Olivia Quinn is a widowed and newly unemployed fiction editor who lost her husband a year ago and is now figuring out how to raise her teenage stepdaughter alone. Charlie Castro is a contractor turned handyman after losing his licence. Olivia hires him to finish her kitchen, and the two are instantly attracted to each other.
But Charlie is planning to leave, and Olivia feels it’s too fast to start another relationship.
When Olivia is asked to sell some old books by a friend, she and her stepdaughter, Taylor, somehow end up renovating an old building to turn into a bookshop. Fortunately, Charlie is around to help …
I’m not generally a fan of the instant attraction romance because I believe lasting love is built on relationship, not lust. However, the Beacon Street Bookshop shows that instant attraction can convincingly morph into a solid and believable relationship, given the right circumstances and an author who knows wheat they’re doing—as Carla Laureano certainly does.
The Beacon Street Bookshop is the third title in Carla Laureano’s Haven Ridge series, following The Brick House Cafe (a free introductory novella), and the Broken Hearts Bakery. All three stories are set in the slightly weird town of Haven Ridge and feature a romance as well as some tougher issues. In The Beacon Street Bookshop, the issues are around finding love again after losing a spouse, and with a teenager in tow. While that’s worthy, it didn’t have the depth of the issues in The Broken Hearts Bakery.
The Haven Ridge series is clean and wholesome rather than Christian romance. Some readers might find there is a little too much focus on the physical, and the characters clearly aren’t Christians. But there’s no on-the-page sex or violence.
Carla Laureano fans will enjoy The Beacon Street Bookshop, as will bibliophiles and fans of authors such as Denise Hunter and Liz Isaacson.
Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.
About Carla Laureano
Carla Laureano is the RITA® Award-winning author of contemporary inspirational romance and Celtic fantasy (as C.E. Laureano). A graduate of Pepperdine University, she worked as a sales and marketing executive for nearly a decade before leaving corporate life behind to write fiction full-time. She currently lives in Denver with her husband and two sons, where she writes during the day and cooks things at night.
You can find Carla Laureano online at:
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About The Beacon Street Bookshop
Then the opportunity arises to open Liv’s dream bookshop in Haven Ridge, offering not only the solution to her financial problems, but a chance to bond with her stepdaughter and become a real family for the first time. Soon, the wild idea transforms into a thriving nonprofit, thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of the town—and a handsome contractor who stirs feelings in Liv she’d thought might be gone forever.
But just as she begins to lean into the new life she’s made for herself, a figure from her late husband’s past puts the life she’s been building with Taylor in jeopardy. And Liv must face the possibility that following her heart might just cost her a daughter.
