Shoe Strings – Christy Hayes

After being hounded by her estranged father just as her boutique shoe business is taking off, Atlanta’s Angelita Barros heads for the mountains of North Carolina where she couldn’t be a bigger fish out of water. The cabin she rents is perfect, but one look at the owner’s son and Angelita’s in lust big time. She finds resisting the charming Jesse Bloodworth as difficult as maneuvering small town life in her custom made stilettos.

As Angelita and Jesse embark on a relationship, her father’s demands become threats and she’s forced back to Atlanta. Jesse’s attempt to save her uncovers more of her past than he bargained for. Will Angelita’s prince charming come to her rescue or does Jesse’s love come with Shoe Strings attached?

Have you ever read a book blurb and thought “this could be cute” and then read it to find yourself even more pleasantly surprised?  That’s what happened when I read this book.  It cute and sweet, with adorable characters that make you want to find Sequoyah Falls, NC and move on in.

Angelita Barros  finds herself ditching her planned Florida vacation after spying her estranged father in her high end shoe store talking to her partner.  She does what any rational adult does and flees the area, making a spur of the moment reservation and a mountain cabin in North Carolina.  When she makes it the the cabin, she find the area beautifully shielded in trees and wrapped by a river that would help her put things in perspective.  What she didn’t intend to find was a half naked man coming out of her rented cabin’s bathroom.

Jesse Bloodworth has spent the past three years righting the wrongs he’d done in the past.  He was good friends with his ex-wife and he and his son had a solid relationship.  He had a thriving business and a home he loved.  He thought he had everything he’d ever wanted.  But when he stepped out of that bathroom and spotted the lovely Angelita, he knew he had one last piece to his picture perfect puzzle to add.

Jesse is damn adorable, in a rumpled shirts kind of way.  He’s so comfortable in his own skin that he has a way of making those around him feel the same way.  Angelita was no exception.  When she felt like her life was falling apart, she’d spend five minutes with Jesse and feel better.  Sure, he infuriated the hell out of her, but she could resist his pull.  And he couldn’t resist hers.

Jesse has been perfectly happy with the way things were in his life.  But the minute he met Angelita, she changed his perspective on everything.  He acted as if her choices of color and shoes annoyed him, but those were all things that drew him in.  Despite her best effort to keep Jesse at arms length, he pushed to get what he wanted.   In the end, it was that “I don’t take no as an answer” attitude that helped him get what he wanted.

The secondary romance of Bryce and Kerri Ann was sweet.  Who doesn’t want to think that they could end up with that childhood sweetheart they’ve always loved.

I’m not usually a sugary person, but this truly was a sweet, enjoyable book.  It’s the perfect thing to read when you want something you know if going to make you feel so much better at the end.