Title: Solace Island
Series: Solace Island
By: Meg Tilly
ISBN: 978-0-440-00052-5
Author’s Website: http://www.officialmegtilly.com/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra
Summary:
A contemporary novel with a strong suspense element from Oscar-nominated actress Meg Tilly set on a peaceful island village in the Pacific Northwest.
Dumped on the eve of her wedding and looking for a quiet place to lick her emotional wounds, Maggie Harris joins her sister on Solace Island, where she hopes to recover from the stunning betrayal. At first, Maggie resists Eve’s impassioned argument about relocating permanently so the sisters can open their own local bakery. What she definitely doesn’t need on her road to recovery are Eve’s efforts to fix her up with their mysterious and alluring neighbor, Luke Benson–even if he is incredibly handsome and desirable.
Just as Maggie starts to get comfortable in her new surroundings, a car tries to run her down in the middle of the street. If it weren’t for Luke’s extremely quick reflexes, Maggie could have been killed, leading her to wonder just who exactly Luke Benson really is…
Luke thought he’d left the violence of the high risk security world behind. But he can’t stand by while Maggie’s life is threatened. Luke will do anything to keep her safe–even moving Maggie and her sister into his house with its state-of-the-art security features. But with the secrets between them and an unknown threat stalking her heels, Luke will have to think fast to prove to Maggie that she can trust him with her life–and with her heart. (Goodreads)
Review:
Solace Island is the first book in a new series (of the same name) by Meg Tilly. I have had Ms. Tilly’s book Behind the Scenes on my TBR (to be read) pile of books for a very long time but when the opportunity to read this new series, beginning with Solace Island, I knew it was time to delve into the writing of Meg Tilly.
The story begins with Maggie being dumped just before her wedding. To get away from it all, Maggie heads to the Pacific Northwest to Solace Island, where her sister Eve lives. Eve would really like for Maggie to join forces with her and open a local bakery together, but Maggie is a bit reticent. Almost immediately, Maggie runs into Luke (a very handsome man, who also happens to be a baker) quite literally when she is almost run over by a vehicle and Luke comes to the rescue. And yes – the sparks fly! After all – both Luke and Maggie are single and attractive and doesn’t all romance need romantic characters? As Maggie gets to know Luke a bit better, she senses that Luke is not totally forthcoming with his total “story”. As time progresses both Maggie and the reader get the details on Luke and why he is on Solace Island.
When Maggie showed her sister Eve what she was wearing when she first encountered Luke – I got the best chuckle in a VERY long time:
“But why, Maggs?” She looked so confused. “Why would you be walking around like that? What on earth got into you?”
“I was trying…” Maggie had to shut her eyes. Why was she feeling so emotional? It wasn’t like she even wanted to date this guy. She puffed out a breath and looked at her sister. “To be a wilderness adventurer.”
“In a pink bathrobe?”
And suddenly the humor of it-her ludicrous outfit, Eve’s woebegone face-made Maggie start laughing.
A split second later, her sister was laughing, too. One wave of laughter built on another, until finally they were laughing so hard their legs gave out and they fell to the floor. And whenever the laughter started to abate, one of them would yell out, “I was trying to be a wilderness adventurer!”
As “strange” events begin to happen to Maggie, Luke becomes protective and moves Maggie and family into his state of the art home on the island. Ah…another clue possibly about Luke?
We learn that Maggie’s ‘ex-fiancée’ is the only man she has ever been with so when she and Luke get close, some unusual requests happen:
“…And we will just be friends.” A sly, mischievous expression danced across her face. “But maybe you could be a friend who lets me see his cock come? Just this once, okay? You’d be doing me a huge favor.” … “Okay,” he said, surprising himself. He might burn in hell for this, but at this point he was willing to pay the price. “If you’re certain you want to, but for the record, I’m not sure who is doing the favor for whom.”
Many twists and turns as the suspense portion of the book heats up. The suspense did keep me on the edge of my seat, for a while, though I knew Maggie was in good hands with Luke (in more ways than one I might add). The book was a pleasant blend of romantic suspense along with the contemporary romance.
Engaging characters, wonderful location (probably because I have history with the Pacific Northwest), romance (hot and steamy ‘ish) along with the suspense of the “strange” events (which I won’t disclose so you can enjoy them as well) provided a first rate read for me.I look forward to reading book 2 in this Solace island series –> Cliff’s Edge ☺
