Freya Daly has always been a smart businesswoman – tough, unemotional, and a killer at negotiations. But for the last few months, she’s been bursting into tears for no reason at all. Even though she’s sure it must be some kind of rare eye condition, her boss (and father) removes her from her usual task of buying high-rent commercial properties in Boston, and banishes her to a rundown campground in Idaho with orders to obtain the property at any cost. Why the property is so valuable, Freya doesn’t know. All alone and far from home, her rare eye condition only gets worse. The one thing that seems to help is the friendship she strikes up with Piper Brody, a little girl who shows Freya that being a kid again can be a lot of fun.
Nate Brody is a five-star chef in Cincinnati. Unfortunately, at the moment, he’s not in Cincinnati – he’s running his father’s rundown campground in Idaho. Having made a deathbed promise to his father to find a mysterious lost item before selling the place, Nate is anxious to get back home, where his restaurant and career wait for him….though, maybe not for much longer if he doesn’t get back soon.
It doesn’t help that his eleven-year-old daughter, Piper, loves it in Idaho. For once, he’s not working fifteen-hour days, and he and Piper feel like a family. The only nuisance in their Idaho life is the guest in cabin number four. The beautiful woman from Boston has charmed Piper and, for some reason, seems as eager to buy the campground as Nate is to unload it.
As Freya and Nate build a friendship, things start to heat up – in more ways than one.
Wish You Were Here is the sequel to Crazy in Love. Freya, the heroine of this novel, is the sister of Flynn, the heroine of Crazy in Love. Although Flynn is mentioned in this novel, and vice verse, I don’t think you need to read them in order. They could both easily stand alone.
I really like Lani Diane Rich. This is my fourth or fifth book by her and I haven’t been disappointed yet. I think the blurb does a good job of outlining the story, so I’ll just go right into what I liked and didn’t like.
I loved both Freya and Nick. They really complimented each other. It was really refreshing for me that they didn’t skirt around their attraction. They both admitted up front how they felt about each other, but agreed it wasn’t a good idea for them to get involved. Once it became clear that they couldn’t fight the attraction any longer, they stopped fighting and went with it.
Nick was great with his daughter (have I mentioned how I love the heroes named Nick? Oh, I have? Nevermind..carry on). It wasn’t easy for him to raise her on his own, but he did his best to put her before everyone and everything else in his life. I really liked the parts with the two of them interacting with each other. He was a guy trying to deal with a teenage girl so obviously it wasn’t always smooth sailing, but I love that they talked and worked with each other.
I loved that Piper and Freya hit it off right away. It was refreshing that Piper didn’t act out toward Freya just because she wasn’t her mother. Speaking of her mother, I hated her. My heart hurt for Piper when she realized the kind of person her mother really was.
What I didn’t like was the suspense plot. I think Rich really excels at writing relationships and doing wonderful character development, but her suspense plots leave a lot to be desired. I wasn’t very interested in what was going on in the background and I found the end resolution to be kind of cheesy in that regard.
Overall I loved Nick and Freya and all the secondary characters. Watching the two of them realize what was really important in life and finding each other was great. But I could have done without the suspense plot.
4 out of 5
This book is available from Forever. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Ok this does sound good. hmmmm. I might have to have it. 🙂