Take a trip to Louisiana and get swept away in the romance of it all as the members of the Martin family each find their happily ever after. The Martin Family box set is a complete series that contains five full-length, sweet romances by bestselling romance author Brooke St. James.Book One – Loved Bayou: Jacob Fox, son of the notorious Neil Fox, wanted nothing more than to disappear. There had … disappear. There had been a media frenzy during the arrest of his parents and their subsequent deaths, and Jacob couldn’t escape all the negativity surrounding the ordeal. He decided to buy a house in south Louisiana on a private, wooded lot in the middle of the bayou so he could drop off the face of the earth for a while.
He certainly hadn’t come to Louisiana to make friends.
That seemed to be working pretty well until he met Alex Martin. She simply wanted to offer a little southern hospitality at first, but eventually she realized she might be the only person who could help Jacob rediscover the man he used to be.
Book Two – Dear California: Martin Outfitters had a potentially lucrative partnership in the works with a clothing company based in California. A face-to-face meeting with the owner was all they needed to seal the deal. Cole Martin was confident he could take care of business, and he offered to make the trip.
When his father suggested he take a vacation on the West Coast after the meeting, Cole refused. He was solely focused on securing the partnership so he could get back home.
Everything was going according to plan, until he met Olivia.
“Rescue me,” was the first thing she said to him, and well, with Cole being a Southern gentleman and all, that was exactly what he did.
Book Three – My One Regret: Wynn Martin had an opportunity to move to Austin and fulfill her dreams as a musician. Although it meant she’d have to drop out of school and leave her friends and family behind, she felt like it was the right decision. She also trusted that her new boyfriend would help make it a smooth transition.
But sometimes change comes hard and swift and leaves you feeling blindsided. Wynn was about to discover this reality.
It was in the midst of this storm that she realized she needed to deal with her biggest regret. If she could only set things straight with Ryan Collins, everything might return to normal.
Book Four – Broken and Beautiful: Claire King wasn’t really the type of girl who was looking for romance. She had to deal with some issues from her past before she could even begin to think of getting into a serious relationship.
Though she had grown up with the Martin boys, Claire never entertained the idea of a romantic encounter with either of them. In her mind, they were off limits. In fact, some might even say they were out of her league.
When an interesting chain of events ignites a hidden spark with Cam Martin, Claire would begin to question everything she knew about herself. Ultimately, it seemed that loving Cam was not an option. But convincing herself of that might prove to be harder than she expected.
Book Five – Back to the Bayou: Back to the Bayou is the fifth and final installment in the Martin Family Series, but it can be read as a standalone.
Amelia Martin was the youngest of three girls. Both of her older sisters had already found their soul mates, and Amelia felt like she was well on her way to that with Hank Marksberry.
Hank seemed to have everything she was looking for. He was handsome, intelligent, and would undoubtedly have a successful career. Amelia decided to bring him home during Christmas break to meet her family, thinking it would be the beginning of their happily ever after.
The only problem was that Hank could never compare to Caleb Reeves. When Caleb unexpectedly appeared at the airport to offer Amelia and Hank a ride, she was faced with a lifetime of memories and feelings she had managed to avoid since she’d left home.
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This set includes fives stories of members of the Martin family.
These are Alex Martin, Cole Martin, Wynn Martin, Cam Martin and lastly, Amelia Martin.
Each story is engaging, and the characters imperfect and complex.
Love is found where they least expected , or for that matter , wanted. Sometimes it’s right in front of them , waiting for them to see it.
I promise you these clean romance stories will keep you entertaining and wonderful for whenever you have an afternoon of leisure. Add a little southern drink in the mix, and you are set for quite a while.
I was entrusted a copy of this book. The opinions expressed are solely my own.
Loved this box set. The family always helped each other. It was refreshing to see how each generation was lifting up other family members.
I enjoyed all the books in this Box Set. I enjoyed that everyone in the Martin found true love. Reading about Louisiana and the Bayou was a learning experience. I thought how a boudin ball might taste, and would I like to go fishing and frogging. All stories had hurdles and twists and turns, but with trust in God they were able to find the strength they needed for their happiness.
It was very predictable in every story it’s like she had the same layout for the entire amount of books. I did like that her last one had a little Christian in it .
I loved every word. It was a treat to have 5 stories that naturally followed one after the other. The focus on each couple while telling a family story made for stories that I could not stop reading. I will definitely read again in the future just to enjoy the romance.
The Martin Family
Finds love. Two brothers and their wives have 5 children. One brother had 3 girls and one had 2 boys, but they were all close. They lived outside of New Orleans. It’s wonderful how each found love and expanded the family.
