Heather and Mick have a long history together, and Heather wants to leave it in the past where it belongs. Yet, here Mick is, very much in her present, thanks to her brother Jeff, who hired Mick to be her boss at the Retreat at Rivers Bend. It wouldn’t be so bad, except Heather and Mick are still attracted to each other like metal to a magnet. Oh, and her brother is considering offering Mick a … partnership in the Retreat, which by rights should be hers. And even if they act on their attraction, Heather is a small-town, country girl, and proud of it, whereas Mick can’t get far enough from his West Virginia coal-mining roots. Will they be able to get a second chance at their first love and find their happy ending together in Rivers Bend?
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I just finished one of most charming books I’ve read in a LONG TIME! LOVE IS LOVELIER by author Donna Simonetta.
Heather and Mick have a past. Eleven years ago when she was only 17 and he was 20, they forged a friendship that quickly turned to a romance – a platonic one, but the feelings were strong on both sides. When Mick found out she was only 17, he immediately stopped seeing her, worried they’d both get in trouble. Heather with her family, him with the law for dating what was considered a minor.
But he never stopped loving her. Unfortunately, Heather never knew the reason he went from hot to cold in an eye blink and her young heart broke in two.
Now, Mick’s her new boss and all those feelings both of them have stifled over the past decade are running rampant again.
I simply adore the chemistry between these two. Heather is a young woman who knows who she is, what she is, and what she wants in, and from, life Mick, on the other hand, is always worried that his poor, coalmining roots are going to show up and make everyone think less of him. In fact, he’s spent the past 10 years trying to lose that old persona and has even changed how he speaks so no one will know about his dirt-poor beginnings. It was so refreshing to have the hero actually be the one who felt “less than” and inadequate, rather than the heroine –which is what most romance books do. And by the way, Mick is neither, he just feels as if he is. By showing us Mick’s vulnerability and his embarrassment about his upbringing, we were able to track his emotional growth within the story and I fell in love with him just like Heather did all over again.
Written from the points of view of the hero and heroine, Love is Lovelier is a wonderful addition to Ms. Simonetta’s writing collection. You don’t have to read the first book in the River’s Bend series, A Sweeter Spot, to understand what’s going on in book two. But you should. Simply because it’s another great love affair and story!
Thank you to The Wild Rose Press and the author for allowing me to read an ARC of this book for an honest opinion. 5 well deserved stars from me!
small town romance at it’s best
Love is definitely lovelier the second time around for Mick and Heather, the hero and heroine in this second book of the Rivers Bend trilogy. Their feelings leapt off the page and into my heart, and I was totally invested in their story. This is a quick, fun read with down-to-earth characters, sizzling love scenes, and a town I can’t wait to return to in the third book!