Review and Book Giveaway: Fortunate Harbor by Emilie Richards

Join five women connected only by their growing friendship and the road that runs like a lifeline between their cottages in a rundown Florida development called Happiness Key.

Tracy Deloche finally gets a chance to swap business for a romantic evening with Marsh Egan, but dinner goes cold when she spots her ex-husband prowling outside her cottage. CJ is supposed to be in prison and out of her life for good. Exactly what is this modern day pirate seeking and what will it mean for Tracy’s future?

Janya Kapur envies every pregnant woman she sees, but Rishi, her husband, is suddenly reluctant to talk about children. Is he disappointed in her inability to conceive? Their marriage was a contract between strangers. Can they ever hope for anything more?

Waitress Wanda Gray loses her job after new owners turn the Dancing Shrimp into a tapas bar. Wise neighbor Alice Brooks’ suggestion that Wanda start her own business seems like a brilliant solution, until Wanda starts Pie War I with the owners of the local bakery.

When the empty cottage at Happiness Key is rented by single mother Dana Turner, everything seems perfect. With Alice volunteering to watch her daughter while she works and Wanda’s offer of a job, this spit of Florida Gulf Coast land should be a fortunate harbor for a mother and daughter who have moved far too often-except for Dana’s shocking secret.

As the women of Happiness Key struggle to discover the truth in time to help their new neighbor, their only weapon is friendship. But will friendship be enough?

The blurb is pretty self explanatory so I’ll just jump into my thoughts.

This is a book about the four women who live in Happiness Key.  There’s not a ton of excitement in the town as far as I can tell so they pretty much just do their thing.  But one of their favorite things to do is gossip.  I have to admit that I think it’s pretty cool that these women, who live close by each other in their small 5 house development are good friends and get together and share – sometimes their sharing was just downright meddlesome.  Each woman has her good points as well as her bad.  From what I can tell this is book 2 in the Happiness Key series and they were just as meddlesome in book 1.

This book reads very much like “a day in the life” but it covers about 4 months.  Sometimes those lives are downright staid, but we get to read all about it.  Then there are other times when life is exciting and we get to read about that too.  I have to say that I really did long for the exciting times. lol  Unfortunately I felt that even though I had just finished 528 pages I really didn’t get to know but a couple of the characters very well and even then I truly didn’t feel any particular emotional attachment to them.  If I had read book 1 I might have felt differently though, I can’t say.

*Tracy, the true main character was more than a bit cantankerous throughout the book but seemed to be a nice person when her life wasn’t going as badly as it was.

*Wanda is a completely outspoken and nosy neighbor but generally has people’s best interests at heart.

*Janya is the youngest of the bunch and in a marriage that was hastily arranged (details in book 1, I guess).  I found this part of the book to be the most interesting but is was the smallest part of the book.

*Alice is a neighbor and a grandmother.  Other than the few sentences she speaks during the book we hardly got to know her at all.

*Dana and her daughter Lizzie are the new neighbors and they’re hiding something pretty serious which unfortunately we didn’t discover until almost the end of the story which was incredibly frustrating.

It’s not often, at least lately, that I veer from my romance genre so when I was contacted to review FH I figured it was about time I took a turn into some different fiction.  While I didn’t love the book it was a calm, mildly entertaining read – there were some darned funny parts in it as well and for me that’s always a plus.  That being said, I think I might have to stick with romance again for a while. 🙂

Rating: 3 out of 5

I received the ARC of FH from Planned Arts TV and they have kindly offered another copy for a giveaway as well.  If you’re interested in winning a copy of Fortunate Harbor (a bound galley)then leave a comment on this post sometime before next Thursday, June 24th at 11:59pm (pacific) and you will have your name in the drawing.  The winner will be announced on Friday, June 25th.
(This book releases on June 29th)

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