So enjoyed this series!
This book set is all about the Martin family, a rich family that owns the national chain, Martin Outfitters. Each book focuses on one of the family members and love. The first book was a little slow but once I got into the story of Alex Martin and Jacob Fox it got more interesting and I could not put it down. I really like the closeness of the Martin families and their aunts, uncle, and cousins. I also enjoyed the Bayou. I cannot wait to finish reading the rest of the series. I received an advance copy of this set and I willingly chose to write an honest review.
The Martin family is incredibly close and wonderful. I loved being down on the bayou and getting to know this wonderful family.
Loved Bayou – It took me a little while to get into this story, but once Alex and Jacob met I was sucked in. I love how honest and stubborn Alex is and that she’s able to break down his walls. This was a sweet story and I loved it was on the bayou, even though I kept worrying about crocodiles or alligators. This was a fun start to the series, I can’t wait to read the stories about the rest of the Martin cousins.
Dear California – Wow, Liv and Cole have the best meet cute and love story! It was a whirlwind, but so sweet. I wish I could see all the amazing pics taken during this story. My parents were engaged in 13 days and have been married for 49 years, so I definitely believe in love at first sight and love progressing quickly for some. This was a beautiful story. I love the Martin family.
My One Regret – Sometimes God allows bad things to happen so we can grow. I felt that was the theme of this book and I loved it. Wynn and Ryan both had things they needed to learn before they could truly appreciate each other. They are both wonderful people and their story is a little crazy, but beautiful at the same time.
Broken and Beautiful – I met Claire earlier in the series, especially in Wynn’s book. I never would have guessed that she felt broken and lacking. She was a great support and gave Wynn such great advice. It was so fun getting to know her better in this book. The chemistry between her and Cam is great. I really enjoyed their story and what they went through to make it happen. My only complaint is I wish we’d had Cam’s POV as well. Some of the books in the series has one POV and others have both. I really wanted Cam’s POV, especially because this is the Martin family series. It was still a great story though.
Back to the Bayou – I love second chance romances. Caleb was a real punk at the first of the series and I loved seeing how much he has grown and changed. It’s also fun seeing Amelia all grown up and getting over her starry eyed phase. I love the forgiveness that comes with second chance romances, because it makes it seem more real to me. We all need forgiveness whether great or small in our relationships. I also loved the scripture Amelia found and hownit changed her. We would all do well to remember it and apply it in our lives. This was a nice wrap up to the Martin family series. It was fun seeing how the family is growing, yet still remaining close.
I liked the Martin family in general. They were wealthy but not snobby, bratty or selfish. Family was obviously important to them as indicated by how much time they spent together. I also enjoyed the descriptions of Louisiana and might have liked even more of it. I visited a couple years ago and thought it was beautiful. I kept waiting to read descriptions of the Live Oak trees. They were a favorite for me on my trip.
I think I would have liked this series better if I’d not read them back to back. If I’d read other books in between I would have been less likely to notice that the main characters tended to use the same phrases in every book so they sounded like each other. I got annoyed by the continual use of “or whatever” at the end of a sentence. “You know, my feelings or whatever”. “I thought it had to do with God or whatever”. “I want a normal life with a husband and kids or whatever”. Also a lot of the word “crazy”.
I also didn’t care for the overly descriptive play by play kisses. As soon as someone sucked a lip into their mouth I rolled my eyes and skipped forward. Tell me they kissed but don’t give me a play by play. I know some prefer the descriptive nature but I’m not one of them. I dropped a star from my review for the two reasons above. They both took away from my enjoyment of the books enough that I couldn’t rate as high as I might have otherwise.
All the books are in first person which isn’t my personal favorite but worked okay except during the overly long set up at the beginning of the first book.
Book 1 Loved Bayou
Set up in first chapter seemed really long. Almost didn’t want to keep reading. All the info was necessary but would have preferred it come in the story instead of prefacing the story.
Alex is brazen. Would people really be so bold as to go visit someone who has specifically asked to be left alone, has a gated driveway and a scary dog? Seemed that all the women in this family tried anyway. Alex was brazen in her attempts but she is likable.
Jacob is broken by his circumstances and it is understandable that he’d want to disappear for a while. It is good that Alex breaks through his barriers but still brazen of her to attempt it.
Book 2 Dear California
This story is the definition of insta-love. I was surprised that the family went along with it so easily. As a parent I’d been freaking out a bit more. I wanted Olivia to stand up to her sister more strongly. She went along with everything her sister wanted for too long. Cole was very laid back about all the cameras and social media coverage. I would have expected him to be more uptight about it.
