Cover Image: No Place Like You

No Place Like You

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Member Reviews

I could not put this book down. I just loved Zach and Leah's story. Leah is a divorced twenty something trying to get herself back. Zach is a rock star in search of his own dream. The story has just what I am looking for in a good book, it is well written, with a bit of humor, and a whole lot of love. I love a book that makes me smile and this one did just that.

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Zach Harper has been trying to fight his way out from under his rock star father’s shadow. He has a burning desire to prove himself. His relationship with his sister Faith has been strained since he let her down during the rock festival she was organizing. Zach and Faith are unable to see eye to eye and often butt heads. Although they both know the downside of celebrity, Zach has chosen the spotlight. Leah Santelli is Faith Harper ’s best friend. Zach was her teenage crush, but they went their separate ways. Years later, Zach’s touring career is on hiatus and he is back in Cloud Bay. He is thinking of recording a solo album on the island, produced by Leah.

Although he is flawed and self-absorbed, something is changing in Zach, he is determined to prove to the women in his life that he is willing to reform his ways. I loved watching that change occur. Even though he was cocky and egotistical at times, he was also very sweet and charming. Leah was lovely. She is a great heroine, she is not afraid to take chances in life and to stand up for herself. She and Zach were perfect together, they truly complement each other! They had a great connection, and there was some definite steaminess.

And yet there is a lot of residual anger and continued insecurity that keep them apart. Leah doesn’t want to mess up the job she’s been given and so she’s determined to keep her relationship with Zach strictly professional. She is convinced that trusting him would be stupid and has a whole list of reasons why they can’t be together.

It doesn't take long for Leah to recognize her attraction to Zach. However, despite their growing closeness, Zach is a much slower learner. He wants the big dream, fame and glory. And yet, he doesn’t want to let Leah go, but is it enough to keep her in his life?

I enjoyed this book, it is well-paced and well-written. It's an easy and entertaining story of second chance, and while it doesn’t pack the punch of some other rock star romance books out there, it kept me engaged enough to read it in one sitting. It is the third installment in the Cloud Bay series, but can be read as a standalone.

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No Place Like you is a second chance romance that makes you feel good reading it. These two have been in for each other forever, however their lives didn't quite line up on the same path back when they were younger. Now Zach is back in town wanting to work on his solo career and Leah is doing everything she can to get a chance to take her small time career a lot higher. Working together would benefit both of them. However their past is going to be in the way.

these two are made for each other but they fight it constantly. It was a good read and I enjoyed it. It was a little different from what I have been reading, but it's seriously good. I just may have to go back and read the first two in the series now.

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I enjoyed reading Leah and Zach's story. It started off slow and then I couldn't put it down. I feel like I've been to Cloud Bay and can't wait to read Mina and Faith's story.

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This was fun! I love a destination setting and Cloud Bay with its rock stars, music festival and miles of beaches definitely made for a fun destination. I also loved the inside peek at the world of music production. I had no idea how big of an influence a producer could be or the difference between a sound engineer and a producer. I can’t swear by the accuracy but it was definitely fun to read!

I loved Leah right from the start. She’s smart, good at her job, and independent. Zach took a bit longer to warm up too but I think that was intentional. He’s been a self absorbed jerk despite never making an actual appearance in the previous books and was keeping the streak alive He wasn’t mean or cruel though which made him able to redeem himself in my eyes. And redeem himself he did! There was a lot of sweetness mixed in with the heat and it was fun to read.

My only issue was very minor and very subjective. While I really liked the characters I didn’t feel a huge connection with them. They never became characters that I missed when I wasn’t reading the book though they did come alive while I was reading. However, this is a series I’m looking forward to continuing and based on the hint dropped at the end of this one I’m really excited for book 4!

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No Place Like You is the Third in the Cloud Bay trilogy by Emma Douglas. Most of us know Douglas as Melanie Scott, who writes amazing baseball heroes. Fans of the baseball gods will find her rock gods to be equally as arresting and book boyfriend material. Zach Harper finally comes home to Cloud Bay to regroup after the lead singer of his band decides it is time to take a year off. Zach thinks that home might be the place to launch a solo career. He just didn’t plan on Leah Santelli and the impact she will have on his heart.

At its core, this book is about finding and following your dreams. Lucky for Leah and Zach their dreams eventually travel the same path. Watching them get there is all the fun. While this was originally a trilogy there is a surprise twist at the end which leads one to believe there might be more Cloud Bay in the near future. Fingers crossed.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this novel.

