Love At The Beach Shop is the second book in the multi-author Paradise Key series and is perfect holiday reading. While it’s part of a series the links are loose enough that each book stands alone well.
Jenna Davis has told her girlfriends a tiny little lie, making up a perfect imaginary boyfriend. This only becomes a problem when her friends descend on Paradise Key for the funeral of their friend Lilly and then stay on afterwards. Enter Zach Taylor, her brother’s best friend and the man she’s had a crush on since childhood. Zach needs a favour from Jenna and agrees to pretend to be her boyfriend in return. Of course along the way they discover their feelings for each other but as with all lies, once started this one gets a little out of control.
This story is filled with gorgeous characters. Jenna and Zach were easy to like but there were others too - Jenna’s grandmother for one and Ivy, the hairdresser whose shop is next door to Jenna’s. Paradise Keys is full of community, which makes this story heartwarming.

This was a good read and is the second book in the series. Jenna is back in Paradise Key as well as her friend after the tragic death of their friend. Only thing is she does not know what to do about her boyfriend she has been bragging about you the fake one she knows she should come clean but does not know how. So when she bumps into Zach she thinks she has the perfect plan. I liked these two together the banter between them was fantastic. This was a wonderful read and I am looking forward to reading more

I really liked this book. The characters are well developed and the story while a bit predictable, was very good. I really enjoyed this installment of the series and am anxiously awaiting the next book. Thanks netgalley for the arc, the opinions in the review are my own.

Friends to Lovers to HEA!

Jenna is an organized person who likes things to be as they should be, while Zach is more laid back. The saying “opposites attract” is how I’d describe this book. Jenna puts herself in a tough situation when she lied to her friends that she had a wonderful boyfriend. Luckily, the description of this imaginary man was a lot like Zach (her younger brother’s friend). When her friends descend on Paradise Key to attend the funeral of another of their friends, they expect to meet this Mr. Perfect. Janna convinces Zach to play the part of her boyfriend which he secretly loves so he can move out of the friendship zone.

I really enjoyed this book and the writing style of Kyra Jacobs. This is my first book from this author, but I will be looking for others. I loved the descriptions of Paradise Keys, each character and the banter between the h and H. Very entertaining book!

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book and I am providing my honest review.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving a free copy. This is book #2 in the series and it does not disappoint the reader. Jenna is busy trying to run her shop and entertain her friends who are in town for a funeral. Jenna finds her self in a bind to produce a boyfriend that she has been writing to her friends about. Along comes Zach to save the day. Little do they realize that the "pretend" relationship will spark their long forgotten feelings for each other. A great quick read!

Jenna has found herself in a situation where she either comes clean and come close to losing something that she cherishes or come up with a solution that could help her and her best friend, I mean come on what could go wrong. Zach needs the city to fix his road so that he can keep his business opened, but it seems one councilman might have other plans. Can they work together to keep their business' open or will the fibs be just too much for the trust of the town?

I thought this book was a fun read. However after reading book one and now this book I am wondering if this should be book one. There was some information in this book that seems to make more sense if that was the case. This book was a fun clean read the characters are friends forever and while Jenna likes things in order Zach seems to like to take a risk and push people just a little outside of there comfort zone, which makes for a fun read where you don't know what is going to happen next. I really enjoyed the solid friendships in this book and that no matter what someone is going through the friends are there and they have each other's backs. If you are looking for a fun summer read this series seems like the perfect read.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley. I was under no obligation to post a review and have given my honest opinion

Love at the Beach Shop is a fun summer read. Jenna gets herself in a bit of trouble by lying to her best friends. She then finds a solution to cover up her lie, so she thinks. This book really shows true friendship. It covers everything you want to find in a romance novel. This is one of four books in the series , each book is written by a different author. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a light hearted fun summer read. You can help but smile as you watch Jenna try to scramble to keep her lie straight. A true story of the love of friends.

Love at the Beach Shop was my number one favorite among the "Paradise Key" series. Love how the main characters interact and fall in love and help each other out. It´s such a good classic love story in a modern setting.

Love at the Beach Shop is a delightful friend to lover’s story. Zach & Jenna were well suited, and the storyline flowed well. This was a really good ready and I look forward to reading more by this author.

I am loving these beach reads! Jenna is in a predicament, ok, so she fibbed to her friends about this wonderful new boyfriend, now she needs the real thing! Who to ask, but her brother's best friend, Zach. They were all friends growing up, but little did she know that Zach had feelings for her years ago. Can this fake dating last or will their true feeling come out.

