365 books in 365 days Challenge ... book #160

A Fair Breeze - Ann Hurley
Silhouette Desire
Silhouette Books, 1987
ISBN: 9780373505883





My rating




From the back cover:

"SMOOTH SAILING
The little New England town of Fairharbor seemed like the perfect place for Leah Mackey to sit back and relax, when she wasn't dealing with an obnoxious ten-year-old, as gossipy neighbor or a houseful of kittens - or scouting the area for local artisans. Jonathon Jericho Wardwell was one of those artisans.
In Jonathon's hands, wood magically became sleek model ships that collectors would pay top dollar for. Only Jonathon wasn't interested in selling his boats. He was interested in Leah. And those same magic hands had Leah purring with pleasure. But there were rough seas ahead, and only time would tell if their love could weather the storm."


The heroine Leah is a divorcee with a 10 year old daughter. She has moved to the small town of Fairharbor for the summer in order to scope out from local artisan craft people for her boss's upcoming gallery exhibition. She meets the hero Jonathon when he comes to do some carpentry work in the house she is staying in. Leah is having a tough time dealing with trying to make a new life for herself after her divorce, building a new career and her at times badly behaved daughter. She and Jonathon strike up a friendship and they quickly become closer and eventually lovers. Jonathon tells Leah he loves her, Leah cares deeply for him but is afraid to get hurt again. With Leah's insistence that she will only be around for the summer and Jonathon's reluctance to tell her about his past it doesn't seem like there can be a future for them.

I enjoyed this book but it took me a little while to actually get into it. The writing style is difficult to grasp at first, it feels very 'old', if you know what I mean. But the story really shines through and this made it easier to accept the writing style. The story itself is quite simple and the love between the characters is wonderfully uncomplicated with the passion between them being no less sizzling. In fact the passion level surprised me for a book written in 1986!
Don't be put off by the boring and misleading blurb, this is a wonderful love story. No point of view from hero though...

Passionate, warm and satisfyingly simple.

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