Landlocked

This was an interesting story. Amelia's grandparents owned a piece of property in the North Carolina mountains. Her grandfather had passed away and her grandmother's health was getting worse and she had decided to sell the property so she could afford to pay for her care in an assisted living facility. She asked Amelia to travel to North Carolina to take care of the transaction.

Alec was a Duke educated lawyer who had grown up in Confrontation, North Carolina. His family was all in the same town. His mother had recently passed away and he had taken up residence in Amelia's family cabin. Alec's mother had live there for the past thirty years.

There were lots of unusual circumstances that made the property hard to sell and lots of family secrets that were uncovered during the process. I won't give away the story but there is a happy ever after ending for a couple of the characters, you will just have to read the story to see who it is.

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Amelia Rushing heads to North Carolina to sell a piece of land for her grandmother only to learn that the property is landlocked. She ends up in a battle of wills with attorney Alec Brady, who owns a cabin on the property. An artist missing for thirty years and a serial killer add spice to this romance

Amelia Rushing recently broke up with a cheating fiance. She hasn’t been able to find a job with her art history major so she’s trying to break into real estate but having no luck yet with that career either. When her grandmother asks her to go to the mountains of North Carolina to try to sell some land that her grandfather had purchased years before Amelia sees nothing to keep in her Florida and thinks it might be her first big sale.

Alec Brady is a local lawyer in the town of Confrontation, NC who’s family has owned most of the surrounding land and also he and his mother have been living on Amelia’s grandmother’s land. When approached about selling Alec claims that possession is nine tenths of the law and that Amelia wouldn’t be able to sell regardless as the land is landlocked, meaning there isn’t any access to it without traveling on the surrounding properties.

Amelia being determined to help her aging grandmother sell the property informs Alec that she is not going to leave until the deal is complete and she will be moving in the cabin that he lives in with him. As the two battle over the sale the sparks fly but they also uncover a decades old mystery that took place on the property.

I have to say I started off this little novella thinking that it was going to easily be a four or five star read. The story was unique to anything I have read and the characters and their interactions were hilarious. There was a wonderful quirkiness to both the story and the characters involved that drew me in and wanted to continue reading.

The problem I found was about halfway through the book when the mystery aspect starts getting introduced it got a tad repetitive kind of telling the same story over and over. There actually wasn’t much mystery to be solved either as you are told what happened which would be fine as you still await finding how it will all turn out but it just seemed to fizzle out of new ideas so the second half just started losing my interest. Not too bad of an ending though so three stars overall.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest and open review.
This is the first book I've read by Marilyn Baron but it certainly won`t be the last.
It´s obvious that Ms Baron has either worked in real estate or thoroughly researched the topic. There is just enough detail to enable the reader to understand the process.
The two main characters, Amelia and Alec were both very likeable. Although polar opposites, Amelia being from Florida and Alec from North Carolina. the attraction between them is obvious from the start.
This is a great romantic suspense story and Ms Baron has the perfect balance between the two..