Why I read it: A well done small town romance is just what I was in the mood for. Plus, I wanted to be caught up on the series before the third book comes out in March.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Home to the Fletcher family for generations, Dare Island is a fishing village rocked by changing times – its traditions slipping away like sands of the North Carolina coast. Single dad and fishing boat captain Matt Fletcher deferred his own dreams to support his innkeeper parents and build a future for his sixteen-year-old son. Matt has learned to weather life’s storms by steering a steady emotional course…and keeping a commitment-free approach to love.
Newcomer Allison Carter came to Dare Island to escape the emotional demands of her wealthy family. The young teacher aims to build a life here, to make a lasting place for herself. She doesn’t want to be another Woman Who Once Dated Matt Fletcher. It’s both tempting and dangerous to believe she can be something more.
Then Matt’s brother Luke makes a sudden return home, with a child of his own – and a request that will change all their lives. With a child’s welfare at stake, Matt must turn to Allison to teach him to let go of the past, open his eyes…and follow his heart.
What worked for me (and what didn’t): This story is in part about the Fletcher family – that arc is unresolved at the end of the book and I gather will be wrapped by by Luke’s story (the book coming out in March). Then each book has a “complete” romantic storyline. Matt is the eldest Fletcher (he’s 36), a single parent to son Josh, now 16. His wife left him when Josh was just a baby and has had basically nothing to do with her son since. Matt dropped out of college to support his wife and son and when his wife left, he moved back to Dare Island where his family have settled. He is passionately committed to his family but leery of relationships. After the devastation that was his marriage and seeing the hurt Josh experienced when at age 8 there was a (small and badly done) attempt by his mother to establish a relationship, he’s determined that he will protect himself and Josh from someone whom they will come to love, only for that person to leave them. He makes a reasonable living as a charter fishing captain, with some commercial fishing in the off season and he has very short term relationships with “summer girls” or off-island people that don’t impact his family.
