This is the first book in the Catalina Cove series by Brenda Jackson. I am going to be doing a binge listen to this series as the fourth book in this series just came out and I want to read/listen to them in order. Catalina Cove is a small community by the Gulf of Mexico not too far from New Orleans. It is a community that wants to keep its small town coziness and doesn't want large scale businesses or resorts to spoil that. This is bad news for Vashti Alcindor, who is hoping for a quick sale of the B & B she inherited from her aunt, as she has no desire to move back to the Cove. When the sale to a developer is blocked by the town council, she is made an offer she can't refuse from one of the town's businessmen to come back, renovate and run the B & B herself.

I enjoyed this story a lot, but be warned, there are some sexually explicit scenes that I did fast forward through. Vashti left Catalina Cove after teen pregnancy left her childless and heartbroken. She returns with trepidation and secrets. Meeting Sawyer Grisham on the way into town, when he stops her and gives her a speeding ticket, she feels something for him that she is not sure of. I liked the characters in this story. The residents of Catalina Cove are small town and are in each other's business, but they welcome Vashti back. Both Vashti and Sawyer have some baggage that they need to get over if they want to move forward with a relationship. I really liked Sawyer's daughter as well, she brings that fresh teenager outlook on life. There are a lot of twists in this story and secrets from the past that come to light to force Vashti and Sawyer to make decisions. This is a story of secrets, of snobbery and class status, of friendship, love and acceptance. This is a second chance for Vashti, that I was very happy with, but I did figure it out part way through the story. Overall, a good story that I enjoyed.

I loved this one very much. It felt more grown up with adults that were adults with jobs/careers and lives that were not so great. Past or present. Heartfelt. Betrayal. Loss. Reunion. Confusion. Love. Truth.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this book and to be an early reader via NetGalley! However, I will not be writing a review for this title at this time, as my reading preferences have since changed somewhat. In the event that I decide to review the book in the future, I will make sure to purchase a copy for myself or borrow it from a library. Once again, thank you so much for providing me with early access to this title. I truly appreciate it. Please feel free to contact me with any follow-up questions or concerns.

Finished this soapy romance novel yesterday and omg, I didn’t realize what I was getting into. The romance stuff was sweet and sexy but there is an entire other story as well with teen pregnancy and family secrets that really kept me listening. This was my first Brenda Jackson book and I can understand why she’s such a wildly popular author.

DNF at 20%.

It might be a case of "it's not you, it's me" because most of my friends loved it but I've been trying since last year with this book and I just can't get into it. Sad to give it a pass because I really liked the premise.

Brenda Jackson is an excellent romance writer. In Love in Catalina Cove, Vashti Alcindor, returns to Catalina Cove after inheriting a bed and breakfast from her aunt even after vowing to never return. Vasti is a broken woman due to fertility issues. Her inherited bed and breakfast, needs lots of updates and repairs. With the help of interested investor, she is able to throw herself into renovating and operating a very profitable business. Along with the renew interest in her new location and occupation is a promise of love. When family secrets and betrayals are revealed, Vashti is almost pulled back into the dark depression that plagued her in the past. Yet, she had the love of Sawyer to pull her through. This book is a page-turner full of romance, drama and suspense.

Unfortunately, I don't have too many fantastic things to say about this novel. I love a good romance, but I felt like this one was a little too cliche and forced. It was extremely predictable and didn't leave me wanting more. It started out interesting, but as I read more and more the conversations seemed so awkward and not very realistic. I would definitely give another book from Brenda Jackson a shot, but this one wasn't for me. Thank you to NetGalley and HQN for sending this novel in exchange for an honest review.