I thoroughly enjoyed these characters, loved their banter between each other. I am loving this little beach community. This is the second book in the series but they can be read as a stand alone.

This book hits a bunch of my favorite tropes – best friend’s sister AND fake relationship AND best friends to lovers. It’s also super cute and a perfect summer read. It’s the second in the Paradise Key series, but works fine as a standalone. Though, if you’re anything like me, you’ll end up having to read all of them once you’ve read one!

“'Him’ was the boyfriend she’d raved about to the girls in an online group chat just before Christmas, the one who had rescued her from depression after her last relationship had imploded. The one who was super sweet, romantic, loved to spoil her rotten, and…
…didn’t exist.”


Jenna runs a tourist shop on the beautiful island of Paradise Key. She likes her life neat and orderly, especially after an awful breakup with an abusive boyfriend, and her life consists of running her shop and spending time with her younger brother and his family, who still live on the island. Her best friends all live in different cities, with great careers and exciting lives full of success. So it’s understandable when she lies and says she has a great new boyfriend, who’s practically perfect in every way. When tragedy strikes and her friends converge on Paradise Key and expect to meet him, well, that’s a complication she wasn’t expecting. So she strikes a bargain with her younger brother’s best friend – he can use part of her shop space while the road outside his store is getting fixed if he agrees to pretend to be her boyfriend. Unlike Jenna, Zach is much more go with the flow, and he sees this as the opportunity to finally move beyond the friend zone with the women he’s had a crush on for years. But what starts with one lie suddenly blooms into more, their friendship, let alone a relationship, is at stake.

“Yes, being able to enjoy his company without worrying people would misinterpret their behavior sure would be nice. Funny how their little arrangement had gone from pretending to be dating for one group’s sake, and now pretending not to be for another.”


Even without the lies, the path to their relationship isn’t smooth. Jenna is a natural caregiver who loves helping out the people around her, whether it’s helping her grandma stay busy by opening a cafe in her newly expanded shop or by babysitting for her friends and relatives. Zach knows firsthand how bad giving and giving and giving can be for the person doing it – his parents got divorced because his mom got tired of putting her hopes and dreams second to everyone else’s. Zach worries Jenna’s on the same path, to the point where he’s the one sacrificing things to help her.

As for other things I liked, I loved the secondary characters. Jenna’s family and her friend Ivy were hilarious, and I though the group of friends was also well represented. When she eventually comes clean to her friends, they’re extremely understanding and they just basically laugh it off. Also, though this is a closed door romance (all four of the novels in this series are, in fact), the sexual tension between the two was quite well done.

Overall, this is a delightfully fun read. It’s a delightful amalgamation of some of my favorite tropes, and I’d recommend it as a funny beach read!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I really enjoyed reading Love at the Beach Shop by Kyra Jacobs, book two in The Paradise Key series. This is a best friend’s older sister romance between Jenna Davis and Zach Taylor. After her last breakup, Jenna accidently emails her friends that she has a new boyfriend. This made up boyfriend resembles her younger brother’s best friend, Zach. When her friends decide to extend their stay on the island after the death of their friend Jenna needs to create a plan and cover up, quickly. Zach has his own problems; a sinkhole in front of his shop is keeping customers away and putting his livelihood in jeopardy. When Jenna, his best friend’s older sister, the girl he’s been secretly crushing on since the day they met, offers to let Zach use some of her shop space if he’ll do her favor, he’s all ears. Her request is to pretend to be her boyfriend until her friends head back home. The problem is can these two long time friends keep things purely platonic while they fool the others? Or will Zach and Jenna finally stop fooling themselves and finally let love in?

It was wonderful to see that a younger generation stay on the island and be successful running businesses they own. Jenna is a caretaker, like many first born older sisters, just like Zach’s mother, before she left his father and the town. Zach is a thoughtful and loving boyfriend but concerned about Jenna’s brother and grandmother finding out they are together, even if for pretend. The problem I had with this book is that it didn’t flow as a continuation, or connection, to the first story. There was no mention of Lauren reconnecting with Carter or staying on the island. This was still a sweet story and I enjoyed reading Jenna and Zach’s story.

This was a fun book to read and easy to visualize the story as it occurred. I loved these characters Ms. Jacobs did a wonderful job creating fun characters, keeping the story interesting. I recommend this book to other readers and look forward to reading the next book in this four book series.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, supplied by the publisher through Netgalley.

"Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review."

Loved this book very much. It had just enough sweet romance and the storyline was great! I highly recommend!

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This is book 2 in the Paradise Key series. Each book is written by a different author and tells the story of one of the four friends that returned to say goodbye to thei fifth bestie who was killed in an accident. This book is the story of Jenna who has told the besties a fib that she had a new boyfriend. The idea comes to her to have a pretend boyfriend and then picks her younger brother’s best friend, Zach. Zach and Jenna were at a town hall meeting to get approval for projects needed for thei businesses. Zach requested the town fix his business and apartment that were closed due to sewer problems and Jenna was looking for approval for adding a cafe to her business. In exchange for Zach being the fake boyfriend, Jenna was letting him move his closed surf shop to her enlarged gift shop and also share her apartment. At the same time they try to hide this plan from her grandma and brother. The two have always had secret crushes on each other but never acted on it so not to ruin their friendship.The planning commissioner is fighting against the their proposal as well. I enjoyed this story of friend o lovers very much and the suspense with the various secrets was quite exciting. This was my first book by this author too and I liked it a lot.

This is a delightful, sweet friends to more romance that is a pleasure to escape into. It is the second in the Paradise Key series but works well as a standalone, though I have to admit I have now obtained copies of the other three books in the series and am looking forward to reading them all!

Jenna Davis has grown up in this lovely island community and, unlike her four best girlfriends, has never wanted to leave. After the untimely death or one of these friends, the others return for the funeral and decide to stay there for a while to give them all time to catch up. This poses an unanticipated problem for Jenna as she told them months ago about her fantastic boyfriend who is everyone’s dream come true. Why’s that a problem? Well, he doesn’t really exist and now doesn’t seem to be the time to tell them she’d lied. That’s when she gets the idea to ask her younger brother’s best friend to play the role of her boyfriend in exchange for which she’ll help him out by giving him space for his shop.

That’s a dilemma for Zach as he’s secretly had a crush on Jenna for most of his life! Pretending to be her boyfriend whilst wishing it is true will be made even harder when she also agrees he can stay in the guest room in her apartment! Will familiarity breed contempt or give their love a chance to grow and develop? Will their charade help or cause even more problems? However, in their small community there’s someone out to make mischief for his own ends - and he’s out to manipulate Jenna and Zach….. Will he succeed?

This is a laugh out loud romantic comedy and friends to more stories are always fun reads. The characters in this story are easy to relate to and telling the story from dual POV makes it easier for the reader to understand the motivations and actions of the two main characters. There are other great characters, including Jenna’s grandmother, brother and friends, the lady from the shop next door and Flipper, Zach’s mischievous kitten! I really enjoyed the author’s writing style which took me into the scenarios. It proved to be a lovely read on a beautiful, relaxing day and I have no hesitation in highly recommending it!

I requested and was given a copy of this novel, via NetGalley, with no obligation. This is my honest review of the book after choosing to read it

This was a cute story, and you kind of already know how the story is going to go when you start read. Jenna's friends comes to town for a funeral of one of their friends and expect to meet her boyfriend something she doesn't have, so she gets her best friend Zach to help her with her lie, he has no problem with it because he has always had a crush on her. But does the lie become real?

I had fun with Love at the Beach Shop, and really that’s all I ever really ask of a book (or author) – to entertain me, make me feel good for a bit… and maybe share your imagination with me as well. So, yeah, had a blast with this friends to lovers to forever romance between Jenna and Zach.

Four friends are back together on Paradise Key, unfortunately for the worst of reasons as their friend has been killed in a reckless, mindless car accident. Why does no one listen to the no texting and driving rules? Innocent people pay the price for others being in constant, instant contact with the world – and this time Lily paid the price with her life.

Jenna, who lives in Paradise Key has made a slip up, allowed a silly fantasy blow up into a now big lie that she has to deal with since her friends will not stop asking about her super attentive boyfriend who spoils her rotten. Yeah, him… Mr. Imagination. She should just come clean, explain what happened, apologize and let it slink into the “friends are weird some times” zone. But, she can’t explain to Lily and that fact keeps her hesitating… until the solution practically falls in her lap.

Zach just had a sinkhole appear in front of his shop not only stopping all business to his shop but wiping out the sewer line as well… so it’s not exactly in a good mood that he approaches the town meeting hall to get something done. Soon. There he runs into his best friend’s sister, Jenna, and his continuous crush since those long ago days that he’s never acted on because… the best friend thing. (Men – rolls eyes) But this time Jenna’s eyes are on him for a different reason, and maybe she has the perfect solution for them both. And, yeah, it’s definitely going to get complicated.

