Rosemary Cottage by Collen Coble

A Book Review

Publisher Description:

Amy came to Rosemary Cottage to grieve, to heal, maybe even find love. But there’s a deadly undertow of secrets around Hope Island . . . The charming Rosemary Cottage on the beach offers Amy Lange respite she needs to mourn her brother, Ben. She’s even thinking of moving her midwife practice to the Outer Banks community. It’s always been a refuge for her and her family. She also wants to investigate Ben’s disappearance at sea. Everyone blames a surfing accident, but Amy has reason to wonder.

 Coast Guard officer Curtis Ireland has lost a sibling too. His sister, Gina, was run down by a boat, leaving him to raise her infant daughter. If anyone knew who little Raine’s father was, Curtis could lose his beloved niece. Yet he can’t help being drawn to Hope Beach’s new midwife, Amy. He even agrees to help her investigate what happened to both Ben and Gina.

 Can two grieving people with secrets find healing on beautiful Hope Island? Or will their quest for truth set them at odds with each other…and with those who will go to any length to keep hidden things hidden?

My Thoughts:

This was my first read by this author and I really enjoyed it.  I would categorize it into the contemporary suspense/mystery/romance category.  The mystery and the suspense part of the novel drew me right in and the end was a surprise.  I actually didn't figure it out until the author revealed what was going on.  She did a good job in hiding just enough that I wasn't quite sure, I had bits and pieces but didn't put it all together. There was a good build up to the reveal that kept me turning the pages so that I could find out.   I loved the way the author wrote the stories of each main character and their siblings.  Amy was the younger sister who looked up to and worshiped her older brother who in her eyes could do no wrong.  Curtis knew his sister's previous flaws and yet hung onto to what he knew, that she had changed for the better, even in the turmoil of circumstances trying to say otherwise.  The connection of sibling deaths and working together to find the truth was a great storyline. The tension between the two because of what they needed to face concerning their siblings was real and heartfelt.   I really liked how the author had one character having to prove and convince the other that there was something not quite right with the deaths.   What gave me pause was Curtis knowing that Ben, Amy's brother, wasn't the knight in shining armor that Amy held him up to be, yet he still had infinite patience with Amy as she tried to work through those facts, even though it also involved his sister's death and her reputation and accusations from Amy against his sister.  And in the midst of that tension a romance developed between the two.  While sweet, I did wonder if that could happen had the situation been real. There was just so much that Amy had to resolve and Curtis just had to have a lot of patience for. But then that is what great fiction is for, to take us out of the real.   On the other side of the coin, it was nice to read about a romance developing between two individuals without all the steamy, lusty scenes that are par for the course in the secular book market.  The characters and reactions were well written and real.  Overall I did enjoy the story and though it is book 2 in a series, A Hope Beach novel, it was totally wonderful as a stand alone.  I was never confused with circumstances or characters that might have been in the first.   It made for a great vacation read.

Thanks to Booksneeze for providing a copy for review free of charge.  All thoughts and opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.