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Zach Harper, son of the late Gery Harper and leader of the rock band Blacklight, is working hard to establish his own way in the world. After his band leader breaks the band up to "find himself," Zach returns home to Lansing Island and Cloud Bay. With at least a year off, he plans to make his own music and launch a solo album. Returning home won't be an easy landing after his six years away. Six years in which he ditched his sister and their musical career when his father fell ill, joined another band to continue moving his career forward, and being a no-show with no word at the family music festival, Cloud Fest, on the island the year before. Essentially, Zach has done everything he could to ignore his family and advance his own musical career. 

While making amends with his sisters, Faith and Mina, and stepmother Lou, Zach also finds himself being a jerk to the Grey studio sound engineer, Leah. The girl-next-door type of girl, Leah grew up on the island living on the fringes of the Grey Harper family. Her father served as his sound engineer and she spent many days on at the Harper studio.  Now she is following in her own father's footsteps while Zach is trying to make his name and his own way, no matter who he has to use or step over or leave out to make it happen. 

Just like he did 10 years ago when he loved and left Leah on her 18th birthday. Not that she is holding a grudge - she knew he was leaving but she wanted her night with him anyway. Since then Leah Santelli has lived her own life. She married and later divorced, and she is happy with her life. Now she is trying to get her own music career as a producer off the ground. Zach's return home and solo album is the perfect project to launch her own career. 

First, Zach totally rebuffs the idea of Leah the unknown nobody making his album. Despite knowing him well and knowing his music well, Zach wants a big wig to produce his music. After being turned down by his dream producer and having another mangle his vision, he slinks back to Leah, who is doing some amazing work with one of Faith's newfound female artists. 

As their professional career flourishes, Leah and Zach find themselves in the conundrum of the personal creeping in. Once again, Leah proposes a liaison. This time, though, a friends with benefits relationship. She knows once the album is finished he'll be leaving again, but she'll spend her time with him while she can. 

I loved Leah's character. She is strong and spunky and has an equal measure of compassion for others and also herself. She has her own dreams that aren't shadowed by a relationship. I didn't like that Zach called most of the shots. He makes himself look like a huge jerk. While Leah is in charge of the studio, she is also doing her best work as a producer and has her sights set on a bigger project after Zach' album. 

With Cloud Fest, the music fest his father started decades ago, on the horizon for Lansing Island and Cloud Bay, Zach is betting on the secret slot to launch his new music and create some buzz and publicity. Suddenly, one of his father's bandmates and father of his best friend, swoops in and steals the secret slot from under him. There is lots of drama revolving around those issues that throw Zach out of kilter. In some form of retribution, Zach is offered the producer of a lifetime. 

Zach has continually put his desires for his career above his family and friends for years and years. He has everything at his fingertips, but can only pick one dream.

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I'm a sucker for 2nd chance romances but I'm really picky with them. Like Goldilocks, they have to be just right (for me) or they tank tragically.

No Place Like You sadly, tanked for me. It had a slow start, the characters never really engaged me and the romance was too subtle for me. I don't mind slow burn but there needs to be a spark . It might be instant and intense or it might be tame and blossoming but give me something to build on.

I felt Leah was too invested and the "H" Zach wasn't invested enough.

The story is about Zach and Leah. Zach is back in town after his band unexpectedly splits when their lead vocalist leaves to "find himself." Zach heads home to regroup and finally start working on his solo career. Leah's dream is to produce music and Zach would be a big name that could launch her career.

This is where I had issues connecting with the characters. Leah approaches Zach with an offer to work his music and produce his solo album but Zach blows her off and instead focuses on getting big name producers to work with him. It's not until the big wigs either turn him down or accept but take his music in a completely different direction, does Zach reconsider Leah's proposition.

Zach's character is introduced as a guy with a big ego and a one track mind, making it big in the music world. Leah is introduced as a friendly girl next door type who's been half in love with Zach for years and has been left behind once before by him and taken second place to his dream of hitting it big.

Why this didn't work for me was the simple fact that neither character changed much from their initial representation. Zach doesn't learn from his mistakes and again rejects and abandons Leah for his superficial dream of fame and Leah is still the girl who makes excuses for his jerk treatment and in the end not only begs him to stay, takes him back after zero groveling. Ugh! It was cringe worthy to see her cry in front of him and ask him to please stay but to have the author separate them for weeks and have Zach do an about face was not very believable. For someone like Zach to change, it would have helped to see it happen gradually over time and not so rapidly. I felt like if you blinked, you would have missed it completely.

