TEST
One universal truth I’ve discovered as I get older is that adulting can be difficult – for everyone. Whether you’re struggling for balance or feeling the warm embrace of fortune smiling upon you, life happens. And life happened big time to Rachel Beck, who took a big, brave leap of faith in Trish Doller’s sweet, contemporary, grumpy sunshine story, The Suite Spot.
This is the second installment of her Beck Sisters series, but it can easily be read as a standalone. It’s my favorite kind of series, really, because other than an occasional allusion to Anna and Keane (from Float Plan), the reader can fully focus on what’s happening here. Rachel Beck is a single mother to four-year-old Maisie. They live with Rachel’s mother while Rachel works the front desk on the night shift at the Aquamarine luxury hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Rachel’s stuck in a safe, boring rut, hoping that Maisie’s father will evolve into a better man, and that she’ll get promoted to a better position at Aquamarine. Instead, her ex, Brian, continues to be reliably unreliable, and she’s fired because a customer made a complaint when she wouldn’t have sex with him.
Serendipity strikes when Rachel gets a bead on a hotel manager position on Kelley’s Island in the middle of Lake Erie, for a new hybrid microbrewery and boutique hotel. It might seem that a woman born and bred in south Florida would be hesitant to relocate to a place that has a potential to be socked in with ice for three to four months, but she’s ready for change. And it’s a good thing, because after talking with Mason Brown, owner of the Limestone Inn and Public House, she decides to take the job.
It’s immediately obvious Mason’s offer should’ve come with a warning that says: ‘can’t you just imagine how great it’ll be?’ Because situated in the middle of the heavily forested tiny island is a great, big unfinished project.
“So when you said you wanted the job, I didn’t tell you the hotel was unfinished because I didn’t want you to change your mind.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I’m completely in the weeds when it comes to running a hotel, much less building one,” he says. “I thought … well, I hoped … that if you saw the place and understood the vision, you might want to stay and oversee the construction.”
If ever there was a better euphemism for a brokenhearted, lonely man who relegated himself to a life alone, it’s news to me. Mason’s origin story is so very sad, and the death of his child, who was the same age as Maisie when she died a few years prior, casts a wide shadow over his life. As Mason and Rachel begin building their great Big Thing, life happens again, and stupid Brian comes back into the picture. Adulting, right?
Trish Doller is a great storyteller, and she has crafted a romance that’s easy to read. Her language is comfortable, the pace is perfect and the character development relatable and memorable. Everything about this journey is satisfying as Rachel and Mason make their way from friends to lovers. What started as a rope-a-dope disaster turns into a very mature, realistic, and relatable partnership between two people who needed each other. Adulting at its finest.
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Grade: A
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Kisses
Review Date: 08/03/22
Publication Date: 03/2022
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
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Read it this afternoon and enjoyed it. Not quite as much as Float Plan. And I didn’t like it as much as others here who’ve commented (it wouldn’t be an A read for me – but neither was Float Plan). But it is a fine read.
Just arrived on my kindle. So glad it has lived up to my fond hopes. Next in the queue.
Glad to know that this is as excellent as I hoped it’d be!
Oh, I’m so glad this is good. I can’t wait to read it.
I definitely want to read this, but I’m waiting for my library to get it or for it to go on sale. $10.99 is too much for an ebook.
Yep. At $11.99 in Canada, I’ll just have to wait.
For people who’ve read both stories, is one better than the other?
I liked Float Plan better.
I agree. Excellent, but having read Float Plan first I was a bit disappointed. Mason was a nice chap but Keane was much more exciting and the concept in the Suite Spot of the brew hotel and life in Smallsville, OH, a bit boring compared to Anna and Keane’s adventures at sea. Also I could not accept Rachel losing her job the way she did rather than getting a nice fat #metoo type settlement. Would not have worked out the way it did in the UK. In the US? I’d be interested to know. B+ for me.
That seems totally likely in the US, I’m sad to say. I actually liked Mason a bit more than Keane but agree that the setting was better in Float Plan.
I liked this one every bit as much as Float Plan. I liked Rachel better than Anna–she was more of a grownup–although I liked Anna too. I liked the community here and the insights the various characters had about life. I cried at this one too, in a wonderful way.
Dollar is my new favorite contemporary author.