2/5

Vashti Alcindor has returned to Catalina Cove to fix up her inheritance of a bed and breakfast and get back out of town fast. Fate has a way of intervening and she meets her old boyfriend Sawyer who let her down many years earlier. This is book 1 in a new series by Brenda Jackson and it's a great start to this new town and new characters. When Vashti learns the truth about what happened when she was young it puts a whole new light on the past and her new relationship with Sawyer. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

In Brenda Jackson's Love in Catalina Cove's, the first installment in the Catalina Cove contemporary romance series, this love story would sweep you off your feet and carry out away with the store. At age sixteen,Vashti Alcindor had gotten pregnant and kept the secrecy of who fathered her baby. She was told she had lost her son after birth. Now as a grown divorced woman who works in New York City, she received the call from her best friend Bryce that her aunt's inn was in disrepair and it needs to be sold. She flew to Catalina Cove in New Orleans and sped away in a Corvette to her former hometown. SThat's when she ran into Sheriff Sawyer Grisham, a widower with a teenage daughter, who pulled her off and gave her a ticket. At that first meeting, sparks fly across the sky between them, and they later had a casual relationship with each other. Vashti had plans to sell her aunt's inn and return to New York, but for Sawyer, he had convinced her otherwise before she left at the airport. It took her awhile for her to agree to it. And when she returned, she visited Ms. Gertie, a woman with dementia, and a midwife in her community, who knew a secret about her past: her parents lied to her about everything, when they had outright denied it. It began to question her more as she hired a PI to get to the truth, while she made plans to restore her aunt's inn in good shape and to stay in Catalina Cove. The relationship between Vashti and Sawyer had became exclusive, when she later discovered the truth about the baby that she unknowingly gave up for adoption had a surprising twist or two in the end.

This book had all the making of a book I would love but it really fell flat on the romance front. It also suffered from a case of trying to be too many things. I love the idea of a woman with a past returning home and refurbishing a family business. I started out liking Vashti but that faded. The main problem I had with this book was that the romance felt forced and a little juvenile. To be fair I don’t read a whole lot of romance books but there have been a few recently that I have loved. The book had a great setting and a fantastic set up supporting characters. The relationship between Sawyer and his daughter Jade was well done and I liked that. The book is also well written. But I just couldn’t get into it. There were a few twists in the story that I found to be pretty unbelievable, and that I also saw coming from pretty close to the beginning. Also, the way that Vashti acted seemed really juvenile to me a couple times which really turned me off from the book.

Available now: Love in Catalina Cove by Brenda Jackson
**** 4 stars - Loved it!: A quick-reading fiction that you won't be embarrassed to read in public.



Recommended readers:

If you like modern fiction
If you like coastal small town settings
Here's my Rankings:

4/5 for characters
4/5 for plot
4/5 overall
REVIEW FROM BOOKS FOR HER:
Vashti Alcindor left her small coastal Louisiana hometown as soon as she could to build a life and career away from her past. But when you favorite aunt dies and leaves her a Bed and Breakfast, she has no choice but to return. Only she finds more than she plans on her return, which forces her to dig even deeper into her past.

If you're looking for a good fiction with some romance - that you won't be embarrassed to read in public with its tasteful cover - Love in Catalina Cove by Brenda Jackson is excellent. There's everything to love about this small town and it's characters - and you'll even enjoy some twists throughout. It's another great Brenda Jackson fiction and the start of the Catalina Cove Series, which I'm looking forward to reading
Available now: Love in Catalina Cove by Brenda Jackson

Title: Love in Catalina Cove
Author: Brenda Jackson
Genre: Romance, fiction
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Vashti left Catalina Cove Louisiana over ten years ago after a teen pregnancy left her heartbroken and childless. She never had any desire to return. But with the death of her aunt and an inheritance of her beloved B & B, Vashti returns. And immediately gets a speeding ticket from Sheriff Sawyer Grisham.

Some things never change in Catalina Cove, but Vashti discovers that some things have changed. Despite that, she’s determined to leave the cove behind her for good. Until fate—and an unexpected benefactor—intervene, and she finds herself restoring the old B & B to its former glory, so she can run it.

When the biggest secret of her life comes to light, Vashi discovers that thing she thought to be true aren’t—and unimaginable change lies in their wake. And Sawyer and his daughter are right there beside her. Will she be able to face her new future, or will the past continue to haunt her?

