Why I read it: This is one from my personal library.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Jack Rossi is Dare Island’s new police chief. The laid-back North Carolina community is just what he needs to recover from a rocky marriage and a big-city police department. He’s learned his lesson: no more high-profile women or high-pressure jobs. The last thing he wants is an unconventional alt girl rocking his world.

Grad student Lauren Patterson made headlines when she kept a bank robbery from going bad. She’s fled to Dare Island to clear her head and focus on writing her story. However, sexy Jack Rossi is a distraction that’s too hot to ignore, and it’s igniting an affair too combustible to resist—or quit.

But when their pasts come looking for them, Jack and Lauren find themselves fighting for the future they deserve, whatever the price.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): It took me a while to warm up to the Lauren and Jack combination I think. I liked Lauren and Jack separately but for some reason, I didn’t feel their connection or chemistry immediately. By the end of the story I was convinced but unlike the earlier books in the series, I didn’t feel it jumped off the page (or, I should say, the iPod) from the start.

Lauren has writer’s block and is on Dare Island to rest and try and find her writing mojo. Jack is on Dare Island to start a new life, away from his cheating ex-wife and his loving and deeply loved but also somewhat strangulating family. They don’t take long to get together and the sex is early and frequent. I didn’t feel the sex scenes were overdone – it was more that both on page and off they were going at it like bunnies if you know what I mean. Most of the book covers a fairly short timespan and they fall in love a bit too quickly for my comfort. There is also what I assume to be the introduction of the next heroine, Jane, the bakery owner, who has trouble with her ex-husband which impacts on Lauren and Jack in the course of the story.

Essentially the conflict between Lauren and Jack is that she is holidaying and he is residing on Dare Island. What future can they have? It’s a fairly simple conflict and fairly common as well and while I liked it well enough I also didn’t think there was anything particularly new or fresh about the storyline. I think, had I read the book rather than listened, I probably would have graded it at C+. As it was, the narration elevated my experience. I do like Sophie Eastlake’s narrations. Most of her hero voices are pretty similar, it’s true (and same for heroines) but here, most of the time, Jack had a Philly accent (I thought it slipped occasionally) which differentiated him. Bakery Jane has a southern accent which sets her apart – even though she wasn’t the heroine in this book. I do think Ms. Eastlake is particularly good at portraying the various ages of the characters convincingly.

I found myself at the end of the book surprisingly quickly so that must say something. It kind of snuck up on me actually.

It’s an easy, contemporary romance with a not particularly angsty backstory. Enjoyable enough and worth my Audible credit but not, in my opinion, the best of the series so far.