Review - - The Cottage on Pelican Bay

The Cottage on Pelican Bay

by Brenda Jackson

Catalina Cove - Book 7

Publisher: Canary Street Press

Release Date: August 20, 2024

Reviewed by PJ

 

Sometimes one hot night simply isn’t enough.

Two years ago, Zara Miller found herself heartbroken and stranded in a New Orleans hotel bar with a sexy stranger named “Saint.” One thing led to another and to a night of unforgettable pleasure. Though contact info wasn’t exchanged—no strings attached—Zara hasn’t been able to stop thinking about him or that one scorching night ever since. Now she’s returned to her hometown of Catalina Cove only to discover that her brother’s new hire is Evans “Saint” Toussaint, the one-night man she can’t forget.

Though Saint, like Zara, grew up in Catalina Cove, they'd never crossed paths. Now all of a sudden they can’t seem to avoid each other. Despite an enduring attraction, Zara and Saint decide to keep their spicy secret in the past. Everybody knows everybody’s business in Catalina Cove, and they don’t need everybody knowing theirs—especially since they’ve both been burned in the past.

But when their intense desire becomes impossible to ignore, they escape to Zara’s secluded cottage on Pelican Bay, where they’re free to explore whether their casual connection might actually be the lasting love they’ve both been missing.

PJ's Thoughts:

I've been reading Brenda Jackson's Catalina Cove series since book one, Love in Catalina Cove. Though the books can be read as standalones, each new entry has felt like an enjoyable reunion with fictional friends where a few new people are added to the group. The sense of community is strong in this series and it's always fun to catch up with favorite characters while also taking a journey with the newest couple.

I was excited to learn the heroine of The Cottage on Pelican Bay would be Zara (sister of the hero of book 5, One Christmas Wish) and eager to discover what Jenkins had in store for her. I was not disappointed. The chemistry between Zara and Saint sizzles from the start but neither is looking for a relationship...for reasons. I appreciated the time Jenkins took with them, indulging their desires while allowing them to gradually grow emotions between them. It felt very realistic and gave me the confidence that their eventual relationship would stand the test of time. I really liked these two, individually and together, and was cheering for them the entire way while also cheering against certain family members (Saint's), a toxic ex (also Saint's), and a deluded husband hunter on the prowl. Happily, all of them are satisfactorily dealt with in the end. 

This book also contains a sweet secondary romance between mature characters who are both widowed. I enjoyed it but would not have missed it if the focus had remained solely on Zara and Saint. 

If you enjoy contemporary romance with Southern flavor, a strong sense of community, fully-developed characters, heartwarming romance, strong friendships, and happy endings, I recommend The Cottage on Pelican Bay...and the rest of the books in the Catalina Cove series too!

Review - - The House on Blueberry Lane

The House on Blueberry Lane

by Brenda Jackson

Catalina Cove - Book 6

Publisher: HQN

Release Date: July 26, 2022

Reviewed by PJ

 

 

All he needs is a second chance

All she wants is no strings attached

The biggest mistake of Jaye Colfax’s life was letting Velvet Spencer leave. For three years, they were together exclusively and it was great—at least for Jaye. But Velvet wanted more. Jaye wouldn’t commit to anything because he just didn’t believe in love or marriage. Tired of waiting, Velvet left him without so much as a goodbye. Only then did Jaye realize he’d been too proud to admit he loved her. But it was too late—his stubbornness had cost him the love of his life. 

It took Jaye two years to find where Velvet had gone. Now, he’s come to Catalina Cove to prove his love and win back her heart. He’ll do whatever it takes, even buy the local bank and move in next door. But will Velvet have him?

PJ's Thoughts:

Brenda Jackson returns to Catalina Cove with an emotional, and steamy, story of second chances. I became intrigued by Velvet and her mysterious background while reading book five, One Christmas Wish so, of course, I was excited to learn book six would be her story. It was another satisfying visit to the place, and with the characters, who have made Catalina Cove one of my favorite fictional stops. 

Whether this is your first, or sixth, visit to Catalina Cove, Jackson's descriptions bring the small bayou town to life. Each visit makes me wish even more that it was a real place. I want to walk the path along the river, start my day with the mouth-watering blueberry muffins at the Witherspoon Café, sip a cold beverage while watching the sun set, indulge in the daily soup special at the Green Fig, dig into delicious, freshly-caught seafood, and hang out with all my favorite Catalina Cove residents. 

Let's talk about those residents. While each book focuses on a primary couple, Jackson surrounds them with a lively secondary cast of characters who bring friendship, conflict, and intrigue to the story. It feels very much like actually living in a small town, with all it's quirks and complications. 

And then there's our main couple, Velvet and Jaye. He's set on earning a second chance. She's set on flipping the romantic tables, offering him a no-strings affair with hearts definitely not engaged. He broke hers once; she's not going to give him an opportunity to do it again. I enjoyed their journey. While they reconnected sexually almost immediately, the author took her time with them emotionally. Trust lost takes time to recapture and Velvet needed that time - along with Jaye's actions - to reach a point where she was willing to reopen her heart. It was worth the wait. 

