ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: SUMMER ON FIREFLY LAKE
Author: Jen Gilroy
Series: Firefly Lake, #2
On Sale: July 25, 2017
Publisher: Forever
Mass Market: $7.99 USD
eBook: $6.99 USD
Audio: $21.98 USD
Sometimes love is better the
second time around . . .
Mia Gibbs spent her marriage
putting her husband's needs before her own. And now, after a painful divorce,
she's building a new life for herself and her two daughters back home at
Firefly Lake. The last thing she needs is a man to complicate things. But
former bad boy turned friend Nick McGuire—and the one kiss they've shared-has
turned everything upside down . . .
Attorney Nick McGuire wasn't meant
to be a family man. His career has always been his focus and after taking time
out to help his mother, he's ready to get back to the city . . . until Mia and
her daughters arrive at Firefly Lake. Mia is beautiful and intriguing, and it
doesn't take long to realize being "just friends" will never be
enough. As the summer nights turn colder, Nick will have to choose between the
life he's always wanted . . . and the woman he can't live without.
BUY THE BOOK HERE
I thought the writing was easy to relate to and flowed well, and the characters were realistic. Unfortunately, I thought the plot of this one was a little uneven. I think the challenge of a small town romance is the balance of the romance with the other characters in the small town. You have to have the other characters, or it is not a small town romance...but too much time with them and the main story is diluted, which I thought it was a little here.
Mia and Nick had a lot going on, a lot to deal with, and a lot to handle. I thought there was not quite enough time in the narrative with them and the resolution to some of the things felt a little fast and I was hoping for a little more depth with some of the story.
I do recommend this book, and I enjoyed the writing. I will read other titles by this author.
“Did you enjoy the play?” Nick
leaned over to speak into her ear.
She jumped and then blinked as
the overhead lights went on. “It was nice.”
“Nice?” He raised one dark
eyebrow and grinned. “It was a murder mystery where the villain killed his so-called
friends with poisoned martini olives. Nice isn’t the first word that
comes to my mind.”
“I meant it had a good plot. I
didn’t guess who did it until the end.” Probably because she hadn’t paid attention.
“I knew it was the town clerk
all along.”
“The town clerk? I thought it
was the caterer.”
“When he isn’t on the boards,
the actor who played the caterer is the town clerk over in Kincaid.” Nick
chuckled. “He’s always cast as the villain in local theater productions. Cat
says it’s because he has evil eyes. He grew up in Firefly Lake, and every
Halloween when we were kids, he dressed as a monster and scared her half to
death.”
“I’m a city girl, remember?”
Easy banter, keep it light and pretend everything was like it had always been
between them. “I’m still not used to the kind of community here and how
everyone seems to be connected to everyone else.”
“There’s a lot that goes along
with that community.” Nick got to his feet and shepherded Mia through the crowd
to the exit. His big frame sheltered her and made her feel safe and protected.
“People know your business and think they have a right to talk about you
because their grandmother’s second cousin was related to your great-aunt by
marriage three times removed. They post pictures of you on Facebook.”
Mia’s face heated. A copy of
that Facebook picture had appeared on Gabrielle’s kitchen table. She should
have gotten rid of it but instead, Mia had taken it upstairs and tucked it into
the bottom of her suitcase. Then ignored Gabrielle’s pointed looks.
“Do you want to get ice cream?
Simard’s Creamery has a stand across the street from where we had dinner.”
The intimate bistro with tables
for two, where the muted candlelight had softened the planes of Nick’s face,
and they’d bumped knees under the small table to send jolts of awareness
through her.
“You like your tiger tail ice
cream, don’t you?” Although Nick’s voice held a teasing note, something hot and
elemental sparked in his eyes. Then his expression changed again, and he was
the Nick who’d helped her with her mom’s foundation on all those late-night
phone calls last winter. The friend she called when she wanted to talk about
anything and everything.
Mia stopped in the middle of the
rutted track in the field where they’d left the car. The long grass tickled her
bare legs below her sundress, and she shivered in the cool night air. They’d go
for ice cream and then Nick would take her home. They’d drive the familiar
highway back to Firefly Lake and talk about the play and how well Charlie and
Lexie were doing. Safe, easy topics.
He’d drop her off at Harbor
House, and she’d go upstairs and get into Georgia’s single bed beneath the tattered
travel posters. Alone. Like all those other nights she’d spent alone, denying
what she wanted and making excuses.
“I changed my mind. I don’t want
ice cream.” Her voice shook.
“Mia, I—” He made a choked
sound.
“I thought about what you said.”
If she didn’t go for this, she’d always regret it and wonder about what might have
been. And maybe a fling with Nick was exactly what she needed to put the last
ghosts of her marriage behind her. “You’re right. We’re both single and neither
of us wants something the other one can’t give.”
“Are you sure?”
She tried to laugh. “We’d have
to be discreet.”
“Of course.” The raw desire on
his face was replaced by a glimpse of what might have been vulnerability.
“I like you, and I know you
won’t hurt me.” Because she’d locked the part of her that could be hurt deep
inside. “We both have needs.” She kicked the grass with her sandals and rubbed
her bottom lip.
“I like you, too. What Jay did
was wrong, and I want to make sure you understand I’d never do anything like that.”
A pulse fluttered in Nick’s throat. “We might not have a relationship, but I
wouldn’t sleep with anybody else if I slept with you.”
Mia looked at the night sky,
where stars twinkled above the forested hills. When she was little, she’d wished
on stars and believed in a happy-ever-after. But she was an adult, and life had
made her wiser and destroyed her childish belief in magic and wishes. “Where do
we go from here?”
“I’ll take you back to Mom’s if
you want me to.” Nick’s arm brushed the curve of her shoulder through her light
sweater, and the tremble inside her kicked up. “If you’re not ready.”
She was ready all right and had
been even before he kissed her the first time. “I want this.” She lifted her
face to his as a cloud scudded across the moon. “I want you.”
THE FIREFLY LAKE SERIES
THE COTTAGE AT FIREFLY LAKE, #1
SUMMER ON FIREFLY LAKE, #2
BACK HOME AT FIREFLY LAKE, #3
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jen Gilroy grew up under the big
sky of western Canada. After many years in England, she now lives in a small
town in eastern Ontario where her Irish ancestors settled in the nineteenth
century. She's worked in higher education and international marketing but,
after spending too much time in airports and away from her family, traded the
9-5 to write contemporary romance to bring readers' hearts home.
A small-town girl at heart, Jen
likes ice cream, diners, vintage style and all things country. Her husband,
Tech Guy, is her real-life romance hero, and her daughter, English Rose,
teaches her to cherish the blessings in the everyday.
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