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Review / Release Blitz: What Happens at the Lake by Vi Keeland


Title: What Happens at the Lake
Author: Vi Keeland
Genre: Standalone Contemporary Romance
Trope: Grumpy-Sunshine
Release Date: January 15, 2024

BLURB

When life took an unexpected turn, I decided to get out of New York for a while. What better place to go than the idyllic small town my father spoke about so fondly when I was growing up? Laurel Lake held the title America’s Friendliest Town for seventeen years running, and friendly was just what I needed right now.

Unfortunately, friendly wasn’t the welcome I got when I arrived.

Instead, I got Fox Cassidy. My tall, dark, and burly neighbor, who grunted at me instead of saying hello.

Okay, so I might’ve had his mailbox in my hands the first time we met. And it might’ve been a little crushed after removing it from under my tire. And I might’ve needed his help breaking into the place I was staying in after the key broke off in the lock. But still…he didn’t have to be so grumpy.

As time went on though, I started to notice things about Fox other than his glares. Like how he watched me when he thought I wasn’t looking, or how fire ignited in his eyes whenever we bickered. Though I was in Laurel Lake to escape my problems, not create new ones. And getting involved with a man like Fox screamed trouble, even if he was gorgeous and unlike any man I’d ever met.

But alas, problem seemed to be my middle name this year. So why not have some fun while I was here for the summer? It seemed like a good plan. At least until it was time to go home…

They say what happens at the lake, stays at the lake. But it’s not so easy to walk away when what stays behind…is your heart.



PURCHASE LINKS


MY REVIEW


Josie needs to get away from her hectic life in the city, so she's come to this small town where her father left her a house. She's expecting good things considering the town is known for friendly people, but her new neighbor doesn't seem to fit in with that idea. All he's done is grunt at her since she first knocked on his door. OK, yes, she may have accidentally run over his mailbox, but still, he doesn't need to be such a grump, right? But as time goes by she's starting to see there's a lot more to Fox than just a grump who grunts in monosyllables. It would be nuts to get involved with him, but she can't bring herself to care. Now to just guard her heart because it's bound to be vulnerable to being broken the longer she spends with him.


Fox knows he's not like the rest of his small town. He's not friendly and welcoming, but he's got good reasons for it. Reasons he doesn't open up about, and isn't going to open up with his new, gorgeous, sunshiney, neighbor. There's something about Josie that he can't seem to resist, though. Her sunshine is definitely having its way with him and his grump. But can he find it in himself to be completely vulnerable to Josie about his backstory? Or will he revert and drive her away just when they're making progress?


One of the things I love most about Vi's writing is that her characters are always layered, complicated and real. Fox is the perfect example of these things - he's got such a heartbreaking backstory, his past fully informed his present, guided his behavior, and almost, almost got the better of him. Thank God Josie is the kind of sunshine that sticks, that sees through to the real heart of others, because I was on the edge of my seat impatiently wondering how on earth Fox was going to get out of his own way and let Josie love him completely. I always love grumpy/sunshine couples, and when they are as lovable as both Josie and Fox are, have the delicious chemistry they have, and a hilarious, meddling, but loving secondary cast like this small town, then I think love is probably just a bland way of saying how I really feel about this couple and their heartfelt, delicious love story.

AUTHOR BIO


Vi Keeland is a #1 New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author. With millions of books sold, her titles are currently translated in twenty-seven languages and have appeared on bestseller lists in the US, Germany, Brazil, Bulgaria and Hungary. Three of her short stories have been turned into films by Passionflix, and two of her books are currently optioned for movies. She resides in New York with her husband and their three children where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age six.

AUTHOR LINKS


OTHER BOOKS BY VI


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