Sand Dollar Lane (Moonlight Harbor 6) by Sheila Roberts-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 26, 2022

Brody Green is finding it hard to recover after being dumped by his fiancée, Jenna Jones, then watching her walk down the aisle with someone else. Jenna is determined to make up for her love defection and find him the perfect woman, but Brody is done with love. First a divorce, then a broken engagement. From now on he’s keeping things light, no commitments. Luckily Brody’s business is booming. Beach Dreams Realty is the best real estate company in town. And the only one. Until…

Lucy Holmes needs a new start. In business, in love, in…everything. If ever there was a cliché, it was her life back in Seattle. She was a real estate broker working with her husband until she caught him trying out the walk-in shower in a luxury condo—with another agent. She’s always been the more successful of the two, and with him gone, she’s determined to build a business even bigger than what she had. Moonlight Harbor is a charming town and it has only one real estate agency. Surely there’s room for a little competition.

Or not. Looks like it’s going to be a hot market in Moonlight Harbor. And maybe these two competitors will make some heat of their own.

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REVIEW:SAND DOLLAR LANE is the sixth instalment in Sheila Roberts’ contemporary, adult MOONLIGHT HARBOR romance series. This is real estate agents Brody Green, and Lucy Holmes’ story line. SAND DOLLAR LANE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous storylines is revealed where necessary.

Told from third person perspective SAND DOLLAR LANE follows in the wake of forty- four year old Lucy Holmes discovering her husband is having an affair with his much younger assistant. Hoping for a fresh start, Lucy, along with her teenaged daughter Hannah, moves to the small town of Moonlight Harbor where Lucy will find she is not the only real estate agent in town. Enter single father Brody Green, and Moonlight Harbor’s only realtor. Lucy believes a little bit of competition is good for the soul but Lucy and Brody will butt heads, masking an barely veiled attraction between our leading couple. What ensues is the slow building but tempestuous relationship between Brody and Lucy, and the potential fall-out as Lucy’s ex comes back hoping for a second chance.

Meanwhile, Lucy’s daughter Hannah has fallen for Brody’s son Declan, and their parents’ petulant relationship begins to take its toll, threatening the growing happiness between H & D.

The slow building relationship between Lucy and Brody begins acrimoniously as Brody is all but threatened by Lucy’s success in a town that does not require another real estate agency. Pushing one another’s proverbial buttons, Lucy and Brody continue to dance around the ‘elephant in the room’, a dance that reveals Brody doesn’t do relationships, preferring to keep Lucy on the sidelines as a competitor and friend. There are no $ex scenes-any physical contact is limited to a singular, chaste kiss.

The secondary and supporting characters include Lucy’s daughter Hannah and Lucy’s ex-husband Evan, and her sister and brother in law Darla and Orren ; Brody’s son Declan; Brody’s ex Jenna and her husband Seth, handyman Carl, and a large assortment of townsfolk and friends.

SAND DOLLAR LANE is a well-written but slow moving story line exacerbated by the hero’s inability to commit or move forward; a relationship in which there is no discernible or palpable sexual attraction between our leading couple as Brody refuses to accept Lucy as a permanent fixture in his life. Continuously reminding our heroine that he has loved and loss, Brody refuses to go down that road, again. The premise is interesting; the romance, in my opinion, is lacking. Lucy is a true and determined heroine; Brody’s attitude and actions left me with mixed feelings about the overall story line.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy