TITLE: Barefoot by the Sea
SERIES #: Barefoot Bay #4
CHARACTERS: Tessa Galloway and John Brown
AUTHOR: Roxanne St. Claire
PUBLICATION DATE: 10/29/13
ORDER LINKS: Amazon| B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS: Tessa Galloway is a gifted nurturer–her verdant garden at Barefoot Bay’s new resort is living proof. If only the woman who can grow anything could grow what she wants most: a baby. Her friends think the right guy will come along, but Tessa doesn’t want to wait. All she needs is the perfect donor to make her dream come true. Then John Brown is hired at the resort. If anyone could make beautiful babies, it’s this gorgeous, mysterious man. So why does Tessa suddenly find herself wanting so much more?
It’s been three long years since John Brown had to leave his old life. Forced into the witness protection program, he’s desperate to be reunited with his toddler twins. When he gets the chance, there’s a catch–he must prove he’s got a steady job and a new wife. Landing a gig as a chef in Barefoot Bay is easy enough. And falling for lovely Tessa is even easier. The hard part? Can he win the heart of a woman who prizes honesty–when the truth may shatter it?
REVIEW: I fell in love with the characters in this book especially the four women who run the Casa Blanca resort in Barefoot Bay. Each of these lovely women have found their happy ending except for Tessa, who is the gardener for the beautiful resort. She has decided after heartbreak and betrayal, all she wants is to have a baby and is desperately looking for a donor to help those dreams come true. In walks John Brown, a sexy man that immediately attracts Tessa’s attention but has secrets of his own. He is on the run from his past and looking for a place to call home until he can retrieve his children from protective custody. When the two meet, sparks fly but they soon find very quickly that they both want two very different things in life. But John has to build a life in Barefoot Bay if he wants any chance of being reunited with his children and being around Tessa makes him want more out of life than just barely surviving.
Tessa was such a great character in this book. She wanted to have a child after suffering from heartbreak and was already in the process of making that happen. She was looking for a donor and to her surprise, the perfect man walked into her life and wanted to work as the new chef at Casa Blanca. She hated secrets because they only led to pain and John was holding quite a few secrets from Tessa because he didn’t want to fall in love with her and then end up leaving her.
John had been through so much after losing his wife and having his children go into protective custody. He wanted to start a new life but meeting Tessa wasn’t something that he planned on. She was everything that he wanted but he was afraid to love again especially if he had to leave to get his children and never return. I was irritated with him toward the middle of this book because he should have told Tessa about his previous life instead of creating more lies that were bound to be discovered. Especially when it came to telling her his real name was Ian. He redeemed himself by the end of the book but there was a point there that I wanted to smack him for Tessa’s sake.
Barefoot by the Sea was a wonderful novel that had me wanting to visit the beautiful Barefoot Bay and spending time with Ms. St. Claire’s characters. I loved Tessa’s and Ian’s story and I can’t wait to read the rest in the series especially the new spinoff series involving the new wedding planners.
Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
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