Review - - Secrets in Cypress Bayou

Secrets in Cypress Bayou

by Susan Sands

Louisiana - Book 2

Publisher: Tule

Release Date: August 16, 2022

Reviewed by PJ

Some secrets are buried deep…

When newly minted attorney Carly Bertrand returns to Cypress Bayou, Louisiana, to be close to her family, her first priority is finding a job. She’s shocked to get an offer from her childhood crush, Tanner Carmichael, whose town roots are as deep as hers. Carly accepts, confident she can help Tanner get his new law practice up and running, and keep her attraction to him under lock and key. She’s no longer a starry-eyed teen admiring from afar.

Their first client is a woman searching for her birth mother who mysteriously disappeared decades ago without a trace. Carly and Tanner take the case and soon find themselves drowning in a swampy patch of secrets, political corruption, and danger. And the further they dig, the more it looks like Tanner’s powerful, narcissistic father is involved.

As they work to unravel the mystery, Carly’s old feelings resurface and Tanner can’t believe the shy girl next door has become such a brilliant, beautiful, and determined woman. Should they risk everything for the truth, including their hearts, or settle for safety?

PJ's Thoughts:

Like the first book in the series, Secrets in Cypress Bayou was an immersive page turner that kept me eagerly reading from start to finish. The characters were multi-layered and fully developed, engaging both my interest and my emotions. Sand's descriptions evoke the culture, food, and flavor of Louisiana and the twisty mystery was filled with surprises that I did not see coming (love when an author can do that). Relationships within Carly's family continued to evolve after the explosive revelations in book one, leaving me shaking my head at some points, occasionally gasping, and helplessly laughing at others because what else can you do with a mother like Carly's? That woman is a piece of work. 

The relationship between Carly and Tanner was slow growing and satisfying. It isn't always easy to move back to your hometown, especially when your family is as dysfunctional as the Bertrands. Sands handles the transition well, as she also does with the changing relationship between Carly and Tanner. I loved how they found their footing with one another as adults and how their attraction - and subsequent feelings - deepened as they worked together to solve the mystery of their client's birth mother's disappearance and attempted to right decades-old wrongs.

Susan Sands' Cypress Bayou has become one of my favorite fictional places to visit. I am beyond eager to discover what she has in store for readers in book three, A Bayou Christmas, due to be published November 1 2022. I already have it on pre-order.

This is a series where I strongly recommend reading the books in order. Book one is Home to Cypress Bayou.

Tour Review & Giveaway - - Gimme Some Sugar

Gimme Some Sugar
by Molly Harper
Southern Eclectic - Book 6
Publisher: Gallery Books
Release Date: April 2, 2019
Reviewed by PJ

Lucy Brewer would never have guessed that her best friend, Duffy McCready (of McCready’s Bait Shop & Funeral Home) has been in love with her since they were kids. Fear of rejection and his own romantic complications prevented Duffy from confessing his true feelings in high school, so he stood by and watched her wed Wayne Bowman right after high school. Wayne had always been a cheapskate, so it comes as no surprise when he suffers a fatal accident while fixing his own truck.

Even as her family and friends invade Lucy’s life and insist that the new widow is too fragile to do much beyond weeping, Lucy is ashamed to admit that life without Wayne is easier, less complicated. After all, no one knew what a relentless, soul-grinding trudge marriage to Wayne had been. Only Duffy can tell she’s hiding something.

In need of a fresh start, Lucy asks Duffy to put his cabinet-building skills to use, transforming the town's meat shop into a bake shop. As the bakery takes shape, Lucy and Duffy discover the spark that pulled them together so many years ago. Could this finally be the second chance he’s always hoped for?

My thoughts:

Molly Harper's writing is as tart as a platter of freshly made lemon bars and as refreshing as a glass of sweet tea. In order words, it's a great big batch of southern goodness wrapped up in characters who made me laugh, sigh, and on a few occasions, go in search of my favorite shovel. 

Friends to lovers is one of my favorite romance tropes and I was in Lucy and Duffy's corner from the get-go. I really liked these two. Harper does a great job of blending their shared history into the present-day story without an info dump. It gave me a good understanding of where they had been, the detours they took (unhappy marriages to other people), and where they are now as their new journey to being a potential couple begins. It was a fun journey, not without some introspection and angst (these are flawed, realistic characters, after all), but overall it was fast-paced, littered with snappy dialog, some heart-tugging emotion, humor, and a feel-good ending that made me smile and want to return to Sackett County again and again. 

Don't be put off by the fact that this is a long-running series. You can step into the town and the McCready family just fine without having read the previous books in the series. But, if they reel you in like they did me, you'll be interested to know several of the books are currently on sale for $1.99 in e-book format. 

Do you enjoy southern romance?

Do you have any favorite authors who write in this setting?

