Saturday, June 22, 2013

[Kame's Review]: "Long Simmering Spring"

Long Simmering Spring by Elisabeth Barrett
Publisher: Loveswept (May 13, 2013)
Series: Star Harbor, 3
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Cole Grayson finally returns to Star Harbor, and now that he’s the town’s new sheriff, he’s upholding the law instead of breaking it. He and Julie Kensington, the local physician, have known each other since grade school, and she’s less-than-impressed with the bad boy he used to be. But after stints in the military and on Boston’s police force, the question isn’t whether he’s changed, it’s how much. It isn’t long before Cole realizes that his sweet, sexy doctor will force him to confront his past and help him to face the future.





Where to Buy*:
More Info:


Kame's Review:








Julia Kensington has worked hard and now has her own physician’s practice in Star Harbor. She came back to live in her parents’ house and feel a closeness to them she has craved since their deaths. She works long hours rarely allowing anything that resembles a social life to ensure the future of her practice. Cole Grayson was a troublemaker in High School. He joined the military and IED ended his military career, and after a stint with the Boston PD he is back home in Star Harbor to head up the Sherriff’s department, trying his best to keep his PTSD at bay.  Julie was in high school with Cole, though you would never really consider them friends. What Cole doesn’t know is that he has starred in Julie’s dreams since high school.


This book has so many facets, a small town setting, a returning soldier battling PTSD, a drug investigation and of course a love story. Elisabeth Barrett wrote a plot that had ups and downs, and I enjoyed how the drug investigation plot did not solve itself easily with a nice little bow. Both characters experienced growth in the book. Julie found balance in her life and I was cheering for her every step of the way. Cole started to realize everything was better with Julie in his life and his happiness made me smile. I have read a few books with characters who suffered from PTSD, I read about nightmares and flashbacks spurred by a noise or situation; what I haven’t read about is the uncontrollable anger.  Elisabeth Barrett wrote the scenes where Cole experiences his anger so well I felt my blood pressure rise with his. Two characters can be great individually but if they don’t make sparks come off the page the idea of a HEA is not convincing. Cole and Julie had great sparks, and their dialog made me believe they had deep seated feelings for each other.


My only complaint, and seeing that I gave this book a 5 star rating you can be assured it isn’t really a complaint, is that this book was not long enough. I could continue reading about Cole and Julie for another 100 pages or more!  I received this book from the publisher for my honest review, and at the time I didn’t really pay attention to the detail that this is the third book in a series. The Long Simmering Spring functions perfectly as a standalone book, however Elisabeth Barrett writes such wonderful characters,  I know many I met in this book are in the previous Star Harbor books, I plan on reading the other books in the series in order (and rereading this one too) before the fourth book in the series comes out.




5 STARS!





 ~*~*~*~

Kame received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for her honest opinion.
~*~*~*~



Meet Kame:

Kame is part of a family of readers; one day she picked up the Nook she purchased for her husband and discovered her love of e-books. A few months later he purchased one for her so he could have his back! Kame’s Nook is never far, and she is hard pressed to pick a favorite book, genre or author. As long as there are characters that make her want to sit down and have a chat and a plot keeps the pages turning, she’ll read it.

Kame's GoodReads 
 



~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Great review, Kame, I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed this one! :)

Have you read any of Elisabeth Barrett's books? Do you like small-town romances?






Enjoy!



Until Next Time,
Photobucket
*TBQ's Book Palace is a member of both the Amazon and Barnes and Nobles affiliates program. By using the links provided to buy products from either website, I receive a very small percentage of the order. To read my full disclosure on the matter, please see this post!

3 comments :

Colleen Isolde said...

I LOVE this series!!! Cole is my favorite so far but we have Val's story coming in August. I really enjoy stories that take place in small communities. It is refreshing to get swept away into a town completely created by the author's imagination. Great review and I agree. I wanted more Cole and Julie. Maybe Elisabeth will write a novella in the future. :)

KAMEBookReview said...

Colleen - I completely agree - and maybe Elisabeth will write more about Cole and Julie if we beg! Thanks for stopping by!

Wickedly Delicious said...

Great review Kami. I adore the Grayson brothers and liking this series. I am on Blaze Of Winter (Star Harbor #2)