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I have to say that the story does kind of start off slow. I know it does take time to develop the characters and set up the story and it does do that. But for quite a while it seems set at a slower pace. I guess that is some of the reason for my giving it a lower rating. It just didn't draw me in as much as I would have liked.
The emotions of the main characters are pretty well felt as the story goes on. That slower feel to the story does ramp up as the story goes into the last few chapters. Things start happening and there is a surprise twist at the end. Another secret from the rock star legend Grey's past that is mentioned in the book. There was speculation from the three "kids" about what that secret was....and then..bam, there was the answer. It will have to be continued in another book but it did make for a good ending.

But I get ahead of myself here. Zach, Faith and Mina are the rock legends "kids". And they have stuck together having each others backs for years. Well, until Zach did a really selfish move and made himself scarce. Now he's going to have to do some groveling to get that sense of family back.

Here are some of the parts that I did like. One of them is the dual P.O.V.'s from the main characters. And some of the conversations between Zach and Leah were downright funny when they weren't awkward of even painful. It was interesting that you could feel the awkwardness before they even began to say that it was there. Leah was a meet things head on kind of woman, going after what she wants. I liked how Zach mentions that he sees her as someone who is laughter, movement, guts and brilliance. What a great way to put it.
Leah saw Zach as too talented and too hot for his own good; that he was born to prowl and born to leave. But that didn't stop the two of them from acting like two magnets continually being drawn together.

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Leah Santelli is a music producer living in Cloud Bay who wants one chance to make it big. Zach Harper is the brother of her best friend and the son of a rock star legend, who has returned home to try to try to launch a solo career. Leah knows she can help make that happen, but hesitates because of her history with Zach. Years before, on her eighteenth birthday, the pair spent a night of passion together. Now, Leah is concerned abut how many hours they would spend together if she were to work with Zach on this solo album. Zach knows he can use this return to Cloud Bay to make amends with his family and to reunite with Leah, the girl he once left behind. However, there is a past that each must contend with and issues that must be resolved before this can happen. Can they manage to make things go right for them?

No Place Like You provides a good glimpse at second chances. In the beginning, Zach blows off Leah’s idea to work together, hoping to land a working relationship with a big name. Once again, Zach lets his huge ego get in the way. Leah also again makes excuses for Zach and his behavior. I found these traits disconcerting. Things may work out, but can people really change? Can they make a go of things when they both seem to be stuck in the same rut they were in years ago? The story is a good second chance one, but I was not totally into the way things worked out between the pair in the end. I did not see as much chemistry or trying to make the relationship work throughout the book, just mostly at the ending. This is a good book to read, if you like interesting romances set in the music world or reading bout second chances. I have read the other books in the series and have liked them more than this one. However, I enjoy the series, the small-town atmosphere, and the basic idea behind the series. This is just not my favorite book in the series. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

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Book 3 in the series. Will need to catch up. Hero is Zack. Heroine is Leanne
Zack is a musician. A son of a musician.
He left the small cove to hit it big . Once the lead singer of the band decided to take a year off Zach goes home

Leanne is trying to hit it big alas a music producer. When Zach goes home she sees her chance. Leanne will try to be all business even though her hear is beating a thousand beats a minute.
Will Zach hire her Will she keep her heart safe

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Leah is a girl who knows what she wants like back on her eighteenth birthday and asked Zach her best friends brother for just one night together. It's been years since they saw one another and she's a small town producer meanwhile Zach is back in town to record his first solo. Leah will have to prove herself if she wants to make it big so she wants to work with Zach who is by now well known. Thing is old feeling seems to rise and with them being around eachother can they resist temptation?

I liked this book more then I thought I would getting into this book. I liked getting to know these characters and seeing the struggles they had to go through so that they can work on making themselves big. Seeing what they had to sacrifice for their careers was interesting and getting the know both their POV and reasoning why they made certain choices made me like their characters even more. Story line was interesting and well written. Never a dull moment, just enough heat and drama to keep things interesting. Overall it was a pretty good book I really enjoyed it.

