The baby of the family, Daddy’s little girl… a lonely woman who deeply, desperately longed to be loved. Amelia Campbell was all that and so much more. A natural Cupid, she’d paired up several couples through the years. The only person she couldn’t seem to find a mate for was herself. Until he came along… the last person in the world she should fall for. 

Logan Gibson was as far from Amelia in life experiences as he could be. Battle-scarred and life-hardened, he was having trouble reconciling himself to life as a civilian. He’d seen too much of the dark side of people to believe in what she represented, and he just wanted to be left alone. Instead, he found himself returning to her time and again. 

Amelia was well aware he’d never choose someone like her. Logan knew she was too young, too innocent for him. But despite that knowledge, they were drawn to each other. When danger rears its ugly head, it takes both of them to figure out a way to protect her, and when the inevitable happens, all they can do is hold on to each other and hope to survive. -Goodreads

This is one of those books that it might be helpful to read the previous ones. The author did her best to make it so you wouldn't need to read the other books but it would have provided some insight to some of the things that were constantly brought up within the novel. 

The entire book was stretched out. Logan didn't just dislike Amelia he hated her for no reason other than the fact that he was attracted to her. His life as within the military wasn't the reason why he acted out towards her. The crazy thing was he did a complete turnaround once he found out Amelia heard the mean things he said to her. 

Amelia played the role of I am willing to help anyone including her enemy. The danger of this novel was because Amelia kept playing that role and wouldn't accept the fact that she is putting her life in danger. She was down right annoying with this. She was the too good to be true but it actually is true. 

The fantasy aspect of this novel is non-existence except for 2 minor parts. It wasn't needed for how the author set up the novel. There wasn't a lead up to it. It was just a known fact that even in the beginning of the novel wasn't really mentioned. 

As previously mentioned, the book was stretched and wasn't creative enough integrating the fantasy aspect of the story line with the "real".

Overall, it was alright. Something to pass the time with. 

2 Pickles

Cricket cove by T. L. Haddix.
The baby of the family, a shapeshifter, Daddy’s little girl… a lonely woman who deeply, desperately longed to be loved. Amelia Campbell was all that and so much more. A natural Cupid, she’d paired up several couples through the years. The only person she couldn’t seem to find a mate for was herself. Until Logan Gibson came along… the last person in the world she should fall for.

Logan was as far from Amelia in life experiences as he could be. Battle-scarred and life-hardened, he was having trouble reconciling himself to life as a civilian. He’d seen too much of the dark side of people to believe in what she represented, and he just wanted to be left alone. Instead, he found himself returning to her time and again.

Amelia was well aware he’d never choose someone like her. Logan knew she was too young, too innocent for him. But despite that knowledge, they were drawn to each other. When danger rears its ugly head, it takes both of them to figure out a way to protect her, and when the inevitable happens, all they can do is hold on to each other and hope to survive.

This was a fantastic read with brilliant characters. I do love shifter reads. I just couldn't put it down. I loved how Amelias family was with her. Very protective after what she went through.  Bought me to tears. Some parts even made me laugh. I hated Roger.  He was evil. What a shock I didn't see that coming. Can't wait to read more.  5*.

3/5


Amelia and Logan’s love story was sweet, but this book felt at times a little too “slow”.
Maybe because Kathy is still my favorite book in the series, maybe because I’ve read Cricket Cove after the three first books, but this one would be my “lees favorite” so far.

But it’s still a beautiful love story.
Again, I may be a little biased, since Kathy is still the more heartbreaking and powerful book I’ve read in the whole series.

But you’ll enjoy the story, the author’s writing ad this magical little magical world.

T.L. Haddix take on Beauty and the Beast in a PNR setting!

Whilst it was a bit slow in places, it needed to be somewhat slow paced so you could see all the work going into the connections between Clan members and the world itself.

Amelia being a wolf and Logan, a lion shifter, gives a new meaning to inter-species mating! With a cast of wonderful secondary characters, this was a great read.

Amelia has an instant attraction to Logan until she hears him make some disparaging remarks about her. The sparks that were once physical are now expelled through verbal beat downs between them. Everyone is aware that this is totally out of character for Amelia. The longer they are around each other, Logan begins to recognize the fact that Amelia is nothing at all as he first imagined. Unfortunately, she’s hurt by the things he has said and he is suffering from guilt for having said them. Along the way a stalker is after the heroine and a cast of secondary characters get involved to help protect her.

