The Bachelor Beach (The Love Connection Series Book 1)

After reading other books by this author I already had a great appreciation of her writing ability, but this? This book is a delightful surprise and a breath of fresh air after some of the overdone, stale reads in contemporary romance. The premise is intriguingly clever and far more original than 99.9% of other romance reads out there now.

Ashley Spencer is still looking for a job after six years of higher education and five months of resumes and classifieds. When her brother offers her the chance to live rent free in his beachfront villa, she jumps at the chance, quickly signs the rental contract, and heads to Georgia’s Tybee Island. But when she arrives in paradise, it doesn’t have quite the polish and sparkle Ashley expected.

First, there’s the matter of her roommates, two twin sister’s who are stunning on the outside and kind of psycho on the inside. Then there are the ten single men living in the neighboring villas who act like the apocalypse has taken place and Ashley is the last surviving female. Oh yes, and that little matter of the fine print. Always read the fine print.

All Ashley wants to do is find a job to pay her share of the expenses and stay away from her handsome, clingy, over-eager neighbors who only to serve to raise more questions about the bizarre situation Ashley finds herself in. Fortunately, Noah James offers her a job at his nearby restaurant which also allows Ashley to avoid one roommate’s constant crying over her broken marriage and the other’s questionable extracurricular activities. (There are just some things that should never be done with kitchen utensils. *shudder*)

A part of me wonders if this book isn’t the result of a troubling night’s sleep the author had after consuming too much spicy food, because I have no idea how she dreamed this all up! It’s captivating, curious, funny, hypnotic, heartfelt and a bit warped. I loved Ashley’s character and was right there with her, demanding answers, being frustrated by the lack of them, and ready to throw in the towel. Noah’s character was terrific, so authentic, somewhat wounded and immensely endearing, and I loved that he had a few surprises of his own. In the midst of some quirky, memorable secondary characters and all the mayhem they create, Ryan then hits us with a poignant reminder of our military heroes, and gah! There go my emotions, pinging from one extreme to the other.

This series has a slight serial aspect to it, in that every tiny detail isn’t wrapped up and will be addressed in future books. However, the main story between Ashley and Noah is nicely resolved, although I anticipate (and hope) we’ll be seeing more of them in the future. If you’re looking for something fresh and intriguing, with plenty of laughter and hits to the heart along the way, you’ll love this fascinating, fun, phenomenal read!

*I reviewed an advance copy of this book freely and voluntarily, having made no commitment to provide a review and receiving no compensation of any kind from any source for this review.