The House at Saltwater Point by Colleen Coble ~ Book Tour and Review

Publisher's Description:  
The dangerous beauty of Lavender Tides is harboring secrets that reach around the world. Ellie Blackmore is making a name for herself as a house flipper. But when her sister Mackenzie disappears, Ellie can’t focus on anything but uncovering what happened. Her only clue is the bloodstain on the deck of Mackenzie’s boat. Ellie knows her sister isn’t on the best of terms with her ex-husband, Jason, but he wouldn’t kill her—would he? Coast Guard intelligence officer Grayson Bradshaw believes Mackenzie faked her own death after stealing a seized cocaine shipment. The problem is convincing Ellie, who seems to view him as the true enemy. Both Ellie and Grayson want truth, but truth—and family—is often more complex than it first appears. From international terrorism to the peaceful lavender fields of Puget Sound, The House at Saltwater Point is a thrilling race to uncover the truth before it’s too late.



My Thoughts:  
The is the 2nd installment in the Lavender Tides Novel series.  Though it is part of a series it can be a stand alone novel.  Some favorite main characters from the first book make an appearance but you don't have to know their full story to "get" this one.  There is also a character introduced who was barely made mention of in the first book, but again the author gave enough background that you got their story without having had to have read the first.  Though that being said I loved the first book, "The View From Rainshadow Bay",  so was looking forward to this one.   The element of Ellie Blackmore flipping houses for a living was interesting as it is such a popular thing right now on a lot of tv channels, and the author opened each chapter with a quote from the character's renovation blog which was an ambiguous reference to the coming chapter.   There was a lot of action, a smidge of romance and a well done exploration of family loyalty and personal history affecting how a person will react.  The characters are well developed but I must say at first the character of Grayson I found most annoying and presumptuous.  Though I enjoyed the action and suspense and the story in general in the back of my mind I kinda wondered if I thought it believable.  But it was a great summer beach read that took me away to another place and kept the pages turning to the end.

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers for providing a free copy for my honest review.  All thoughts and opinons are my own and I wasn't required to give a positive review.