Leslie Baker, owner of Potter Lake’s hometown beauty shop, has a muscular, handsome, 6’4” problem. Her college sweetheart, former basketball superstar Kade “KC” Cavanaugh, is back in Potter Lake after his NBA retirement and the slick and shiny co-ed salon he’s recently opened directly competes with the Curl & Dye. Before they can pick up where they left off fifteen years ago, Leslie and KC … ago, Leslie and KC find themselves at the center of a power struggle between a corrupt Mayor and a town that wants to grow. With their livelihoods and the future of the close-knit, lakeside community at stake, they have no choice but to join forces to save the town of Potter Lake… and fan the flames of a love that’s been smoldering for more than a decade.
more
This review is long overdue, but I rolled over this rainy morning and spotted Leslie’s Curl & Dye on my bookshelf, and decided to flip through it again. DL White is a great women’s fiction writer. Sure, this is probably listed genre-wise as romance, but I didn’t find it to be formulaic in that way. The heroine, Leslie is introduced to us thoroughly in the opening chapter, so that not only do we know who she is and what she does, but a fair amount about her family, her roots (no pun intended) and the varied characters that occupy her home community of Potter’s Lake.
The characters who inhabit the town and who visit Leslie’s beauty shop, the Curl & Dye, are as vividly and lovingly drawn as the main characters Leslie, and her college love, Kade. I LOVED that about this book. I saw and felt Potter’s Lake through the author’s words and had more than a few moments of wistfully imagining that kind of quiet life in a small town where I have lots of history. Another solid choice this author made was to have the main characters resolve a central conflict and misunderstanding through … wait for it … a conversation! Imagine that. She didn’t drag the misunderstanding out for 80% of the book, making you want to toss it across the room, she just had the characters … talk about it. And once they’d moved on, they moved on.
Then the action became about a dilemma that the main characters had in common, and how to resolve it. The process of reaching that resolution, and working together for it, brought the main characters closer together in a way that felt natural and organic, and not at all contrived. And best of all, it gave us lots of opportunities to get to know more characters and eccentrics from Potter’s Lake. For me, this book was at its best when that was happening, and that’s saying a lot, because the love story at the heart of the book was also well-drawn and pitch-perfect. The conversations between the two weren’t just about their angsty love, but also about real-world concerns, and their banter was amusing and engaging.
And finally, it often happens that you read a book, and enjoy some parts of it, but aren’t quite sure why they were included. That never happened here. Everything felt necessary to move the plot along, help me get to know the characters (including the town, which I happen to believe is the ‘star’ of the show) and move the book toward its extremely satisfying conclusion. I recommend this book, with the caveat that it isn’t purely romance, where most of the action centers around the characters and their push-and-pull. It’s about a small town, the people in it and of it, and about a couple, who happen to fall in love there.
My final book of 2021 and it was wonderful. This is my first experience with DL White, but won’t be my last. I loved this audio – second chance romance, small town, and absolutely hilarious. It takes a little bit for Leslie to get over her past hurts from her college more-than-just-friends, KC. But once they team up against a corrupt mayor and sparks fly it is hot. I love that relationship-wise, these two were pretty low angst. Most of the drama comes from responding to changes to their small town and doing what’s right for the folks of Potter Lake. The banter between all the friends is exactly what you’d expect from people who’ve known each other their whole lives.
It’s a fantastic HEA – and a super cute and sexy epilogue. (I love epilogues!)
As soon as I finished, I bought the rest of the series. Up next, Second Time Around.
Narration:
I loved Sharell Palmer’s narration. She did a great job of giving all the characters their own unique voice and personalities. She’s a great fit for White’s writing and I’m looking forward to hearing more from both of them.