GRR Reviews Meant For Love (Gansett Island) by Marie Force

Meant for Love by Marie Force continues to Gansett Island series by focusing on a different character each book. Those who read the series in order will probably get a bit more out of it, but each book can definitely be read standalone. It's just that the main character is a little flat. It's the extra characters and the interactions that made the novel really worth reading.

Jenny is the lighthouse keeper of Gansett Island and has been for years. She needed to get away after losing her soulmate in 9/11 and the current job/residence gives her peace and new friends. But she's feeling a bit lonely, except her blind dates turned out to be disasters. Until one morning, when she was awakened at 5:45 AM by a huge lawnmower... and the delectable and oh-so-frustrating Alex Martinez, who's cutting the grass since it had been neglected for a while. She's so mad, she threw tomatoes at him. // Alex Martinez gave up his horticulture job in the US Botanic Gardens in DC to move back to the island to care for his mother with dementia and mow lawns as his family company did for a generation. But just as his life and family seem overwhelming, Jenny showed him perhaps there is more to life than just caring for others...

Alex came across as an "overwhelmed" good guy, leaving Jenny as the more sympathetic character. But as explained before, the large cast of characters on the island and their continuing adventures is what made this novel, and indeed, the series, worth reading.

Category: Contemporary

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Waiting for Love (Gansett Island) by Marie Force

Waiting for Love is yet another book in the Gansett Island series and this one is standalone, yet you'll get more out of it as it refers to characters and events from prior volumes. This one has a tighter focus, but the characters are a bit uneven.

Adam McCarthy is back on Gansett. He almost lost three brothers on that foggy night when their sailboat collided with a freighter, and he was betrayed by his lover out of his company he founded. He went back home to cope... and think... and ran into an old friend, Abby Callahan. Abby used to be a girlfriend of one of Adam's brothers, but that's a long time ago. She left him, and moved with a different BF to Texas... but she'd had enough of that life as well... she's back on Gansett, and she's determined to loosen up... by taking up swearing, getting a tattoo, and basically something that's NOT what a meek Abby would do. And the meek Abby would definitely not have a fling with Adam... so perhaps... the new Abby would...

Again, there was quite a bit of plot on the ancillary characters, but somehow the plots don't wrap around and converge near the end, or do so very minimally. It's good, but somehow, it feels it could be better.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman and man are back on their home island, both been betrayed, wounded; maybe that's why they should be together...

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Marking Time (Treading Water) by Marie Force

Making Time is a love story about letting go, and while this probably may not make sense, let me go over the plot and you'll probably get it...

Clare Harrington woke up from a three-year coma against all odds after a horrible car collision. She should celebrate her lucky stars, but the world had left her behind. Her husband had fallen for a different woman, Andi, while she's out of the picture and gotten her pregnant with twins. Clare divorced him to let him start a new family, but it still hurt. Their oldest daughter Kate, with musical talent, went to Nashville, getting a year to explore her talent... and fell in love there with a much older man... a college buddy of her father, even as she had a brush with her destiny. Clare in the meanwhile left her home with too many memories behind, and moved to her brother's cabin in Vermont, and came to know a gruff carpenter there... who harbors his own pain... Will Clare find a new love? Will Kate meet her success? What will they have to let go for love and family?

Marie Force managed to wring out some genuine conflicting emotions about letting go, betrayal, trust, and more from the characters. Clare loved her husband by letting him go. They both have to let Kate go, and trust her to choose right when she chose an older man, even though it seems to be a betryal. But this story is about Clare letting go of her past and embracing her own future. While the plot lines seem disparate, Marie Force skillfully jumped among plotlines with skill rivals that of Tom Clancy's technothrillers. And what's even more important, I had NOT read book 1, and this book is still enjoyable. Highly recommended.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman woke from coma to find her husband fell for someone else and daughter spreading her wings; can she move on with her life?

Tropes: survivor, scars, May/ September, mountain man, small town, betrayal

Overall Rating:  5/5

GRR Reviews Longing for Love (Gansett Island Series) by Marie Force

"Longing for Love" is a part of author's Gansett Island series, where a large family and existing residents deal with newcomers, returnees, and tourists. While each book did concentrate on one couple, the amount of drama around other ancillary characters was numerous enough to be a distraction if you don't like this style of writing. But usually the plots wrap around themselves. It's a bit like soap opera.

Tiffany Sturgil is opening a lingerie boutique Naughty and Nice in downtown Gansett, just in time to drive the local police chief Blaine Taylor nuts. It didn't help when Tiffany's ex is creating trouble as well with the town council, which is just even MORE headache for the perpetually busy chief... Who really do want Tiff quite badly. Blaine had several failed love affairs and knew he can't jump into this full force... In the meanwhile, the rest of the characters on the island are back with more adventures as well. Joe and Janey return to Gansett to find his mother's big secret... Evan learned that Grace never told her parents about him... and more.

