Kristie J’s Duckies Do Series review of Brightwater Series by Lia Riley
Contemporary Romance published by Avon Impulse Jun – Oct 2015
Binge television series watching seems to be the thing to do these days. As I watch very little TV these days, I’ve been doing some binge reading instead. When reading a series of books, I read them all, one after the other. Sometimes this works and sometimes you notice the characters are all too similar.
In the case of Lia Riley and the Brightwater Series, it works very well.
Last First Kiss, Book 1
23 Jun 15
Last First Kiss is the first in the series of three brothers, Sawyer, Archer and Wilder Kane, whose parents died tragically when they were very young and they were raised by their cantankerous grandmother. Last First Kiss is Sawyer’s story. He is the middle brother, the responsible one, the peace bringer who grew up to become sheriff of Brightwater, their small California town.
The story begins when he runs into Annie Carson. Annie grew up on Brightwater, but she never really fit in. Her father was known as Crazy Carson, due to his unorthodox way of doing things, and, as a result, Annie grew up pretty well ostracized by her peers. But there was one person who was her friend and that was Sawyer. They had deep and tender feelings for each other, but before anything could come of them, their relationship was sabotaged and Annie was hurt and wanted nothing to do with Sawyer.
It is now years later and Annie has come back to Brightwater to get their old farmhouse ready to put on the market. She’s coming out of a bad marriage and supports herself and her young son Atticus by running a ‘Mommy Blog.” While much of what she writes about is true, she keeps the downsides of being a single mother out of the blog. And there are many downsides.
When she and Sawyer meet again, the feelings are still there but also a wall of hurt. However, Sawyer is determined to knock the walls down. Though he didn’t appreciate at the time how important Annie was to him, he does now and he’s not going to let her get away again. But besides old hurts, he also has to fight to keep her from moving away for good.
There is something touching about a friends-to-lovers/former love, and First Last Kiss is no exception. Both Sawyer and Annie are well written, likeble people and I really enjoyed this book. If I hadn’t I wouldn’t have jumped into the next book right after finishing this one.
Grade: B
Summary:
A kiss is just the beginning…
Pinterest Perfect. Or so Annie Carson’s life appears on her popular blog. Reality is … messier. Especially when it lands her back in one-cow town Brightwater, California, and back in the path of the gorgeous six-foot-four reason she left. Sawyer Kane may fill out those Wranglers, but she won’t be distracted from her task. Annie just needs the summer to spruce up and sell her family’s farm so she and her young son can start a new life in the big city. Simple, easy, perfect.
Sawyer has always regretted letting the first girl he loved slip away. He won’t make the same mistake twice, but can he convince beautiful, wary Annie to trust her heart again when she’s been given every reason not to? And as a single kiss turns to so much more, can Annie give up her idea of perfect for a forever that’s blissfully real?
No excerpt available.
Right Wrong Guy, Book 2
4 Aug 15
Right Wrong Guy is Archer Kane’s book. He’s the youngest brother and is quite the player. He’s almost famous in Brightwater for his horn dog ways. But he’s so adorable it’s hard to dislike him. This book opens when he’s just waking up from a wild night in Vegas, spent with a couple of, well, showgirls I guess – showgirls with aspirations to be ventriloquists. The whole scene is hilarious in a Hangover movie kind of way.
Eden Bancroft-Kew is the heroine. She is about to marry in Vegas when she overhears her jerk of a fiancé on the phone with his girlfriend. Of course, she realizes that she can’t marry him and hightails it out of the hotel before he notices she is gone. She’s sitting in a restaurant trying to figure out what to do when Archer comes and sits down with her. Through the conversation, she discovers he comes from the same town that her cousin recently purchased a house in and decides to hitch a ride with him. She’s a city girl from New York and he’s a good old country boy and they seem to have nothing in common, but Archer is smitten with her and realizes right from the beginning that she is different and the feelings he has for her are also different.
But Eden, or Edie as she now wants to be called, has serious issues. She’d been bullied most of her life and that’s left her feeling pretty insecure about herself, even though she appears to be self-confident. She decides to open a bakery in Brightwater, and Archer will do all he can to help her.
Normally I’m not very fond of the “playboy” type of hero, but Archer is just too cute and funny not to like him. He realizes how shallow his life had been before he met Edie and he really wants to change for her. But with his reputation, combined with Edie’s insecurities, he has quite the battle to fight to prove he’s worthy. Factor in Edie’s ex, who turns out to be a real jerk, and her reluctance to confide in Archer, it makes for believable conflict.
