Sunrise Cove Series, Book 4
From the publisher:
What makes life sweet?
- Freshly baked bread
- A cool lake on a hot summer day
- The comfort of a cozy bookstore
- Second chances and new beginnings
When Harper Shaw’s life falls apart, she knows it’s time for a change. She removes everything that doesn’t spark joy—from her soul-sucking job to eating kale to making lists—and sets off for the last place she was happy, Lake Tahoe (who wouldn’t feel good there, right?) to fulfill her dream of opening her own bakery.
With her Sugar Pine Bakery in between a tavern, owned by sexy, grumpy Bodie Campbell, and a bookstore, run by her new BFF, she feels a peace she’s never experienced since…well, forever.. Then she meets Ivy, a teenage runaway, who barrels into her heart. She sees a lot of herself in Ivy and takes her under her wing, but the teenager has secrets…
When those secrets explode, it changes Harper’s new world, and she’ll learn, it’s never too late to start over, it’s never too late to figure out your life, and best of all, it’s never too late to let yourself believe in love.
“This charming tale is just as welcoming as the cozy small-town community within which it’s set, and Shalvis hits the perfect blend of sweet and spicy. Readers will be thrilled.” — Publishers Weekly
https://amzn.to/3X6TiKX
This is the fourth book of a planned five-book series. I read the first two and somehow missed the third, but I found it on my Kindle and will get to it shortly. I now have over 6000 books on my Kindle, so I’ve gotten much better at keeping it organized, but I’m sorry to say I have let some books fall through the cracks. Each of these books stand alone beautifully.
Harper has had some serious losses in her life. The worst was losing her mother. She inherits a nice chunk of change and decides to open her own bakery. She wants to return to Sunrise Cove in Lake Tahoe, where she and her mom spent several summers together when she was young.
Harper arrives to a freak July snow, and her car gets stuck, and while she’s trying to figure out how to put the chains on her tires, a bear lumbers along and starts eating the popcorn that fell on the seat of her car. A man comes over, chases off the bear, and offers to help, but she is determined not to rely on a man for anything. She is a strong woman and can take care of herself. Brodie owns the bar next door to her bakery-to-be, and there is chemistry right from their inauspicious start.
Determined not to spend a penny she doesn’t have to, Harper is sleeping in the store even though the utilities aren’t on yet. During the night, she hears a noise and finds a young woman who has come in through the back door, looking for a place to sleep. Ivy claims she’s an emancipated minor, and she reminds Harper of herself, so she takes her in.
It turns out Brodie and his brothers are actually her landlords, and Harper and Brodie start spending a lot of time together getting the bakery ready to open. They quickly determine that neither of them is looking for a relationship, but nonetheless, they end up in one.
This is a heartwarming family story and a sweet romance set in a small town on Lake Tahoe. The main characters are fully realized; the secondary characters are interesting and often add humor to the story. I didn’t know there were small towns on Lake Tahoe – I’ve never been, and always just thought of it as a resort area.
Personal note: The epilogue was extremely touching to me – it turns out that Brodie had helped Harper climb down a wall at the summer camp she attended. They ran into each other for the four summers or so that Harper spent there, until her mother passed away. This was so meaningful to me because it mirrored something from my own childhood. Helayne was my best friend in elementary school. Her parents owned a fabric store in the town where my husband grew up. His mother, like Helayne’s mother, was an excellent seamstress and made a lot of clothes for her family. I hung out in that store on occasional Saturdays with Helayne, and we often played with the other kids who came by with their moms. I can’t say I remember playing with a boy who was a couple of years older than us, but the odds are pretty good…
Sunrise Cove Series in order:
1. The Family You Make (2022)
2. The Friendship Pact (2022)
3. The Backup Plan (2023)
4. The Sweetheart List (2023)
5. The Bright Spot (2024)
6/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
THE SWEETHEART LIST by Jill Shalvis. Avon (June 13, 2023). ISBN: 978-0063235700. 352pp.
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