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This book was okay, not as good as the first two books. You You could read this book as a stand alone but I think you would be lost on things that have gone on in the first two books if you do. This is Zach's book and I really think it could have been a novella or even added into one of the other books. I feel the author needed to make his story so this was the story line but it was lacking. Then the whole thing at the end with Billy was just dumb, I know why the author did but I really think she could have come up with something else better.

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A well written, well plotted romance. The characters draw you in and keep you turning the pages.

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When I read the previous book in the series, I fell in love with the beautiful setting of Cloud Bay and the captivating storyline. No Place Like You is just as captivating.

Zach, a native of Cloud Bay left to persue his musical career, leaving his friends and family with pain, heartache and resentment. Ten years later and he has returned to explore a different aspect of his career.

Leah is Zach's sister's best friend and works in their family music studio. She hasn't had much luck in her love life and is now looking to advance in her career as a music producer.

Zach's return stirs old memories and a longing that Leah didn't expect. With him going solo and her new career aspiration, it's the perfect opportunity for them to work together. After some gentle persuasion, Zach agrees to give it a go. Leah keeps telling herself that she can keep this arrangement on a strictly business basis. Somehow, she can’t forget about what happened between them all those years ago and decides to take matters into her own hands. Zach is game. They agree that it's a temporary arrangement as Zach would be leaving again sooner or later. Easier said than done! They spend quality time making sweet music in the studio as well as in the bedroom.

When the plans for the music festival take an unexpected turn, Zach reverts to his old self. He leaves an emotional turmoil behind, only this time, he gets a dose of his own medicine. Can he make amends or is it too late to salvage what could have been the best thing for them?

Although Zach can be stubborn and oblivious to his true feelings, he is a lovable character. Leah shows her strength of character when she takes a chance and hopes for the best. She is a loyal friend and adorable with it. This second chance story has its up and downs. There is love and passion. Mistakes are made. Lessons are learnt. It's a beautiful storyline in an idealistic setting. A rewarding read, indeed.

I was kindly issued with an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley and the views expressed are my personal opinion.

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This is a great book with a wonderful story and well developed characters. The story flowed very well and was very enjoyable. This book will keep you reading long into the night and you will not want to put this book down until you finish. This was such a great read and full of surprises. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader’s copy of this book. The free book held no determination on my personal review.

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Leah Santelli has never truly forgotten that one night all those years ago with her best friends brother, but she has changed in the last ten years and is no simpering girl with stars in her eyes. So when Zach Harper returns with plans to launch his own solo career, Leah is certain that she is the producer he needs to make him a huge success in his own right. And she can definitely ignore the spark of attraction that still seems to exist between them ...

Zach hasn't been the best brother in the past few years and when he returns home to Cloud Bay he hopes to salvage some of the closeness that he used to share with his sisters. And after being left in the lurch by his current band, a solo career just feels like the right move. And when he sets his eyes on Leah again there is something about her that just seems to get under his skin. But Zach is used to things going his way and when it comes down to it will he make the biggest mistake of his life and walk away from Cloud Bay forever?

NO PLACE LIKE YOU by Emma Douglas is the third book in this series but is easily read as a standalone. While I did find the pace a tad slow throughout, I really liked Leah, Faith, and Mina, and the community of Cloud Bay. Zach is handsome, charismatic, and sexy, but at times he got on my last damn nerve, and I wanted to shout at him to wake up!!
NO PLACE LIKE YOU is a lovely romance about family, friendship, and finding your own place in a world where everyone compares you to someone else and is an enjoyable story.

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No Place Like You is part of the Cloud Bay series. Zach and Leah have a history. And now they work together to create an album. The sparks are there, but I felt like there was an emotional disconnect somewhat. The story overall was interesting, and I did enjoy going back to Cloud Bay.

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This was an incredible read that had me not wanting to put it down because it continually had me wanting to find out what was going to have next. I loved the characters and the main characters chemistry was of the charts. This is a definite must read.

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No Place Like You is Emma Douglas’ third book in the Could Bay series. The island town of Cloud Bay has been a marvelous setting, it is almost like having a short get-away to this wonderful place while reading. For the most part, the people are wonderful too. Zach is much like many when younger, trying to carve out his place in the world. His story is one of finding not only his place by returning home but also finding the values that he should have always had.

I did wish that Leah had not settled for whatever, Zach threw her way. In the end, she found the love she was searching for, but it felt somewhat like she was second choice when she deserved to be someone’s first choice. On the whole, I enjoy second chance romance stories, but this left me hoping for more.

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