As I mentioned earlier, The House on Blueberry Lane is the sixth book in Brenda Jackson's Catalina Cove series. While characters from earlier books make appearances in this one, and Velvet was introduced in book five, it can definitely be enjoyed as a standalone. However, don't be surprised if once you finish The House on Blueberry Lane, you immediately search out the other books in the series. I recommend them all.  

Tour Review - - One Christmas Wish

One Christmas Wish

by Brenda Jackson

Catalina Cove - Book 5

Publisher: HQN

Release Date: October 26, 2021

Reviewed by PJ

It’s Christmas in Catalina Cove, a time of promise and second chances. But when you’re starting over, love is the last thing you’re wishing for…

Vaughn Miller’s Wall Street career was abruptly ended by a wrongful conviction and two years in prison. Since then, he’s returned to his hometown, kept his head down and forged a way forward. When he is exonerated and his name cleared, he feels he can hold his head up once again, maybe even talk to the beautiful café owner who sets his blood to simmering.

Sierra Crane escaped a disastrous marriage—barely. She and her six-year-old goddaughter have returned to the only place that feels like home. Determined to make it on her own, Sierra opens a soup café. Complication is the last thing she needs, but the moment Vaughn walks into her café, she can’t keep her eyes off the smoldering loner.

When they give in to their attraction, what Sierra thought would be a onetime thing becomes so much more. Vaughn knows she’s the one. Sierra can’t deny the way Vaughn makes her feel, but she’s been burned before. With Christmas approaching, Vaughn takes a chance to prove his love, and it will be up to Sierra to decide if her one Christmas wish—true happiness—will come true.

PJ's Thoughts:

I've enjoyed each book in Brenda Jackson's Catalina Cove series. She brings this small southern Louisiana town to life and populates it with intriguing characters who are easy to root for. While fans of the series will no doubt enjoy catching up with some of those earlier characters, Sierra and Vaughn are new to the series. Readers who are also new to the series can easily begin with One Christmas Wish without any confusion.

Sierra and Vaughn's relationship is not without its challenges, with Sierra throwing up roadblocks with frequency. Her former marriage definitely took a toll on both her own self-worth as well as her willingness to let another man into her life. I wanted to toss her ex off a remote, very high, cliff for what he put her through both during their marriage as well as in the present. She has some growing - and healing - to do in order to be ready to open her heart again. 

Vaughn has emotional baggage in his past as well but seems to have reached a point where he's dealing with it better than Sierra. He's such a good guy. I loved his chemistry with Sierra and the deeper feelings he's ready to embrace. I also loved his interactions with Sierra's adopted daughter, Teryn, a six-year-old dynamo who steals every scene she's in. 

While reading this book, I spent a lot of time drooling over the soup specials at Sierra's restaurant (I need recipes) as well as immersing myself in the holiday events in Catalina Cove. Jackson depicts the town so vividly. 

There are a few secondary stories intersecting with Sierra and Vaughn's relationship which add intrigue, angst, a threat against Sierra, and the introduction of a new couple for a future book. There are also some threads left hanging from the potential resolution of the issue regarding Sierra's ex-husband. I hope that will be addressed in the next book. Only then, will I be certain of the happy ending this book promises.  

I can always count on Brenda Jackson for an immersive reading experience that brings all the feels and she delivers once again with this newest Catalina Cove tale. I'm already looking forward to my next visit to this small, friendly town on the bayou where second chances and love await new residents as well as those who find their way back home. 

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Brenda Jackson is a New York Times bestselling author of more than one hundred romance titles. Brenda lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and divides her time between family, writing and traveling.

 

Review - - Follow Your Heart

Follow Your Heart

by Brenda Jackson

Catalina Cove - Book 4

Publisher: HQN

Release Date: April 27, 2021

Reviewed by PJ

 

Some things shouldn’t be left to chance…

Victoria Madaris is next on her great-grandmother’s matchmaking list—which suits her just fine. She’s laser-focused on her career and doesn’t have time to concentrate on her love life, too. Knowing that Mama Laverne is vetting unsuitable candidates—like rising US senator Roman Malone—makes things easy.

But Roman unexpectedly ticks all of Victoria’s boxes. The longtime family friend is outrageously sexy, and every time they meet, their chemistry crackles. Being a journalist, though, Victoria just doesn’t trust politicians. Plus, her matchmaker’s expert opinion keeps pointing to the charming and handsome Tanner Jamison. And everybody knows, Mama Laverne is never wrong.

Suddenly, Victoria sees Tanner everywhere—as if by fate—but she doesn’t feel any attraction. Meanwhile, the more Victoria gets to know Roman, the harder it is to resist him. Her head is saying play it safe, but is her heart strong enough to go against her better judgment…and Mama Laverne’s?

