Kristie J’s review of Brant’s Return by Mia Sheridan
Contemporary Romance published by Amazon Digital Services 6 Jan 19
I have all of Ms. Sheridan’s books. A few I haven’t read yet, because she tends to write gut-wrenching books and I haven’t been in the mood for gut wrenching. All of the books I have read have been either 4.5- or 5-star books, except for one that I painfully gave a 1-star review. She is an auto-buy author I don’t even have to read the storyline before I hit that purchase button, and I’m always looking for her newest book.
I saw this one a few months ago, but it wasn’t available as an e-book in Canada so I could only hope. Soon, Kristie, soon. Well, my soon came a few days ago. Had it bought on Day 1, read it on Day 2, and have started the review on Day 3.
Brant Talbot and his father have been estranged for thirteen years. When he was young, Brant caught his father kissing another woman and very shortly after that his mother committed suicide. He headed from his Kentucky ranch to the bright lights of New York, where he has made a fortune opening very successful restaurants and night clubs.
He’s shocked when he gets a call out of the blue from a young woman, Isabelle Farris, letting him know his father has cancer and hasn’t long to live and she is hoping that father and son can repair the rift between them. Brant, being cynical and having already caught his father once, is convinced that Isabelle must be his father’s side piece and there’s no way he’s going to allow her to take an advantage of a dying old man, even if he can’t forgive said dying old man himself.
So when he makes it back to the Kentucky home, he is mighty suspicious with quite a chip on his shoulder and is quite rude to Isabelle. While she makes it clear to him that he couldn’t be more wrong in his assumptions, she does have a great deal of compassion for him. And while she calls him out on his ways and behavior, she doesn’t do it in a mean-spirited kind of way.
What Brant doesn’t know is Isabelle has gone through something most people wouldn’t be able to recover from and she’s come out the other side and is a deeply caring young woman. As Brant gets to know her and as he slowly drops some of his fancy New York ways and regains more of who he used to be, a real bond develops between them and they start to heal each other from the horrible things that have happened to them both.
But Brant is stubborn and doesn’t want to admit his true feelings and Isabelle is convinced there is a time limit on their romance and it won’t be long until he heads back to his regular life in New York.
This is a simple story, but when done by a master story teller, who I believe Misa Sheridan is, it rises above many similar such story lines. And while It does pull at the heart strings like most of her books do, it’s not an emotional wringer like some of her stories can be.
I read this book in one sitting, something I do when I find a book next to impossible to put down. Then I went back a little later to stop and smell the roses, so to speak. I will be going back for this one soon, I’m thinking.
Grade: A-
Summary:
Brant Talbot runs a glitzy network of high-end bars in New York City, enjoying all the benefits of the lavish lifestyle he’s worked so hard to achieve. When he learns that his estranged father is dying, he must return to his family’s Kentucky horse farm – and to a past he thought he left behind.
While facing long-buried truths, he collides with his father’s secretary, Isabelle Farris. Despite his undeniable attraction to the beautiful, independent young woman, he sees secrets in her eyes and believes she has designs on Graystone Hill.
Now the one woman he can’t afford to trust is about to become the one he can’t let go.
No excerpt available.
