The McCullagh Inn in Maine by Jen McLaughlin, James Patterson, Erin Bennett Published by BookShots Publication Date: July 5th 2016
Pages: 4
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Her second chance at love. . .
Chelsea McCullagh escapes to Maine with a gun and fresh bruises. She's ready to begin anew-until she runs into her old flame, Jeremy Holland. As he helps to fix her inn, her heart heals and they rediscover what they once loved about each other. But as the two play house, it starts to seem too good to last. . . .
Cocktails and Books received this book for free from Provided by Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect our opinion of the book or the content of our review.
Wonderful second-chance-romance! I think I’m in love with Bookshots!
I’ve never been a huge fan of short stories. I like getting heavily invested in the plot, the story and the characters and I never before felt short stories allowed for that. However, this one book might have just changed my mind. The idea of Bookshots is “… lightning-fast reads that completely capture [readers] for just a couple of hours …” as stated in the “forward” from James Patterson. This book definitely did just that. I was hooked from the intense, mysterious opening to the climactic, emotional ending.
Chelsea O’Kane is running for the second time in her life, only this time, she’s running back to the one place she swore she’d never go back to. A place where her heart was broken and her family’s last name is infamous.
Told in alternating POV’s, this book opens with Chelsea scared and panicked, fleeing into the night from Miami to the sleepy no-name town of Hudson in Maine. She’s leaving chaos in her wake and heading back to a place she hopes will be a sanctuary. Only problem is, when she gets there, her bitter past comes crashing into her in the form of the man who broke her heart ten years ago.
Jeremy “fricking” Holland has come back to his hometown in search of Chelsea and when he realizes she’s in danger, he vows to keep her safe and stand by her side, like he should have done ten, long years ago.
Combined with Chelsea’s heartbreak and the danger she’s running from staring her in the face, she’s reluctant to get involved with Jeremy again, especially knowing the power he holds over her heart. Their push-pull was exciting and sexy. I liked both the hero and heroine and even though this was a short story, the author packs an entire novel into a hundred and forty pages with danger and excitement. I loved every minute of their interactions, some which left me grinning madly, some which gave me those wonderful tummy flutters I love so much in romance stories.
This quick, suspenseful, sexy, pulse-pounding adventure fueled by secrets and reconnections and wonderful writing, is a definite winner. There was just enough character background and development to really get me invested and connected to the characters and I wanted them to find their second chance and happily ever after.
I’ll definitely be looking for more Bookshots to add to my reading list!
About Jen McLaughlin
Jen McLaughlin is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sexy books with Penguin and Random House. Under her pen name Diane Alberts, she is also an USA Today bestselling author of Contemporary Romance with Entangled Publishing. Her first release as Jen McLaughlin, Out of Line, released September 6 2013, and hit the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal lists. She was mentioned in Forbes alongside E. L. James as one of the breakout independent authors to dominate the bestselling lists. She is represented by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency.
Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal-clear water. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her four kids, a husband, a schnauzer mutt, and three cats. Her goal is to write so many well-crafted romance books that even a non-romance reader will know her name.