PJ's Thoughts:

Brenda Jackson returns to Catalina Cove for another heartwarming story of love and happily ever after...times two!

I have thoroughly enjoyed every book in this series and each new addition has me eager for a return visit to this idyllic little town on the Louisiana coast. If this was a real town I'd be booking a flight, packing my bags, and making plans to meet up with all my favorite Catalina Cove characters. Oh, and also making reservations for breakfast, lunch, and dinner because fresh seafood (yum), baked delights from the apple orchard (double yum), and fresh blueberry muffins at the Witherspoon Café? Yes, please! 

I'm partial to the friends-to-lovers trope, especially when the author takes her time with the couple and that's exactly what Jackson does with Roman and Victoria. I enjoyed their conversations, the subtle flirting, the time they took to discover common interests. By the time they explored the flames of their desire for one another they had built a solid foundation of mutual friendship, trust, and respect to support the love that was beginning to flourish and would, hopefully, see them through looming obstacles. Because, oh yes, there are obstacles. 

The secondary romance in this book is also enjoyable though that couple has a very different dynamic from Roman and Victoria. The threads among the four characters intertwine enough to add complexity and tension to the story without creating an abundance of angst and the second HEA is a nice bonus. Plus, the twist at the end related to the secondary couple was a fun surprise I did not see coming. 

Even though Follow Your Heart is the fourth book in the Catalina Cove series, it stands very well on its own. Readers new to the series can jump into Roman and Victoria's story without missing a beat. This book also has a tie-in to Jackson's popular Madaris series. Fans of that series will no doubt enjoy revisiting a few of those characters as well. 

 

Review - - Forget Me Not

Forget Me Not
by Brenda Jackson
Catalina Cove - Book 2
Publisher: HQN
Release Date: March 26, 2019
Reviewed by PJ

Ashley Ryan never doubted that her husband, Devon, was the love of her life. Even now, three years after Devon died in a car wreck while on a business trip, Ashley can’t bring herself to move on. But when her girlfriends surprise her with a getaway to beautiful Catalina Cove, Louisiana, she gets the shock of her life when she encounters a man—bearded, more rugged than before, but unmistakably her Devon.

“Ray Sullivan” moved to this quiet coastal town after waking up in a hospital with amnesia. Haunted by a life he can’t remember, he’s built walls around his heart and a quiet life running boat tours—a life that includes no recollection of Ashley, a woman he suddenly finds himself irresistibly drawn to.

Doctors warn Ashley of the danger in forcing her husband to remember the past. Though she longs to tell him the truth, she finds herself falling all over again for a man she knows may never truly come back to her. In this place where healing and second chances are just a heartbeat away, can love take root once more?

My thoughts:

I have fallen in love with Brenda Jackson's Catalina Cove. I want to travel to Louisiana, book a room at Vashti's B&B, take a tour on Ray's boat, walk the beach, sample the fresh seafood, and get to know the intriguing people who populate this small southern town that Jackson's brought to life on the pages of this series. 

Though I would never want to experience it myself, I admit, I'm a pushover for an amnesia romance and Jackson has created one that pushed all my emotional buttons. My heart was with Ashley as, three years after her husband's death, she's still struggling to harness her grief and move on. Having her mother shove "new husband" candidates at her certainly isn't helping. Discovering her dead husband is very much alive but has no memory of his life before the accident creates a delicate line she must walk and I was with her every step of the way. Jackson kept my emotions bouncing as I was immersed into Ashley's thoughts, fears, and hopes during her gradual and realistically depicted journey as she begins to learn about this new version of the man she married. 

Ray's actions and reactions felt very real to me. I enjoyed his friendship with Sawyer and Kaegan. I understood his reluctance to get involved with a woman, not knowing what his life had been pre-amnesia. Jackson skillfully guides him through the ups and downs of his journey with Ashley with  heart-tugging emotion and realistic reticence. As Devon is slowly revealed through flashbacks and through Ashley's thoughts, we begin to know the man he once was. At the same time, through his present-day interactions with Ashley, both she and the reader come to know Ray as he is now. My heart ached for what Ray has, and continues, to go through. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to know you had a life, friends, family, but remember nothing about it. 

Will Devon regain his memory and return to the wife he once loved? Will Ashley fall in love with Ray, who is very different from Devon, and move forward in a new relationship with the man to whom she's already married? Or will the resolution of this story be something else entirely? You're going to have to travel to Catalina Cove through the pages Forget Me Not to discover the answers. It's a journey I enthusiastically recommend.


What setting (city, state, country) have you discovered in a romance novel that you'd love to visit in real life?

Forget Me Not is Brenda Jackson's 100th Harlequin novel. Have you read her books yet? Do you have a favorite?

One person who posts a comment before 11:00 PM, March 29 will receive a signed, print copy of a Brenda Jackson book. (I don't know which book yet as I'll be buying it at next week's Avon KissCon event.)  
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