What's your favorite southern saying?

One person who leaves a comment before 11:00 PM, April 4, 2019 will receive a print copy of Gimme Some Sugar. 
(U.S. only)

Molly Harper is the author of two popular series of paranormal romance, the Half-Moon Hollow series and the Naked Werewolf series. She also writes the Bluegrass ebook series of contemporary romance. A former humor columnist and newspaper reporter, she lives in Michigan with her family, where she is currently working on the next Southern Eclectic novel. Visit her on the web at MollyHarper.com.

Blog Tour Review - - Leave the Night On

Leave the Night On
By Laura Trentham
Publisher: St. Martin's
Release Date: August 1, 2017
Reviewed by PJ
         

Love, betrayal, and sweet revenge—life in Cottonbloom is about to get a whole lot hotter . . .

Sutton Mize is known for lavishing attention on the customers who flock to her boutique on the wealthy side of her Mississippi town. So when she finds a lace thong in her fiancé’s classic cherry-red Camaro, she knows just who she sold it to: her own best friend. In an instant, Sutton’s whole world goes up in flames. . .

Wyatt Abbott has harbored a crush on Sutton since he was a young kid from the other side of the tracks. He witnessed Sutton’s shocking discovery in the Camaro at his family-owned garage—and it made him angry. What kind of man could take lovely, gorgeous Sutton for granted? But then Sutton comes up with an idea: Why not give her betrothed a taste of his own medicine and pretend that she’s got a lover of her own? Wyatt is more than happy to play the hot-and-heavy boyfriend. But what begins as a fictional affair soon develops into something more real, and more passionate, than either Sutton or Wyatt could have imagined. Could it be that true love has been waiting under the hood all along?

In Leave the Night On, Laura Trentham returns to the southern town of Cottonbloom, a community split by both a river and a state line, for the first book featuring the newly introduced Abbott brothers. While familiar characters from the first Cottonbloom trilogy appear periodically, readers new to Trentham's Cottonbloom books will have no difficulty starting with this novel. 

I've been excitedly anticipating this newest Cottonbloom story and it did not disappoint. Once again, Trentham has paired a couple from opposites sides of the river: Sutton, the privileged daughter of a Mississippi judge and Wyatt, the blue-collar mechanic from the Louisiana side. At first glance, Sutton and Wyatt are completely mismatched, but both are much more complex than appearances would suggest. Wyatt, in particular, has hidden depths that not even his family has guessed and beneath her prim and proper exterior, Sutton hides the soul of a woman aching to break loose and have fun. I adored them both, individually and as a couple, and thoroughly enjoyed their journey.  

As in her previous books, both the town of Cottonbloom and the quirky citizens on both sides of the river are featured prominently in Leave the Night On. Trentham brings them to life with her vibrant, realistic descriptions and spot-on southern dialog. It's a town I want to visit - people I'd like to know. And you can put Wyatt at the top of that list. He made me laugh, made me sigh, and if I didn't like Sutton so much, I'd elbow her out of the way and claim him for my own. 

In addition to creating intriguing communities, Trentham also excels at developing complex family relationships, the Abbott brothers being the most recent to take center stage. The dynamic among the four brothers is fraught with emotion, mistrust, and conflict. Trentham unveils just enough about each brother to leave me wanting more though I have to admit that at this point all I want to do with eldest brother Ford is drop-kick him off the nearest cliff. I'm sure there are swirling emotional depths within each of them to which we will eventually become privy. I can't wait to see where she takes them in upcoming books.  

If you enjoy small-town stories true to their southern roots with sensual romance, emotional depth, likable couples, quirky secondary characters, and a splash of humor that wrap you up in a satisfied smile and sigh, then I recommend any of Laura Trentham's Cottonbloom novels. Leave the Night On is a great place to begin. 

Have you read any of Laura Trentham's novels yet?

Do you have a favorite book or character from Cottonbloom?

Do you enjoy stories set in the American south?

One randomly chosen person leaving a comment by 11:00 PM (EST), August 6, 2017 will receive a print copy of Leave the Night On.  (U.S. addresses only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An award-winning author, Laura Trentham was born and raised in a small town in Tennessee. Although, she loved English and reading in high school, she was convinced an English degree equated to starvation. She chose the next most logical major—Chemical Engineering—and worked in a hard hat and steel toed boots for several years.

She writes sexy, small town contemporaries and smoking hot Regency historicals. The first two books of her Falcon Football series were named Top Picks by RT Book Reviews magazine. Then He Kissed Me, a Cottonbloom novel, was named as one of Amazon’s best romances of 2016. When not lost in a cozy Southern town or Regency England, she's shuttling kids to soccer, helping with homework, and avoiding the Mt. Everest-sized pile of laundry that is almost as big as the to-be-read pile of books on her nightstand.

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