I probably picked this up because it’s set near New Orleans, a city I love. I’m not sure if I’ve ever read any of Brenda Jackson’s books before, but I enjoyed this book a lot, and I’m interested to read the rest of the Catalina Cove series. Vashti was an interesting character, but I liked how honest she was with herself. I did see the “big” surprises coming, but they were handled very well, regardless, and I read this straight through in one sitting.
Brenda Jackson is a bestselling and award-winning author. Love in Catalina Cove is her newest novel, the first in the Catalina Cove series.

(Galley provided by Harlequin in exchange for an honest review.)

This book was a bit hard to get into and I didn’t really hold my attention. Since the secrets were told earlier in the story, it made the book seem to go on forever. I think this would have been better in a shorter form.
I didn’t feel the chemistry between the two main characters and a romance is all about the chemistry.
Overall, I just didn’t love this one.

Love in Catalina Cove is the first book in a new series--and wow, the location is fantastic! Sand, sun, blueberries (in muffins or not)...really, I'm not sure what more I could ask for ;)

Vashti and Sawyer's romance is a somewhat slow-moving one--she's been burned before and is very hesitant (read: she's not going to do it, ever) to enter into anything permanent again, and he's a widower who hasn't dated since his wife's death--so though they do both feel a pull toward each other pretty much from the first time they meet, there's a lot of back-and-forth and hot-and-cold to get through before they let themselves be together, and at times it's a little frustrating. Ultimately, their story is very sweet--though there are quite a few plot twists along the way (the characters don't see them coming, but readers probably will) that rely on some pretty big coincidences.

All's well that ends well, though, and there are HEAs all around here. It'll be fun to see what the characters from this story are up to in future series books.

Now--can I take a vacation to Catalina Cove? I hear Shelby by the Sea is a nice B&B to try... ;)

Rating: 3 1/2 stars / B-

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

In this first book in her new Catalina Cove series, Brenda Jackson introduces readers to the residents of Catalina Cove, Louisiana with a sexy, heart-tugging tale that kept me turning pages from beginning to end. Vashti and Sawyer have chemistry off the charts and I was invested in their journey from the moment they met...as he was writing her a ticket for speeding. Their relationship takes a while to heat up but once it does these two set the sheets on fire. However, while I certainly enjoyed their physical journey, it's their emotional journey that had my heart yearning for both of these strong, and honorable, characters to find their happiness. Jackson doesn't make it easy for them, especially with Vashti's mistrust of men and relationships, understandable once her past is revealed, and widowed, single-dad Sawyer having no intention of marrying again. Both characters are caught off guard by the deepening physical and emotional bond growing between them but as secrets are revealed, and the story twists and turns, Sawyer and Vashti will have some difficult truths to face, and forgiveness to find, if they have any hope of moving beyond the past and forging a future together. Some of those secrets are almost insurmountable, and I'll admit, there are actions of some (secondary) characters that I'm not sure I'd have been able to forgive.

Jackson creates a real sense of community in this book and populates Catalina Cove with some very intriguing characters, dropping hints of future stories along the way. There's a future hero with amnesia (Forget Me Not - March 2019) and former best friends with a secret in their past who are ripe for an enemies to lovers story. I'm on board for both!

The characters in this book are skillfully portrayed, realistically flawed, and vivid enough that I would fully expect to meet them in the local cafe or at Vashti's inn were I to travel to Catalina Cove. One of my favorites is Sawyer's romance novel loving, teen daughter, Jade. She has such a great relationship with her dad and is very likable in her own right. I'm hopeful we'll see more of her, as well as Sawyer and Vashti, in future books.

When Vashti Alcindor was 16 she got pregnant while living in Catalina Cove. Her parents and the whole town seemed to be against her. Her parents forced her to leave Catalina Cove and go to a home for wayward girls until she gave birth. After giving birth she returned to Catalina Cove and lived with her aunt at her B&B. Because she would never reveal who the father of her baby was she suffered through much rejection by the town. Once she reached college age she left Catalina Cove and vowed she would never return. Her aunt died and left her the B&B. Vachti returns to Catalina Cove in order to sell the B&B. While there she gets pulled over for speeding by Sheriff Sawyer Grisham. There are immediate sparks between the two. But because of past disappointing relationships Vashti says she is done committing to any type of relationship. But she and Sawyer find it hard to ignore those feelings and finally give in. She becomes close to Sawyer and his teenage daughter Jade. Vashti will learn some devastating news that will change her life as well as Sawyer's.

