Review: Aurora Rey’s Summer’s Cove and Melissa Brayden’s Eyes Like Those
You know that song 24K Magic by Bruno Mars and it has that part that goes “something something hashtag blessed”. I was honestly singing that all weekend because I got to spend it reading Aurora Rey’s Summer’s Cove and Melissa Brayden’s Eyes Like Those, and I just felt so blessed. Hashtag blessed. Let me pour them both glass of wine and toast these two talented romance writers for an epic reading weekend. And, let me pour a glass of wine for everyone reading this review while I gush about these two books and be more embarrassing than eloquent as I write this.
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Summer’s Cove by Aurora Rey
I absolutely love Aurora Rey. (And, she’s my hero, but she and everyone else is probably tired of me saying it over and over again but I can’t help and gush because it’s true.) Her books will always have a special place in my heart and this one was no different. There were so many moments in this book that were just so pure. Pure life and light and pure joy and love. This is the second book in the series, but it can absolutely stand alone as a book and as a beautiful romance on its own. However, if you have read the first book in the series, you’ll be happy to catch up with one of your favourite couples in this one and see where the journey that is love has taken them.
Darcy is a single mom to Liam and works as a chef at a local café. Liam is her whole life. He has to be. She can handle being hurt while she navigates the dating world but she won’t let the same heartbreak happen to her son. Emerson is a painter and an amateur photographer. She’s drawn to Darcy and at the same time becomes a friend to her son Liam when the two bond over science. Darcy and Emerson try and keep their relationship as separate as possible from Liam. But when their feelings for each other become too strong, the lines blur, and someone is bound to get hurt. Can the two let the past go and let love win?
I love Aurora Rey because it's always like she's writing a book just for me. It’s hard to be totally objective when an author reaches into your soul and creates a masterpiece seemingly just for you.
First, I always love the science nerd aspect in her stories. So many books are about businesswomen and lawyers and doctors and there's of course all sorts of other unique jobs, but science and biomed is something you don't always see. I identified so much with Emerson – once a med school hopeful and then life happens and you realize what's really important. Add to that she’s someone who balances the creative side of herself with the scientific side of herself. It's just too special to see yourself entirely in a book. I love it. It’s one of my favourite things about reading, about discovering yourself in so many characters and discovering things about yourself in the process as well. I can't express how special it is and how amazing it makes me feel.
Second, I love the food. It is like its own character in the story. I love how it mirrors, or in some ways sets the tone of, the relationship. Maybe that’s too deep or maybe it’s an observation that belongs only in an English class, but I just love how the food is a huge part of the relationship in many of the author’s books. Again, I get to see my life and my relationship and my love in a book. I'm pretty sure Aurora Rey is in my head making all my fantasies come true. And my god every time I read a book I come away with a million recipes to try. If Aurora Rey wrote I cook book, you're damn right I would buy it.
I love these books because they feel so personal to me. I see myself. I see my dreams and my fantasies. I can never properly explain just how much these books mean to me. Of course, not everyone is me and will connect so strongly with these elements in the stories. But, if you like a cute romance and good food and a beautiful community and precious family, you'll love the little escape this book provides. Give it a go and fall in love. I dare you.
I love the authenticity in the interactions from planning the first date or dating with kids in the picture or getting lost in your work. It’s messy and it's real. As much as I love romance for the escape, I love a healthy dose of reality too. Love can be hard work, but gosh true love is so worth all the hard work and it makes the love we see between Darcy and Emerson all the more powerful and all the more beautiful. The night in the hotel was one of the sexiest, most sensual, and most beautiful love scenes I've ever read. Coming in a close second was the day in the boat. Oh god, I’m swooning just thinking about them. I feel like the love scenes in this novel was Aurora Rey’s best work in this way. The combination of emotion and trust portrayed in these scenes was absolutely incredible, she honestly took it to another level here.
I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review (Goodreads). I will be one hundred million percent be buying this in paperback to add to my collection!
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Eyes Like Those by Melissa Brayden
This book is another incredible romance by Melissa Brayden. It’s written with such wit and grace and lightness, and once again proves why she is one of the best writers in the business.
Isabel Chase has spent most of her career writing and creating short films, which have made her a hit on the film festival circuit, but haven’t landed her in steady work. Her spec script for the hit TV show Thicker than Water lands in the hands of the showrunner, and an interview and a spilled cup of coffee later, she finds herself living in LA and working her dream job. And a steady job. Taylor is the showrunner for Thicker than Water. She’s worked like crazy to get where she is, but ratings are slipping and she’ll do anything to keep the show afloat, even if it means working with her arch nemesis from high school. Isabel and Taylor are hardworking, groundbreaking, talented women, who spend their days writing up a storm, and both trying and failing to fight their attraction for one another. Hollywood is never without it’s special brand of drama. Can Taylor and Isabel be the ones that make it despite the drama?
Wow. Isabel and Taylor. I love Isabel. Gosh she’s so unique and wonderful. I love how she speaks her mind. I love the confidence she has on one hand and I love her insecurities even more. She’s real and she’s awesome. Taylor is a beautiful human being. I love her work ethic and her capacity for love even when it hurts. And together…these two fit together so perfectly. Their personalities, their lives, their hopes and dreams, their creativity, their chemistry, just weave together like the universe had this planned from the beginning of time.
It’s not my absolute fav of Melissa Brayden, especially after Strawberry Summer absolutely destroyed me earlier this year (*hint* please please read that book too), but an absolute treat to read. I felt like the beginning, a lot of it, was a set up for the next few books to come in the series. But truly, Eyes Like Those is a fun, beautiful, and adorable story. It’s like those 90s or early 2000s rom coms that they just don't make anymore - the ones that make you believe in magic and love and all your dreams coming true, when your heart is singing for days after and you wish you could watch a million more movies that made you feel like that. This book is like that. All of Melissa Brayden's books really, are like that. You wish there were a million books that make you feel exactly like the one you just read. They give you so much hope for this world amid hurricanes and politics and disease. They make you believe in magic, and only the best kind.
But! There was also a perfect heart-wrenching amount of angst in this book. I loved it so much.
Once again Melissa Brayden proves herself beyond talented in writing her ensemble cast. From the Seven Shores girls, and, the Cat’s Pyjama folks and the writer folks, to Fat Tony and Raisin. Each character is unique and beautiful and fascinating in their own way. And god help me I have a giant crush on Gia. GIANT. I look forward to each and every story in the upcoming saga.
I also really appreciated the mental health representation. I really appreciated how Taylor and Isabel’s friends helped her and didn’t dismiss her feelings. More than that, I appreciated that the author also highlighted the importance of asking for help, getting help, and finding various methods including therapy or yoga to help. It could be so easy to write a story where everything is perfect in a character’s life, where with a perfect job and perfect friends and perfect girlfriend suddenly makes all your problems go away. A perfect life doesn’t keep cancer away any more than a perfect life can keep mental illness away. The reality isn’t that simple and it takes a lot of work, even when your life is seemingly perfect, to battle your anxiety and panic attacks. It felt real and true and hopefully might help someone who needs help to know that it’s ok to ask for help and to stick with therapy or whatever else you might need. Especially in a romance novel you might not want to get bogged down with serious and reality, and I’m so thankful for this representation. Truly thankful. It helped me and I hope it helps other’s too.
I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review (Goodreads). I will definitely be buying the paperback as well.
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These books are both part of four-novel sagas and I am so blessed, and so is everyone else, to have the promise of a steady diet of books from two of my favourite authors as they complete the series! Thank you so much ladies! Here’s to you and happy writing!