Tuesday, May 24, 2016

5-STAR REVIEW: BABY, I WANT YOU (Contemporary Romance)

BABY, I WANT YOU

Two stubborn dreamers wounded in love must learn to trust and compromise to earn their Happily-Ever-After.

New York City sales and marketing expert Anais Cooper is burnt out on big city living. When she unexpectedly inherits a Spanish Colonial Mansion on ten acres of Anastasia Island, a suburb of St. Augustine, Florida, she applies for a minority business loan, quits her job and moves south. Anais’s goal is to turn the ramshackle place into an upscale spa. Her overbearing, disconcertingly attractive neighbor, retired athlete Palmer Freeman, has other plans for the property. It’s obvious to Anais that he doubts she has the business acumen or means to turn Casa Libre into an income-producing property. Determined to succeed, she turns all his offers to purchase her property down flat.

Palmer, a single parent raising two girls, has his own challenges. His youngest, Savannah, is rebellious and has an eating disorder. But she seems to connect with Anais, his uncooperative neighbor, whose property he wants for a business project of the heart. Palmer gets the idea to strike a deal. He’ll endorse the new spa if Anais agrees to help Savannah lose weight. What he doesn’t anticipate is his strong attraction to a woman who really should be the enemy.

From smart and sassy Anais, to lonely and manipulative Savannah, to hard-working and passionate Palmer, Marcia King-Gamble's characters captured my heart. Even Savannah’s cat, Molasses, was well-drawn. Both Anais and Palmer had been betrayed by their exes, but Palmer is more closed off emotionally. With their trust issues, neither was prepared to fall in love with a business rival. But neither could hold out long against an attraction that was more than skin deep.

While neither Anais nor Palmer is perfect, that is one reason I like them so much! They both have to grow as people in order to realize they are perfect for each other and to help Savannah overcome her emotional problems. Together they can overcome any obstacles.

I also loved the Anastasia Island setting Ms. King-Gamble describes, especially Casa Libre, with its unique history and aura of impoverished gentility. Experiencing Anais and Jaqui’s Herculean efforts that transformed the mansion into the architectural beauty it was meant to be and the resurrection fern chocked gardens into an elegant showplace was a great adventure for non-handywoman, non-gardener me.


I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading many more from prolific, award-winniing author Marcia King-Gamble!

JUST YOU
Marcia King-Gamble hails from a sunny Caribbean island where the sky and ocean are the same mesmerizing shade of blue. She is a former travel industry executive and a self proclaimed globetrotter. Marcia is particularly fond of Hong Kong, Venice, and New Zealand, not only for the scenery, but because of the mouthwatering food. A National Bestselling author, Marcia has penned 31 books and 6 novellas. Her free time is spent at the gym, traveling, and with her animal family.

She loves hearing from you. E mail her at mkinggambl@aol.com or like her on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marcia-King-Gamble/12364168212Visit www.lovemarcia.com to find out what she's been up to.
HIS GOLDEN HEART

1 comment:

Judith Ashley said...

Looks like yet another great read!