Book 3 My One Regret
Had a hard time liking Wynn. I wanted to but just didn’t. I liked Ryan and felt bad for him and the way Wynn treated him. In addition to not enjoying the play by play tongue action kisses I also hated that he kissed Wynn while he had a girlfriend. Not my fav in the collection despite that I usually prefer second chance romances.
Book 4 Broken and Beautiful
Liked Claire in previous books but got annoyed with her in this one. Always liked Cam though. I think Claire could have used more therapy to feel like she could talk about her issues without feeling like people wouldn’t like her if they knew.
Book 5 Back to the Bayou
Second chance romance. I always feel uncomfortable when someone pursues another person while in a relationship with someone else so I squirmed a bit with this one initially (also book 3). There was a plot twist at the end of this one that I did not see coming.
This is Christian lit and those themes are pretty strong in each book.
Sex: sensual descriptive kisses, innuendo, making out, implied sex,
Language: yes, Deity
Violence: a punch in the ribs, verbal abuse, memory of sexual abuse as a child
Loved Bayou was the first book that I read by Ms. St.James. I had gotten the book as a freebie and decided to read this, unknown to me at the time, author when I had no other books to read. Initially I was surprised at the extent that Alex was willing to go to show her ‘Southern Hospitality’ but she soon won me over as well as her neighbor Jacob. After reading this first book, I sped read my way through the whole Martin family series in 2 weeks. Needless to say I was hooked on this author’s stories. Fast forward a couple of years and I have read over 30 of her books. So with this box set coming out it is so wonderful to revisit the stories of this first book family that I fell in love with.
This is a great series because each book is a clean romance with a completely different story and them from the previous ones. The best thing about each book are the fantastic endings: all happy with some unexpected twists or surprises.
Book 1
Empathy meets rudeness in this novel about a man who has deep abiding hurt that makes him want to isolate himself from others, and the woman who aches to draw him out and help him overcome the pain that’s keeping him away from people.
Brooke St. James does an excellent job of drawing readers into the story. She lays it out in a way that slowly builds from suspicion and caution on one side and determination on the other to a budding relationship.
You can feel the emotions connected to the notoriety of parents who left a wake of destruction behind them. At the same time she brings you right into the heart of someone who has a desire to help but bumbles through it, doubting themselves but somehow managing to persevere.
Jacob is a cross between the brooding guy every girl wants to bring a smile to and the sexy sweetheart they all want to win. Alex is the giving, never give up on you cutie that every guy wants to find. With tension and sparks this is a great start to this series.
Book 2
L.A. YouTube celebrity meets down home Cajun businessman in the next Martin Family installment. In this one, Cole and Liv are opposites caught up in a sweet, fast paced romance with plenty of chemistry that you’ll love.
Book 3
A book of unconditional love and redemption, the third book in the Martin Family series is a winner. I loved this book but didn’t like Wynn much at the beginning. She rejected the perfect guy for her in a way he didn’t deserve and then reaped the consequences. When she came back she was changed and vulnerable which made her relatable to the reader. Ryan was a little too quick to forgive but that’s one reason to love him.
Book 4
Brooke St. James’ Martin Family just gets better with Cam and Clair’s story. Brooke captures the insecurity of those who grow up abused and neglected. With heartfelt emotion this one brings both tears and joy as Cam and Claire navigate brokenness and restoration. I recommend this one.
Book 5
A clean romance that moves from childhood crush to disappointment and then to love. This book shares the emotions connected to childhood obesity and lasting effect it can have on your life. When I was a child one small thing that was said about me devastated me for years. I still remember that moment though it doesn’t have a hold on me any longer. Though it doesn’t get deeply into the issue it’s handled with grace. I liked the main characters in the book. Their connection was sweet and this book was a good conclusion to the Martin Family series.
3,5
These are definitely Christian romances. There is a lot of talk about God and his role in our lives. What didn’t sit that well with me was this religious aspect coupled with some steamy kisses (at least according to my scale – in a Christian romance I would have preferred them to be less descriptive).
Otherwise I love series, especially family ones, where I can follow the stories of each sibling (and cousin in this case). And I liked the Martins – they were cute, close knit, smack talk family of the south. Oh, and they are rich, but not spoiled, thank goodness. The stories were short, I would have liked to see more depth of character, but still… there were some really sweet moments. And as a bonus I learned a lot about Louisiana’s traditions and food (even how to pronounce stuff ) – yum!
The forth story, Broken and Beautiful was my favourite – I loved Claire and Cam.
Narrative: 1st person following Alex
Religion: yes
Romance: chaste, but some steamy kisses