Zach and Jenna are so right together. I had such a blast with their banter, finding their way to love in spite of themselves and the danger that seems to follow them around. Every paradise has to have a snake in the grass somewhere, and it’s no different for this couple. You’ll discover a few twists, good friends, a tight knit community and watch two people who have known each other practically forever, find their own forever with each other. I’d recommend Love at the Beach Shop to any Romance reader who loves a good story, likable characters, a theme to hold a series together, lively secondary characters and a location you’d move to yourself in a minute. What’s not to love about that?

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

The story of Jenna and Zach. This is a series of books but very much standalone.
Zach is the best friend of Jenna's brother, so they have known each other years, but when he agrees to be her pretend boyfriend for a few weeks things between them start to change.
An entertaining read set in a lovely location.

In Love at the Beach Shop, we meet Jenna and Zach. They’ve know each other for most of their lives, since Zach is Jenna’s brother’s BFF. Zach has had a crush on Jenna for years, but Jenna has never acknowledged her feelings for Zach. A zany plan of Jenna’s leads them to pretend to be in a relationship that turns real.

Love at the Beach Shop by Kyra Jacobs
The last thing Jenna Davis wants right now is more drama. Still reeling from the untimely loss of one of her four closest friends, she intends to bury herself in work and forget the hurt. But when her other friends announce they’re planning an extended stay on the island, Jenna needs to come up with a plan–and fast–to cover up the little white lie she’s been telling them.
Zach Taylor is dealing with a mess of his own. A sinkhole in front of his shop is keeping customers away and putting his livelihood in jeopardy. So when his best friend’s older sister—the one he’s been secretly crushing on since the day they met—offers to loan Zach some shop space if he’ll do her favor, he’s all ears. The request? Pretend to be her boyfriend until her friends head back home.
The stage is set, the charade about to begin. Can these two long time friends keep things purely platonic while they fool the others? Or will Zach and Jenna stop fooling themselves and finally let love in?
this is Jenna Davis and Zach Taylor's story.
Jenna Davis stood at her bathroom vanity, mascara wand in one hand and note card in the other. What should have been a cursory rundown of stats and figures before tonight’s town board meeting was proving to be difficult as her mind kept reverting to simpler times. Of when she met her four best friends on the beach at Paradise Bay resort, of their crazy escapades that summer and the following five summers. Of poor Lily, now tragically gone.
Makeup as done as it was going to get, she checked her reflection in the mirror one last time: auburn waves relatively tamed, freckled cheeks still…freckling. So far, no raccoon eyes. A bit puffier than usual, but Paradise Key knew the heartache she’d endured this past week. If they judged her on appearance alone tonight, then shame on them.
Yep, Zach was another of Paradise Key’s resident hotties, just ask any female in town with a pulse. Too bad he’d been her younger brother’s best friend since kindergarten, which made him practically family. It also meant he’d heard far too much of her dirty laundry aired over the years to ever consider as dating material. Aaron just wasn’t so good with keeping things on the down low.Like, at all.
“Please don’t tell me you had nothing better to do than come sit through a town hall meeting,” she teased.
“Trust me, this is the last place I want be on a nice night like tonight.” His smile faded as he followed her into the second row of seats. “But if they don’t hurry up and fix that sinkhole in front of my shop, I’m gonna be in a world of hurt.”
Love at the Beach Shop by Kyra Jacobs is a wonderful well written 5 star book.
I am looking forward to reading more books by Kyra Jacobs and the rest of Paradise Key books.
I highly recommend reading.
"I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book."
Kyra's Books with Tule:
Love at the Beach Shop
Paradise Key
Paradise Key
After the sudden death of one of their friends, four single women who spent their summers at a beachside resort with their families return to the resort to mourn that loss and reconnect. The place they loved when they were young is falling apart, as are the lives of the four women. They each have their own reasons for returning, and their own secrets to keep. But as they bond together to restore a bit of their past, they find love in the beachside town, and the happiness they have sought all their lives.

Book 1
Summer Love: Take Two
by Shirley Jump
Book 2
Love at the Beach Shop
by Kyra Jacobs
Book 3
Resort to Love
by Priscilla Oliveras
Book 4
Small Town Summer
by Susan Meier