want to read about Halloween when it's just around the corner?!
Alright, fine, I have to admit that Halloween and I have never been friends - dressing up as someone else just isn't my thing - BUT I really DO enjoy reading some of the stories that pop up at this time of year.
But for right now, as we finally bid adieu to the last taste of summer, let's head into the wrap-up post for Serenity Woods' Blue Penguin Bay trilogy.
The last book is titled, pretty neatly I think, As Timeless as the Sea.
If you hop down to the bottom of this post, you'll find link to the reviews of the previous two books I did in the past two weeks.
Of course by now you know the drill, if you've been reading along: in book one we got to know the sisters, and their vineyard, and the clause that only gives 50 000 dollars each AFTER marriage, which spurs Fred to marry Mac and it turns into a love match. And then afterwards Ginger has to be brought down a notch and help poor Sam out after his father's death, and those two also get married so that's another 50 000, not that they were tying the knot just for that.
So now it's only Sandi that's left!
The third sister who's in charge of the bed and breakfast part of the organisation, seems to enjoy finding eclectic pieces to decorate with and just in general the life they're all building in New Zealand.
She, too, had some issues that she left behind when they left the UK.
See, she dated this man for two years, until his unfortunate premature death, at which point it was revealed that he had a double life: a wife in that second part, who didn't know about Sandi, and vice versa, and Sandi, who honestly thought he was the one, got left with nothing after the whole thing went down.
And oh, also, the unfortunate bloke had a hard time with premature ejaculation. His life just did NOT look put together, but he somehow found time for two women. How? No idea.
Anyway.
Now in gorgeous New Zealand, with one sister married and the other just tying the knot, Sandi's trying to turn down this gorgeous lawyer Jace, who doesn't really take no for an answer. And not in an annoying kind of way, but in the way a guy will be persistent when he wants to get to know you better and maybe take you out on a date. She thinks she's not ready - but the sparks keep on flying during the wedding reception and they're even hotter on the dance floor.
Which, naturally, ends up leading into the bedroom.
Sandi then decides that, hey, sex isn't even bad - so maybe she and Jace can have a sexual thing going instead of a relationship thing.
Jace says fine for now, but he can also see that MAYBE Sandi might be convinced to have more.
In a little bit of time.
They have some interesting conversations in the mean time, because while Sandi was trying to help her ex through his problems she did a lot of reading, and probably could have specialised for a sex therapist if she wanted to, but somehow or other never did, and seems content helping her sisters out.
And her sisters are MORE than content to try and get her to consider seriously dating Jace. The guys, too, seeing as Sam and Jace have been buddies for a long time.
Of course, then Sandi goes and turns into a typical female you usually read about in romance novels, as in she wants to know the ins and outs of Jace and all his secrets.
Which he politely but firmly tells her he can't share with her, not yet at least.
Yes, he does understand what happened in her past, but this has nothing to do with that and she's going to have to learn to trust again eventually ... and she'll have to trust him when he tells her he literally can't share his secret.
Sandi is, for some reason, devastated, and bawls to the rest of the group, who collectively agree they need to dig into Jace's background and find out what secret he's hiding.
Snooping has never been a good foundation for any relationship, and Jace does reveal the truth behind why he couldn't say a word: he's in witness protection after seeing the death of his father and older brothers, who were killed in a car accident after stealing drugs from another family, thinking they might get away with it.
Oh and the woman he occasionally talks to? His sister-in-law, not a mistress on the side.
Anyway, twelve months after the girls moved to New Zealand, Jace and Sandi are married, the vineyard and it's surrounding organisation are a success, and Fred and Mac are expecting their first child together. It isn't mentioned that the last 50 000 were released to Sandi after her marriage, but it's implied by this point.
And they all lived happily ever after, to the end of their days.
FIN.
You may have noticed that the tenor of my review changed subtly somewhere around the halfway point. And indeed, this was one of the very rare Serenity Woods books which I didn't instantly love on the spot.
Why?
Handling Jace's situation.
I get it, I really do; Sandi has trust issues. That's fine. But there are trust issues and then there's point-blank pig-headedness that you NEED to know EVERYTHING. Even in a regular relationship, you don't automatically get the entire truth about your potential partner, so trying to force it out of someone only weeks after meeting them is a little bit excessive. But what got to me the most was the reaction of the rest of the group.
I took the lot of them to be generally pretty smart and level-headed. Somehow, however, NOT ONE OF THEM told Sandi to maybe back up a little and let time take it's course. She was on no time table. She had no deadline to meet. She could wait it out just a little and see what happened, give Jace a chance, a freaking CHANCE to explain things on his own (considering he WAS waiting for a deadline when he'd be free again).
But no. What they did instead was instigate a background check, and even Sam, professing to being Jace's friend, suddenly did an abrupt-turn and went OHMYGOD HE DIDN'T TELL YOU HIS UNDERWEAR SIZE? THAT'S A CAPITAL OFFENSE LET'S BURN HIM AT THE STAKE!
I might have swallowed the bitter pill better if at least Sam had stayed on Jace's side. But what I did learn out of all this is that you never know who your friends are, and in my opinion, no one in this group was Jace's friend. I understand their need to protect Sandi - but come on, she's not a sixteen year old girl, she's an adult woman, she can wait for five minutes and she can absolutely not put down ultimatums when SHE was the one who DIDN'T WANT a relationship to begin with.
This book left a foul taste in my mouth because for some reason Jace just went with this instead of kicking them all to the curb, telling them how lousy they are for friends, and moving back to be close to his family again.
I'm definitely not going to be rereading this one. The other two, sure, but this one is going to stay far away from me. They had no right to treat Jace as a criminal when he hadn't done anything to deserve that. Sandi definitely didn't deserve him as a man and partner to live the rest of her life out with.
So yeah. Sadly, not a glowing review. If you don't like pseudo-friends who dig into someone's background for no apparent reason, I'd have to advise you not to read.
I still love the rest of Ms Woods' books. This one just didn't hit the right note at all.
xx
*image not mine
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