An alluring and entertaining start to the new series by one of my favorite storytellers, Brenda Jackson. Ms. Jackson surely knows how twine the words together so that the reader gets lost in the world she has built, with the characters she has created.
Love in Catalina Cove starts a bit slow to me, as the stage is set for the new series. The characters are intriguing, both the main as well as the secondary cast and crew are attractive people, the kinds you want to get to know, and spent time with.
Vashti Alcindor and Sawyer Grisham might seem at the first look like the total opposites with a little in common, but as I got to know them better, that was proved wrong. They are both focused, hard-working, professionals. They are kind and considerate people, they both love kids, and especially Jade, Sawyer's daughter. They are passionate and loving, yet logical and forgiving. I liked the connection between them, the slow burn developing into an inferno, the sizzling flame into something meaningful and lasting. They both had faced loss and heartache in their lives, the tragedies shaping them to be the people they are today.
The betrayals by their loved ones, the surprises in the plot towards the end of the story, are stretching my imagination a bit too far with all the coincidences and twists of faith. I'm still digesting them, not sure what to make of it all.
Regardless, the Catalina Cove with its inhabitants captured my heart. They pulled me into their lives, and I felt like a part of the small southern town while visiting them, getting to know them, and learning about their lives and loves, joys and heartaches.
A compelling and enthralling start to the new series
~ Four Spoons

This was a fast paced romance/mystery that was completely absorbing and super sexy. Vashti and Sawyer are the main characters and their chemistry was singeing the pages of the book! I don’t usually read this genre so all I can say is certain scenes were really steamy…

Set in New Orleans, this sweet romance was the perfect brain cleanser I needed. I loved how the author painted Mr. Sexy Pants (Sawyer) as a really good, honorable man…who also happens to know how to make a woman week in the knees!

What I wasn’t expecting were the crazy plot twists and NO WAY moments. All the tension and the authors sloooow reveal kept me speedily turning the pages to see what would happen to the Catalina Coven characters. Overall, I was invested and admired many of their qualities.

I’m looking forward to Book 2 in the series which looks to be about one of the supporting characters.

Themes of teen pregnancy, adoption and being a single parent. Well done and very entertaining!

Favorite Quotes:

Scott isn’t the only guy I’ve loved that let me down. Therefore I can’t be one and done. I’m two and through.

Ms. Gertie would also butt heads all the time with Sheriff Phillips, all generations of them, and was quick to remind them that she delivered them into the world and would have given them an extra whack on their rear end if she’d known they would grow up to be power-grabbing men.

My Review:

Oh what a tangled web vile and duplicitous snobs can weave just to save face. I enjoyed this cleverly knotted and intriguing tale, it progressed slowly yet I enjoyed every little twist and turn. The ending may seem far-fetched unless you understand the social influence and structure of small-town living, then it becomes all too plausible. The storylines were easy to follow, engaging, deliciously spiced, and pricked my curiosity. I am itching to uncover more about the secondary characters Ms. Jackson was taunting me with – she is such a clever tease! I was enamored with her large and varied cast and am primed for return trips.

I know I am going to be in the minority when I say Love in Catalina Cove was just an OK read for me.. I wanted to love it, but I just didn't. I did like the setting and most of the characters. The little town of Catalina Cove sounds like it is a place I'd love to visit. I also liked the two main characters, Vashti and Sawyer. I felt bad for Vashti for what happened to her. I also liked Sawyer's relationship with his daughter Jade. Their relationship was really neat and fun to read.

What I didn't care for so much was the story or the romance. I felt no connection between Vashti and Sawyer. I think it was supposed to be a slow burn, but it was just too slow for me. The story, once we get to the secret surrounding Vashti. was really unbelievable. I can suspend disbelief sometimes, but I just couldn't in this one. There were way to many coincidences. There was one big one that I just couldn't believe would happen. It really lessened my enjoyment of the book. The overall book isn't badly written and I think fans of this author will try it out. It is the first in the series, so maybe the other books will be more enjoyable for me.