As with Last First Kiss, I really like the story. It happens about the same time as Last First Kiss, so a few scenes are in both books. Sawyer and Annie play a role in this book but not in an overwhelming way.
I liked this one just a teeny weeny bit better than the first and was surprised at this as I usually turn my nose up at this kind of hero.
Grade: B+
Summary:
Bad boy wrangler, Archer Kane, lives fast and loose. Words like responsibility and commitment send him running in the opposite direction. Until a wild Vegas weekend puts him on a collision course with Eden Bankcroft-Kew, a New York heiress running away from her blackmailing fiancé…the morning of her wedding.
Eden has never understood the big attraction to cowboys. Give her a guy in a tailored suit any day of the week. But now all she can think about is Mr. Rugged Handsome, six-feet of sinfully sexy country charm with a pair of green eyes that keeps her tossing and turning all night long.
Archer might be the wrong guy for a woman like her, but she’s not right in thinking he’ll walk away without fighting for her heart. And maybe, just maybe, two wrongs can make a right.
No excerpt available.
Best Worst Mistake, Book 3
20 Oct 15
I think this one was on for a squeal of a deal and was the first book I started. I didn’t get very far into before I decided I would enjoy this series, and because the price was right, I got the first two and started over from there.
Wilder is the oldest of the Kane brothers, and the book opens with a bang with him jumping out of a plane and into the middle of a raging fire – as a smoke jumper that’s his job. But things go wrong for Wilder and he ends up back in his hometown of Brightwater where he’s become quite the hermit. There are hints from the beginning that Wilder has dealt with ghosts for most of his life and doesn’t think he deserves happiness.
Wilder is my favourite kind of hero, the gruff teddy bear type who keeps people, including his love interest, at a distance. In this case Quinn Higsby is his love interest. Her parents split early in her life and she spent summers in Brightwater, enough time to become somewhat familiar with the town but not enough to make a lot of friends. But she’s back for good now. Her professional life fell apart and her father is suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s and needs her to care for him.
She meets Wilder when her father wanders to his cottage in the wilderness in a snow storm. He’s reluctant to let her in, but underneath his gruffness, he’s a really good guy. She soon realizes he’s the guy who has been ordering quite a few very different books from the bookstore she works at and she has been impressed with his all roundedness in book choices.
It doesn’t take Quinn long at all to realize Wilder is special and she wants him to play a major role in her life, but Wilder, being the gruff teady bear type he is, with his secret pain, is very reluctant. But he’s as attracted to Quinn as she is to him and he can’t resist her forever.
I love Wilder. I’d been wanting to get to his book since I read the little bit from before I started at the beginning, and he’s quite worth the wait. And Quinn makes for an equally good heroine. I love a take-charge, ‘this is the guy I want and I’m going to get him’ gal. They make a great couple, and it’s so good to see Wilder let down his barriers he’s had erected for so many years. There is a bit of a mystery as to who is starting fires, but not as big as the blurb makes it sound.
This book and Right Wrong Guy tie, thus the same grade
Grade: B+
Summary:
Sometimes the worst mistakes turn out to be the best…
Smoke jumper Wilder Kane once reveled in the rush he got from putting out dangerous wildfires. But after a tragic accident changed his life, he’s cut himself off from the world, refusing to leave his isolated cabin. When a headstrong beauty bursts in, Wilder finds himself craving the fire she ignites in him, but letting anyone near his darkness would be a mistake.
After her glamorous LA life went up in smoke, Quinn Higsby decided to leave Hollywood behind and returned to Brightwater to care for her ailing father. Spending her days in a small bookstore, her peaceful existence is upended by a fascinating but damaged man. Quinn is determined to not to be scared off by Wilder, not once she’s experienced the heat of his passions.
But when an arsonist targets the community and Wilder is framed for the crimes, he must confront the ghosts of his past. Will his desire for Quinn flame out or will he be able to tame the wildness inside and rekindle a hope for the future?
No excerpt available.
As a whole this series is very enjoyable and the stories not similar enough to see a pattern that can sometimes happen when you read all the books in a series in a row. I think fans of small-town contemporary books will find these right up their alley and I’m going to hunt down more books by Lia Riley. She has impressed me and I’ll read more of her work.
Overall Grade: B
