This is the fourth and last story of Anderson sisters and their friend Annie and I was sad to leave the characters of Hillsboro behind when I finished Home At Summer’s End.
Home At Summer’s End
Rose Anderson is done with being known as “the nice one” in the small town where she lives. She’s done with playing third, fifth, seventh wheel at loud gatherings on her family’s flower farm. And most of all, she is done with the pitying looks she gets about her single status from the way-too-interested townsfolk.
Busy with her flower-arranging business, Rose has no time for a man, thank you very much. And it has nothing to do with the scars she still nurses from her last breakup. So when she meets Cole McKittrick, Rose gets an idea. But first she needs to get beneath his aloof exterior and convince him to agree…
Cole McKittrick is trying to keep calm. So what if he quit a steady job for a shot at his dream, was dumped and his move to Yokel County, California is bringing back childhood memories he’d rather forget? It’s all about perspective. He doesn’t want to get any more involved in this town than he has to be, so his first instinct is to push Rose Anderson and her intriguing idea away. But the woman won’t get gone, and then she makes him an offer he can’t refuse.
The two are soon neck deep in deception, playing up a starry-eyed romance in public while they clash wits and wills in private. But Cole has been hiding a big secret from Rose about his past. And when Rose finds out could it spell the end for their picture-perfect romance, or will she realize that he has taken over not just her home, but also her heart…?
A fun, charming romance about family and finding the one, perfect for fans of Robyn Carr, Debbie Macomber and Carolyn Brown.
My review
As I’ve read all the three books about the Anderson sisters and their friend Annie before this, I’ve grown to love the small town Hillsboro and all its characters. Through all the other books, Rose comes across as being the nice one who doesn’t get into scrapes, except in The Perfect Hideaway where she challenges Annie by calling her bluff! That’s when I realized that there was more to Rose than met the eye.
It was nice to discover a Rose who playing second fiddle to her sisters and Annie and who decides that she needs to get her family off her back about her single status. She allows Annie to set her up with the visiting actor Cole, and both of them decide to pretend date for their own reasons. Cole wants to practice the art of romance to get it right in his upcoming movie and Rose wants her family to think that she’s dating!
This sweet, clean romance has the typical plot of fake relationships, but the characters are so wonderfully created that it is very different. Love for family and community, the warmth of a small town and the downside of everyone knowing everyone else are common themes in this series and make the books all the more enjoyable reading.
Another lovely read from Alys Murray!
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Author Bio
Alys Murray is an author who writes for the romantic in all of us. Though she graduated with a degree in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a Master’s in Film Studies from King’s College London, her irrepressible love of romance led her to a career as an author, and she couldn’t be happier to write these stories! Currently splitting time between her home state of Louisiana and London, she enjoys kissing books, Star Wars, and creating original pie recipes for all of her books. Tobey Maguire is her Spider-Man.
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I received an ARC of Home At Summer’s End from the publisher, Bookouture, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.