This was a slow book with long sections that didn’t really add to the story. I understand this is part of a series and never felt like I was lost, I just didn’t care about all the characters that were everywhere, all the time. I struggled to feel a true connection between Logan and Amelia and found myself skimming.

I know this is the perfect book for someone, just not for me.

ARC provided by NetGalley

I really enjoyed my latest trip to Firefly Hollow, and even though I’ve accidentally skipped book 4, I still settled in easily with the Campbells again. That’s one of the things I love best about this series – you can jump in almost anywhere and enjoy it. Yes, it probably works best if you read in order, mostly because it helps to keep everyone and their relation to everyone else straight, but the characters and the setting are so warm that you really can pick up almost any book and still get a lot out of it.

Like this one. Amelia is the baby of the family, but she’s all grown up now. A natural matchmaker, she’s had success with plenty of other people, including her family, but her own romantic fortunes are less lucky. She doesn’t seem to mind, being as loving and generous as ever to those she knows – but inside she’s lonely and has a very low opinion of herself.

I really liked her. She’s always been a breath of fresh air around the family, so I was a little surprised by how much she’s been hiding all these years. Yet that also made her more likeable, because she’s not just pure sunshine pinging around, shedding fairy dust, she’s a real woman. I loved her strength – and her unwillingness to simply forgive Logan because that would be the sweet thing to do.

I liked Logan too, even if he is a bit of an idiot at first when it comes to Amelia. He has a whole heap of daddy issues, which means the feelings Amelia stirs up scares him into saying something cruel – which he then spends a chunk of time atoning for. Which was a good thing, because else this would have been far too much of an instalust story. So even though there is definitely an immediate attraction between them, it does take a while for anything to happen.

Which is this whole book all over. The pace is very slow at times, but that’s not unusual in this series. There’s a lot of family to catch up with and information to hand out, and it’s not in any rush to throw it all at you. I don’t mind this, although there are times when I wondered what, if anything, was going to happen next, especially when the romance is finally heading in the right direction.

Luckily for this book there is a secondary plot – a stalker. Even though this does add a bit more depth to the action, it is very much in the background for most of the book. There are some tense moments, but it never quite escalates into a full out romantic suspense read. Mostly it gives Amelia and Logan a reason to put aside some of their problems and work together, which is always a good thing.

The only thing I wasn’t in love with was the paranormal element. This series has always had it, subtle though it frequently is. I was pretty excited when I realised both Amelia and Logan are shifters, but it doesn’t really play any part and that made me a little sad. I also wanted to know whether their different beasts (wolf and cougar) might have played a part in their initial prickliness, but no one even thought of it. It’s not a major drawback, but I would have liked more.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this. It is definitely one of my favourites from the series and easily reminded me of why I love this family so much. It’s warm and enjoyable, real and romantic, with enough darkness to stop it from becoming saccharine. If you love a good family saga, or even just good romances, and don’t mind a massive cast and a slower pace, then give this whole series a try. I’m always glad I did.

This is a great contribution to the Firefly Hollow series. This is the 5th book with the Campbell family and their touch of magic deep in the hills of Appalachia . This is Amelia's story and is how she and Logan Gibson reconcile their differences. This book was published in 2014 and is set in the mid 1990's with Logan coming home from war.

Lovers of Sheryl Woods, Kristin Hannah, Debbie Maccomber and many more will love Cricket Cove! It's a great beach read for the summer!

A sweet read. Reading this made me go buy the entire series.

Very disappointing book. This was supposed to be a paranormal, shape-shifters themed story but had barely a mention or two about it. Besides which, the storyline itself was ho-hum.

This was a very comfortable read, meaning I could imagine myself friends with the characters. This isn’t the type of story where you love the characters or obsess about them, you just like them in a let’s get a cup of coffee kind of way. I classify this as a conservative romance something my grandma might read, this is not for you if you want real, dirty, or steamy.
They’re shifters which have no bearing on the story. They can see in the dark well but the character wears glasses, you would think it would enhance their senses, strength, but it serves no purpose other than to be cataloged as a shifter romance. It also seems that every character, and those they encounter have a tragic history, to the point where you’re like of course. The story is a little long for the content, and nothing really happens. The conversations about sex seems to take place with every family member, and reference to “the mess” is just odd, after every sex act they must deal with “the mess”.
Would I recommend this to readers like myself no, but I would recommend it to more conservative mainstream readers who don’t mind some sex scenes.

A great addition to the series i'm really enjoying these books they are well written with great characters can't wait to read the next one.Would recommend them to all.