Somehow, the character's very parallel lives and never really interacting much with the main story. If they interact with the main plot a bit more, this could have been a 5/5.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Police Chief wants the new proprietor of Lingerie shop in town, but her evil ex is causing problems with the town council...

Tropes: Law enforcement, different worlds, scars, hate your job

Overall Rating:  4/5

GRR Reviews Time for Love (Gansett Island Series) by Marie Force

Time For Love, set in the author's Gansett Island universe, can also be titled "Doctor's Redemption". It featured two characters with a lot of baggage, but read very uneven, with a shallow nemesis and insta-lust setting the scene.

Dr. David Lawrence, the only doctor on Gansett Island, betrayed his love, the golden girl of the island, Janey McCarthy, and had to rebuild his life , and watch Janey engaged to Joe, and became pregnant. He still had yet to forgive himself, even as he saved lives and limbs on the island, but a new woman may yet tempt his heart. Daisy Babson needs a fresh start on the island when her boyfriend Truck Henry abused her, leaving her battered, both physically and mentally. Her visits with Dr. David became her bright spots of the day, even as she reminded herself she's not ready to trust a man, nor can she ever be worthy of a doctor. As the two are slowly drawn toward each other, neither can deny their attraction, but neither are ready to go all in in their relationship...

Basically, the two fell for each other they moment they set eyes on each other, but both denied themselves. David's backstory about how he betrayed Janey was great, as he will have to save her and other residents during the story. But the paper-thin "violent ex" relegated this into "also ran" category, as such a guy just can't be taken seriously as a nemesis that stands in the way of MMC and FMC's happiness.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Doctor who betrayed his first love fell for a patient and victim of abuse; but she deemed herself unworthy and not trusting...

Tropes: evil ex, betrayal, resort, unworthy, doctor-patient, woman in peril, protector

Overall Rating: 3/5

GRR Reviews Maid for Love (Gansett Island) by Marie Force

Maid for Love is a book about a plain girl meets a very rich guy and after a bit of courtship they made each other very happy despite things keep getting in their way. Some parts of the book were very good, other parts make you exclaim WTF?! just happened?

Maddie Chester is barely getting by as she tried to save up enough money to get away from her hometown of Gansett Island. Her ample... cleavage has only brought her pain (and I don't' mean backache) as horrible rumors had plagued her since high school that she's easy, and having a 9-month old baby because she was knocked up by someone who swore he had a vasectomy (then did a runner) didn't help. On the way to her housekeeping job at McCarthy's Resort, she was run over by someone on a motorcycle... and wounded enough that she can't work for several days... and she was in deep despair as she cannot afford to lose any work... it was only worse when she realized who ran her over... Mac McCarthy, the prodigal son of the McCarthy clan... but Mac wasn't anything like Maddie expected. Mac wasn't snotty, despite the rich upbringing. In fact, Mac wanted to stay and help nurse her back to health and take care of her baby, and this is in spite of all the warnings from the rest of town about her "reputation". But Maddie refused to be swept off of her feet, because Mac was only here on vacation, and soon he'll leave for Miami. But Mac had already fallen for the strong and vulnerable Maddie...

Part of the problem with Mac is we don't know enough about him that all we witnessed upon his arrival was his valiant attempt to save Maddie to make up for running her over. He was being sincerely nice, but offering to take her back home, call her supervisor to make sure she doesn't lose her job, AND pay her wages and help with babysitting was NOT something one normally do for strangers, even if he did run her over. So it's either insta-lust (which was not described) or he's afraid of lawsuits (which he wasn't). We were left with a character who was basically being... superhuman! We have a hard time believing he really is this nice! There was no setup for him to be this nice to a stranger, and that, made him not believable.

The rest of the book was actually quite sweet, as Mac then proceed to right every wrong heaped upon Maddie, from the rumors that dogged her for a decade to the baby daddy... heck, even her job! OMG, he really *is* superman! (Insert eyeroll here) It was clear this was one of Marie Force's earliest books and the plotting wasn't quite up to par, and the FMC balks at the way MMC is "fixing" her problems... Uh, that's your PRIDE talking, honey. And that lead to the darkest hour? Lame.

So basically, you have stubbornly independent girl vs. superman hoping to fix everything wrong in her life, and they STILL fall for each other? Hmmm... Must be her D-cup... No, NOT really.

Okay, enough snark. I find the book enjoyable through the first read-through but upon reflection all the problems came out. In the end, I can only assign it an OK rating. Because I did enjoy it, despite the rest of the problems named before.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Hotel maid on the way to job was ran over by Hotel Clan's Prodigal Son; He wanted to help her and love her; will she let him?

Tropes: different worlds, maid, single parent

Overall Rating:  3/5