Archives for August 2023

I voluntarily read an early copy of this book.

She has a new career and a promising relationship, but will the secrets of her past ruin her hopes for the future?

No matter where she lived, Kimberly Ann Dane considered the Dane Crown Inn her home. As a child, Kim looked forward to frequent visits to the inn where she enjoyed building sand castles on Emerald Bay’s sandy beaches, learning to cook in the inn’s spacious kitchen and hunting for buried treasure with her cousins. As she grew older, she paid her way through college by working summers and school holidays at the inn. It’s no wonder that—divorced, at odds with her grown children and hoping to make a fresh start—Kim returns to the one place she’s always been welcomed with open arms. But things have changed. Kim’s cousins have scattered and face problems of their own. And the inn, which was once hailed as the “gem of Florida’s Treasure Coast,” has lost its luster. Kim has barely settled into her old room at the top of the stairs when her Aunt Margaret shocks the entire family with the news that she has decided to sell the estate that has been in the Dane family for more than fifty years. Before she does, though, Margaret asks Kim and her cousins to make one final wish come true.

While Kim and her cousins work to fulfill their aunt’s last request, they begin to rebuild the closeness they once treasured. As the women work to restore the inn to its former glory, a new career and a promising relationship with Emerald Bay’s most eligible bachelor open up a world of fresh possibilities for Kim. But when hidden secrets come to light, will her past ruin Kim’s hopes for a second chance at happiness?

The Emerald Bay Series

After a lifetime of running the finest inn in Emerald Bay, Margaret Clayton has to make a decision … sell the Dane Crown Inn to a stranger or put her hopes for the future in her family’s hands. For most people, the choice would be simple. But nothing about her family is simple … especially not with her daughter and four nieces whose help Margaret needs now more than ever.

The five cousins know the inn as well as Margaret does. As young girls and teenagers, they spent every summer keeping the cottages and suites spotless, and enjoying the gorgeous beach as a tight knit family. Thirty years later, though, these five women have complicated, important, distant, and utterly packed lives. The last thing any of them can do is drop everything and save the inn. But, when it comes to family, the last thing is sometimes the only thing.

As the once-close cousins come together on the glorious shores of Florida’s Treasure Coast, they learn that some things never change, but others can never be the same. And the only thing that matters is family which, like the Dane Crown Inn, is forever.

Treasure Coast Homecoming, Book 1
Treasure Coast Promise, Book 2
Treasure Coast Christmas, Book 3
Treasure Coast Revival, Book 4
Treasure Coast Discovery, Book 5
Treasure Coast Legacy, Book 6

Heartwarming and angsty! The second book in Leigh Duncan’s Emerald Bay series continues laying the groundwork of this family coming together to support their ailing aunt/mom in remodeling endeavors with the inn near and dear to all of their hearts in hopes of holding one final family reunion bash before selling the inn.

I really like the premise of this story and the characters are all intriguing in their own right, but I really am not fond of the flow of the series at all. This book in particular ended super abruptly right in the middle of a scene making it feel cliff-hanger-like by default. I seriously felt like the file was corrupt and there should have been more attached, that’s how ill timed it was. The blurb also makes it feel like this book is centered on Kim, when in fact each cousin gets fairly equal time in the spotlight again other than Scott who isn’t present in this book at all. The flow of the story would work much more efficiently for reader comprehension if one book centered on each character as much as possible and then tied them all together in a final book centered around the reunion. I’ll probably continue reading, but I for-see more irritation in my future. This is not a stand-alone series.